If I were a business executive for a clothing company, and I hired a group of people to form my company’s social media marketing team, what would they do to add value & possibly a strategic advantage to my company?
How would they use social media technology to help generate more business & retain customers?
Thanks
They would be like a marketing team… get your products and your name out there using the tools the general public use. Stuff like mySpace, Facebook, Twitter (etc). Not only does this have SEO benefits (in terms of backlinks), it’s free marketing, builds up a loyal audience of subscribers and gets them involved with your brand making them more likely to purchase from you. The key to social media is engaging your audience and using the social networks for their purpose (without being too spammy). This will allow you to get some public support behind the brand and perhaps offer them something you couldn’t through a bland website. 
I see. And the public relations team might get involved in generating company buzz as well, like, having twitter accounts and tweeting a condensed version or a link to their public release.
Correct, they will be the primary people who get the businesses word out there, so it will involve having accounts with the social networks, pro-actively using them within your brand to get people interested and get the word of mouth out there. When you create an emotional link with your customers it makes them more likely to shop with you, and social networking is one of the best ways to get that level of customer interaction
Recommended reading: Groundswell. Just finished it up over the holidays…
Here is a good read for better social network/media promotion
http://www.doshdosh.com/a-comprehensive-guide-to-stumbleupon-how-to-build-massive-traffic-to-your-website-and-monetize-it/
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4108/28-Tips-To-Make-You-a-StumbleUpon-Superstar.aspx
http://www.invesp.com/blog/conversion-optimization/how-to-increase-stumbleupon-campaign-conversion-rate-from-75-to-3787-in-one-day.html
Its yes, The team should definitely try exchanging their contacts with genuine customers and also should provide them the service they are looking for.
Social media marketing team will work for the promotion of your company via blogs, forums, social bookmarking etc. It will add value and advantages for your company.
What’s it about (who’s it aimed at), I am always looking for interesting books but I don’t really know much about it (apart from a very generic Amazon listing).
Social media marketing works great! I have some college kids doing some of mine and since they are the targeted audience they are getting directly to my customers in a way I never could.