I'm running into some issues while going about trying to market my services to new clients. My specialty is promoting businesses/individuals/organizations through social media (facebook, blogs, twitter). Basically I set up their online presence and then continue to manage it by creating "events", promoting, monitoring, updating, etc.

Seems like the main issue is a lot of businesses have an employee who is "doing that for them" (on the side). I would like to get across the value of having a separate service that is entirely devoted to their company's social media. Someone who "specializes" in this, not an employee who is doing it on the side, in his/her free time.

Another problem that has popped up with some of the larger potential clients is these huge corporate "marketing" teams who sweep in and take over all areas of media for that business. I have been doing the facebook page for a large new hotel in my city. I'm friends with the owner and manager. This past winter/spring, I've created/promoted at least 6 events for them, I've worked hard to get local customers to join the facebook page, etc. Now, it seems that next week, the corporate MARKETING TEAM will be meeting with the manager. I'm afraid these folks are going to pretty much take over all aspects of the hotel's media.


Any advise?
Thanks,
Kim

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http://www.kim-fowler.com

I guess you need to have a meeting also, crunch those numbers and see if what they pay you has brought them the outcome they intended when they hired you. A marketing team could also just mean they are thinking about advertising (Tv, Radio, Etc), you never know. When I hear 'marketing team", I think of the whole package, not just the online aspect. It is possible they will have you work with that team for promotions.. just ask, Im sure someone will answer you.

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www.sageva.com
Shelley Halpain,

Kim,
That really does sound frustrating. I think I would say that's one of the reasons we don't work with corporate accounts - I prefer the one-on-one of working with smaller businesses and solo-preneurs.

Perhaps this is your queue to start seeking out clients who operate on a smaller scale - small business is experiencing HUGE growth right now as more and more people are laid off. The market for your services in that sector is expanding every day.

As to the 'social media on the side'/employee issue - maybe you need to strengthen up your marketing message to focus on the value of what you do rather than the processes themselves. I think a lot of time people hear 'I do x, y, and z...' from a service provider and think to themselves 'well, employee 1 does those things for me right now' not realizing there are intricacies and expertise that go along with x, y, and z. A really good elevator speech gets right in there and delivers all of that: processes AND value.

If you want to post back with your current elevator speech maybe we can help you tweak it accordingly?!

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Great advise. Yes, I have been thinking of ways to communicate the benefits of having a professional who specializes in social media/marketing as opposed to having an employee doing it on the side.

As far as crunching the numbers, it's really hard to put a value on the benefit social media has for a company, because there is really no way of measuring it. I can tell them that the page has x number of members, x number of people that have rsvp'd to a particular event, but really, the effects go far deeper than that. It really gives the company a profound amount of exposure to the local customer base.

(hey, hey, maybe I'll do a little cutting and pasting from this, lol)

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http://www.kim-fowler.com

Hi

Great advice!! One other thing with social networking is that I believe clients will work more with someone they know and trust. If you are actively out there and presenting a professional image that can help a lot. What I do is follow those who might need my services (keywords). Get to know them. Get to know their style and then I have so much more I can go to them with. And like they said, they want to know benefits. How can what you do, make them money, give them more time, get their brand out there better, etc.

Good luck!

Diana Ennen
Virtual Word Publishing
www.virtualwordpublishing.com



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