Well if you’ve been reading here lately, this post can’t be that much of a shock. What a whirlwind 6 months it has been. Starting a business, revving up this blog, meeting and greeting everyone in NYC. Hundreds of phone calls, dozens of meetings, some fantastic client interactions. Lots of successes and few failures, a lot of learning every single day.
This has been one of the wildest most trans-formative phases of my life. And if this sounds like a letter in which I say something dramatic and then drop off the face of the earth for 6 months and start tweeting in Thailand, well, its not.
No More Social Media Strategy
For the time being, I don’t see the value in referring to myself, on my website, on my business cards, or in person, as a social media strategist. I think the time isn’t right. And even though the majority of the work I do for clients still involves social media in one way or another: from building websites and blogs, developing creative content strategies, joining, adding to and leading conversations online, consulting on mobile and other technology issues, and bridging the gap between online and offline communities, the truth is that social media can’t fulfill its promise all on its own.
The world is still too variegated and the ROI is still thin. For small businesses and brands, the people that I have chosen to work with and for, social media is still in its infancy, especially when it comes to finding a thick return. Now I can go on and on about website traffic, twitter followers, engagement, brand equity, visibility. I’ve got stacks of excel sheets with data. And I’ve got a roll of former clients that still chat with me (Win), refer me to their friends (Win Win!) and who I’ll probably end up working with again at some later date.
So What Happened?
Nothing. Everything.
What has happened is that I have come to see social media less as the end all be all, and more as just another tool in the toolbox for businesses. Social media is a new tool, and it can be very powerful when harnessed properly. But to harness that power, and the extract the most value from social media means asking businesses to spend a lot of time, energy and money on something that they don’t quite believe in it. And you know what? They are right.
There is a lot of talk out there about how businesses don’t get it, they don’t see the value in social media and they are hurting their brands by not activating themselves to embrace social media and start engaging. I lot of that talk has emanated from me. But it was only through working with more and more clients, being on the ground with them, that I have come to see that business owners and brands are smart indeed. They absolutely need to be convinced of the value. But ONLY they can convince themselves.
I have stopped trying to do the convincing, something that I was more apt to do last year as I first geared up. You can’t change people. They have to come to the recognition on their own time, in their own way. And it is so much better that way. Because even if you can just barely convince a company to use social media, they won’t believe it in their heart. And for small businesses and brands, it is all about heart. It is all about feeling. That is the exciting and terrifying part about running your own business. Or working for a small business. Every decision is personal and intimate. There is no distance in anything like there is when you work for a large corporation with layers and protections.
So Now What?
My role has shifted. I am still focusing on social media, but I spend more time rolling social media into traditional marketing efforts. This is a good thing. And for companies that have strong and coherent social media strategies it makes traditional marketing so much easier. It provides a back up. In case traditional marketing tools don’t work on a particular campaign or with a set of ideas (blog posts, video series, community exercises) a nice base of social media engagement allows businesses an extra marketing channel with which to push our message out.
The real beauty is when social and traditional work hand in hand. I am seeing this more and more. I’ll tell you about it soon. But for now, I am hitting my word limit on this post, and I’ve really got some work to do.
Image Source: Bien Stephenson on Flickr
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Venture is my middle name; it used to be danger but I’m trying to be more client-centric. I used to quote Bill Murray, “Chicks dig me because I rarely wear underwear and when I do, it’s usually something unusual”, now I like Einstein, “If A is success in life, A = X(hard work) + Y(play) + Z(keeping your mouth shut) [1950]“. I have seen so many ventures come and go, having incubated them, financed them, turned them around, been interim CEO and CFO, and having sold them. I started my first venture with Mike Rudelli and Byron Zanopoulo in 1997, a by the seat of your pants effort to be junior club kings of NY. We called ourselves CMB Pipeline, after a gang in a Wesley Snipes movie. It doesn’t matter to me so much if it’s a biotech device, a medicine, a healthy fast-food chain, or a kid trying to build a club franchise, there are certain traits that delineate a success from a failure, the first of which is agility.
Agility is the ability to evolve quickly, to continue to reconcile your offering with your understanding of the market, to address your strategy as often as you would your tactics. Ventures are in a rush against time and their cash burn to become solvent. There is a point along the continuum at which you persist in having an identifiable expertise whereas your offering maximized your capacity to earn income for you and your customer. Some would argue that in venture consulting, that venture consulting is the expertise. This is a fallacy as it doesn’t build a strong enough brand impression to affect a sale of service; the clients are simply left wondering if you’re just another two bit huckster out to rob the little guy. In the case of venture, I think a rational and delineated consulting offering should be focused around ‘grass roots marketing’ or ‘cost efficient systems and process design’, or the most prone to abuse, ‘venture finance assistance’.
It seems as though your best best would be to focus on the grass roots marketing, identifying the current systems employed by each potential client and identify ways to augment their effort in a cost efficient way. This would presumably include using the web and its various applications.
The last thing is to focus on a value proposition that is a win-win for the client. Small clients are particularly adverse to paying retainers, so it’s important to work around this issue. I like the old adage, ‘its not work if you’re not getting paid for it.’ There’s another, ‘If I gave it away for free would it be worth something?’ Basically, I would run numbers on the client and come up with a way to charge them a fixed fee up front for your time, say 25k, then negotiate down to say 3-5k plus 10points on the increased business you generate for the client for a year. So if he goes from 10k in sales a night to 15k, 10pct of 5k… The clients doesn’t have to open up his books for you entirely, just show you some top line numbers (since you’ll want to base yours on the top line). Beyond being a good way to prove you’re aligned, this is a great way to beget upsells.
My two cents and years of experience…
going to need to pick your brain soon my friend. Cash Money Brothers 4 life…NINO BROWN
Zac, I totally feel for ya here – and you’re dead-on about biz needing to feel the need for this stuff in their hearts. I’m weary myself about explaining that elusive ‘easy button’ all things social media. Soldiering on like you tho!
Lara
Thanks for stopping by as always. It is so easy to want to solve all our clients problems in one fell swoop. There is something so American about wanting a quick fix, a pill, that does what we need it to do, whether its diets, marketing or relationships. Why can’t life be easier!!!
Alas, its just hard work that gets things done. And great products! WOrk with great companies and the rest will follow.
Z
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