Seven weeks ago I was hired as the Director of Social Media for SoMeGo. Up until then I had been a social media amateur. Sure, I had spent close to three years living, eating, and Google reader starring social media but I hadn't been paid for it. No one had entrusted me to nurture and grow their life's work. I could spout off hundreds of social media case studies, best practices, and top ten lists. But I'd never been tasked to design an entire customer engagement model.
These past two months have been a crash course in the difference between being a social media professional and anything else you want to call yourself. I wanted to share my three biggest takeaways so far.
Clients want to see metrics
About a month ago I had written a post concerning social media and measuring ROI. The major takeaway was to not become so fixated on numbers, followers, likes, etc. and focus more energy into genuinely engaging across the social web. While I still maintain this is the best practice for growing your personal brand and influence, it may be a little idealist. I'm quickly learning customers want to see numbers, expect to see numbers, and have to see numbers. And on quite a regular basis. Selling the whole "we're going to jump in the streams and out care every one else" model doesn't seem to work very well.
Show me the money
I hate talking about money. Especially when it comes to social media. I love what I do so much I wish I could offer my services to everyone who needed them for free. That's the idealist in me. The reality is we charge for our services. How much we charge has been quite a hot topic around the water cooler. Originally we decided on 3 pricing tears. They are based off specific criteria we have developed and our firms level of engagement for a particular customer. We were banking on being able to fit any customer into one of the three pricing tears. Honestly, not ideal. When one customer lives in his parents basement and the other is the Department of Education it's tough to fit them all under three umbrellas. We've had customers offer us stake in their company and others with a half million dollar budget. We're still working out the kinks in our pricing model, but I'm confident it will become more concrete as the company grows.
We want action
Here's a little behind the scenes info I've quickly come to learn since my draft date. Very few "social media companies" or "social media strategist" actually DO anything. I'm talking implementation. Actually sitting their customer down and month over month engaging their industry for them, teaching them how to develop their content, and help them produce actual ROI. It seems the majority of my industry peers simply enjoy "strategizing." Personally, this is the easiest part. I can sit down for a few hours or days (depending on the size of the customer) and do an assessment and recommendation for a customer. Give me another week after that and I'll have an entire 120 day strategy mapped out for you. Bing. Bang. Boom.
The real kicker is implementing that strategy. And I say shame on all of you who leave these poor newbies to fall flat on their faces once you've handed in your strategy work. I get it. You're a big shot consultant. And "strategizing" is what you get paid to do. However, that doesn't mean your not a prick for knowingly setting your customers up for failure. Who are they going to turn to in 90 days when they've run out of steam, ideas, content and hope? Are you going to make them shell out thousands more to now rescue your original "strategy" work.
To effectively help your customers, the majority of who don't know squat about social media, you need to take the time to teach them and walk with them hand-in-hand along their social media journey.
What is your company's engagement lifecycle? Are you a fly-by-night company or in it for the long haul?