Social media teaches ad agencies to do new business the right way, the way they should have been doing it all along.
I owe Mack Collier, author of the blog, The Viral Garden, for the inspiration for this post. He provides some straight talk regarding the lack of growth to individual and company online communities.
Many ad agencies also struggle with building an online community. I’ve discovered a number that have the attitude that “if I build it, they will come” but that isn’t the case. There is a lot of work involved to generate traffic to an online community of your best prospective clients.
Below are five reasons ad agencies have or will have problems building their online communities:
1. You are thinking of income first (and your prospective clients aren’t dumb, they can sense it)
Many agency principals are anxious to sell. Generating income for their agency first and foremost in their minds before paying their dues and earning their way with social media.
We are in a business where relationships are important. People want to work with people they know, like and trust. I’m a strong advocate that an agency can build and sustain a pipeline of new business leads for their agency through social media, but it must be done the right way, with the right motive and with genuine transparency to be effective. Social media can show you how. Be a friend first.
2. A lack of value/benefit to your audience.
Your audience will be your judge and jury as to whether you have an appealing position, post titles that spur interest, content that is beneficial.
You can’t blame your audience if they don’t respond! It’s your responsibility to figure out what is appealing and what isn’t. You have plenty of tools in social media to provide you the information just use them!
You will need to dig deeper to figure out how you can best be of value and benefit to them. Remember, you will cannot be of value if you are constantly leading with your agency’s capabilities, accomplishments and awards. It’s not about you or your agency it’s about them.
3. You are waiting around for your audience to find you
My blog is well optimized for my target audience. For the key words they would use to find my blog as a resource I have dominated the first two pages of Google. But search comes in a distant third generating traffic to my site.
I generate the most traffic from the use of repurposing my blog posts and my networks through Twitter.
Secondly from my email newsletter and a opt-in strategy for sign-ups. I also will receive a good bit of traffic through my comments on popular blog sites. The point being, I not sat around waiting to generate traffic to my blog through search. I’ve been proactive in reaching out into a number of online communities where my target audience resides.
4. Lack of appreciation for those that are helping promote you
There are scores of people that are willing to be of help to you online but they’ll be quickly turned off if you don’t show appreciation. Your agency’s credibility rests upon what others are saying about you. Be sure to show your love to those who go out of their way to promote your services. Also be willing to reciprocate.
5. You could care less about the prospective audience you are trying to reach.
Mack really hit the nail on the head when when he wrote this point about the reason why many companies and individuals are having a problem building their online community,
“You don’t give a damn about the people you are trying to reach.”
Mack said it first and I totally agree, “The key to successfully building an online community is to genuinely care about the people that you want to reach.”
If all you want out of social media is to make money then social media is not for you. Don’t waste your time and effort.
But, if you are willing to be transparent, open, honest and caring then social media can teach your agency how to do new business development the right way. The way we should have been doing it all along.
Take the time to read Mack’s post: Six reasons why no one likes you online
“You really do have to CARE about the people that you want to reach,” he writes. “If you don’t, and instead view your potential community as a group of people to monetize, then your efforts are doomed from the start.”
hi,
great stuff as usual.
I just wanted to add my perspective as to why I believe agencies have difficulty posting usable material on thier sites and hence developing online communities.
One reason is that there is an inherent conflict of interest in doing so.
Consider:
1. The only point of difference an ad agency has over its competitiion is thier ideas. Disseminating them publicly for free is antithetical to what agencies do.
2. People have been known to steal ideas.
3. The intellectual property an agency generates is so valuable and confidential that every employee must sign a confidentiality agreement when hired, and any violation of said agreement is prosecutable.
So therein lies the rub.
Advertising isn’t like gardening where there is tons of information floating around out there waiting for someone to coalate into digestible bits for an online audience. It’s a constantly evolving artform that rewards the quickest draw.
I’m not saying agencies shouldn’t post useful stuff, I’m just saying that for agency folk, it’s counterintuitive.
-c
Michael,
They often also fail to appreciate and understand the role of the Community Manager.
We find Ad Agencies often assume ongoing community managment is about moderation of spam. In fact this is only a small element. Engaging people online is the real skill.
Charlie
FreshNetworks, Europes Online Community Experts
Christopher,
I think your perspective is correct and giving away our thinking is counter intuitive but will need to make the adjustment to the change that social is making upongour industry.
That’s a good point Charlie.
I would recommend trying out Adollo. They are fairly new but they have a really good platform set up. They are a social advertising network that ranks ads and ad spaces according to how the world uses them. They also don’t do Cost per Click. Instead, they let publishers rent out ad spaces to advertisers. I’ve been using them and I’ve been really impressed. They are also giving out $25 of free credit if you feel like advertising.
excellent!
Jane
Starmark Vacation Homes
The other issue is price, and I know you addressed it in #1, but I don’t mean gouging. Agencies know how to charge for a print ad or a TV spot because there is a beginning, a middle and an end. The client knows what they pay for those things too, so everyone is happy.
With a community, there is a beginning and no end. Is it a retainer? Is it performance based — whereby the agency is paid on a scale depending on success? Is it a cost to set up, then and hourly rate to manage (3 hours a week at a typical agency rate adds up fast).
All of the things you listed here are right (although I clearly disagree with the way you framed #1). I also think you’re right that agencies have to crack this. We have content creators who should be able to engage communities, so maybe we will.
I agree price is an issue. All I was trying to convey with #1 is build relationships first. To many try to sell themselves right off the bat. It’s like being at a Chamber meeting and the first thing you do is whip out an agency brochure and stick it in someone’s face. The first step is to connect with someone on a personal level. As I said, people want to work with other people that they know, like and trust.
I address pricing in a number of other posts that I’ve written. Social media has to be monetized. I’ve been writing from the position of ‘fueling your agency’s new business through social media.’ And I’ve been able to monetize social for the past 4 years. It drives all of my new business.
Pricing social to me isn’t that difficult. It’s very time intensive. It’s much easier to price through a retainer agreement. Agencies would be able to develop their internal processes to efficiently deliver social media services for clients and increase these types of account’s networth.
You’ve missed the most obvious reason; time. Building and curating a community is a time consuming process. At the ODM Group, we’re slowly building our own Facebook and Twitter presence, but the client and their needs come first.