This week I attend the Networking Phoenix signature event that happens quarterly. Well executed, and full of bodies (certainly well over the 800 that had RSVP’d online) I have to say a kudos to Gelie for her hard work and making her concept come to life over the last year. Of course, like any other Valley networking event I ran into more realtors and MLM people than others (I think they are drawn to my perfume,) but did meet up with some potential partners which made it worth the hour I invested. During my troll through the sea of people I had a very interesting encounter with an MLM seller.
Amanda Vega: Hi, great to meet you. What do you do?
Her: I am helping people find their path to millions. Here’s a brochure (shove at me.) Hope to see you there. What do you do?
AV: I run a international social media and PR firm.
Her: Oh! Social Media! I’m actually starting a social media company next week!
AV: Of COURSE you are. Everyone is these days..
Her: Well, there’s enough business for everyone. My friends lost their jobs and started a social media company and they are doing really well, so I figured it can’t be that hard, so I’m setting up Twitter and stuff this weekend and launching next week.
AV: Ugh. (And yes, an open look of disdain – I have no filter) Well, best of luck to you. Yes, there are enough clients for everyone. Actually, given the lack of understanding of the different levels of social engagement, you will likely have 10 clients by Friday if you price it at like $500 a month.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about entrepreneurship. And I do agree that there is plenty of work at all levels in the field. What bothers me is seeing the same blurring of lines and lack of understanding of how much actual knowledge and thought goes into running a legitimate business, and truly managing social media properly for clients. The same thing happened in the early days of web design after the world finally caught on that the internet was indeed valuable, and it also happened to the SEO experts out there in the past 7 years. Everyday we see ads and hear radio commercials about how “we can manage your social media for $200/month…” that make us all cringe. While these companies likely provide some value at the very initial stages of social media, they certainly don’t have the concept of the complexity of real social interaction that leads to real business results.
What many miss is the fact that thoughtful communication and interaction tied to a brand takes a TON of hours and planning and messaging. Those of us in the space that take social to the next level have intricate methodologies and workflow systems that require a ton of investment both monetarily and in human capital. It’s not as easy as setting up profiles and putting them on auto-pilot. True social interaction on a daily basis is intense and eats a ton of hours – thus driving costs to an appropriate (though still too low in my opinion when compared to traditional media) mark. Not to mention, running a company in and of itself in the true fashion requires time, money, and those blasted taxes.
So to all of my brethren social media competitors, friends, colleagues, and partners who like us are hammering away for clients in deep messaging, REAL way – shout out about your frustration of the “anyone can set up a social media company” and share your stories. I know you have them….
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
The good news is the market is maturing, clients are becoming more savvy. They now understand social media isn’t an end but a mean and it has to fit in the overall mix/be aligned with their business goals. They moved beyond the “i want to know everything being said about my brand”, especially because they got very little more than just data out of monitoring things. No real knowledge. They start to ask good question like “do I need a twitter account” ..or may be what should I do with mine…and so on. They realize it’s a long term play that builds up slowly and requires a lot of fine tuning/trial and error along the way. Thus they need experience from those who have already traveled this uncertain path and can guide them accordingly.
You are right, this is happening in SEO.
I have had education on my mind lately. I think you may be sitting on a possible university or certification gold mine for those who are legit about getting some knowledge and training before starting a business in these fields. Let’s chat
Amanda this is a really thoughtful post. Note that I’m not challenging *your* company’s social media expertise, but I’m not at all convinced that, in general, “you get what you pay for” in this field. I’d much rather have a clever kid managing social media than an uninspired intern at a big firm. As with the early SEO landrush, you have a *small number* of fairly knowledgeable, fairly sophisticated teams that do a good job, though I’d people in this field to demonstrate positive ROI in a verifiable and honest way. The metrics usually presented to clients are far from rigorous – usually simply designed to keep business flowing. I believe in Social Media but I also think that for mid to large sized company’s it is probably best run in-house with young, enthusiastic (and inexpensive!) employees after initial consultation with folks like those on your team.
PR firms for many, many years rely more on *convincing clients* that they do a good job than doing a measurably good job. That needs to change with hard online ROI metrics and transparency and I hope we can all work harder towards that goal very soon.
Very interesting comment. I appreciate you chiming in. Based on our experience, what an intern may know about the technology of social media, they do not know or have the ability to know about proper communication and the bigger picture. That is where the “grab a cheap intern” theory goes out the window, especially if you are a company with regulatory considerations (which most companies, even small ones do) or with investors/stakeholders. You are correct that there are good case studies of internal teams including paid interns handling social after some intense training that have turned out ok. The challenge is making sure that training isn’t simply “here’s how you tweet/comment market, etc.” and really digs into realities of how to properly use approved messaging from corp comm or the PR team, to drive connection with your customers and potential customers. Again, the concept of the interns is a hard one because no amount of education, even my snotty Grad-Ivy education, replaces the things you learn about proper interaction, finesse of words, and rules of engagement like hard experience does.
PR firms – that’s another story on the opposite end of the spectrum. Most of them know messaging, but don’t truly know technology. Many of them are still using social media to PUSH messages and try to control the message which we know doesn’t exist.
In general though, I have to say that we have always had to provide hard metrics in every one of our departments for the last 11 years in this company and in my previous 10 years in others. I would love for a client to simply take our word for it working or see something like an increase in followers or fans as the only metric of success.
Thanks for writing! Keep it up. Love the path you’re thinking!
Amanda