What Do You Expect?

Nearly every time we propose a marketing tactic – whether it’s using billboard, radio, TV, transportation, print, direct mail – the client asks, “What kind of results will this get me?”

The answer is, “We don’t know.” No one does. We do our best, based on your goals and our experience, to give you a reasonable ballpark. But specific results? No one can do it. (If they do, they aren’t being honest.)

Social media outcomes are even more elusive. Unlike traditional media, you have no real control over the evolution of your message – you only have control of your responses. And because social media is relatively new, there’s no volume of statistics and averages we can point to when predicting outcomes.

So what do we tell clients about the results they’ll get from social media? We tell them that results depend on dozens of factors, not the least of which is how much time, energy and resources you spend against it and how willing you are to support it long-term. We also tell them:

• You’ll get nothing if you do nothing
• Millions of people are out there, talking about products and services like yours (or specifically yours). Do you want to influence those conversations?
• Social media is nearly cost-free (emphasis on “nearly”)

You also have to choose the right agency to help you develop a social media program – an agency that’s able to develop smart, compelling campaigns that are integrated into your overall marketing plan (do you have a marketing plan?). Here are a few guidelines to help you sort through the mess of people touting their expertise in social media:

• Do they have meaningful experience in both marketing and PR? Because social media is both.
• Are they really enthusiastic about social media because Zach Ephron, whoever he is, is using it? Or because they have case studies to show what it can do for an industry like yours?
• Do they truly understand your audience – their everyday challenges, dislikes, mindset, preferences, culture?
• Do they have experience marketing your industry?
• Do they hail social media as “the” answer or, another tool in the toolbox to achieve results, as it should be?

Armed with a smart, integrated plan built with the help of advisors with meaningful experience under their belts, what you can expect from social media is this: the ability to send a richer, more relevant message; the ability to reach a far wider group of your most valuable prospects; the ability to humanize your brand; the ability to provide a superior form of customer service; a fuller and more accurate understanding of your audience; and the ability to get in on conversations that are affecting your image and your success. Not bad for a nearly no-cost tool.