Premier Home Repairs House Green Logo by Social Rocketship

Online: The competitive world of being contacted to be contracted!

Social Rocketship adds Premier Home Repairs Inc. as a new client in Woodinville, Washington.

Ever heard of Premier Home Repairs? Not yet, but you will!  Premier Home Repairs was like thousands of other businesses out there who have had no web exposure or presence.  They were feeling a squeeze in their lead flow and came to us, Social Rocketship, to lighten the economic grip.

First thing first!  “What’s your website look like?” we asked.

“We don’t have a site.” They replied.

Believe it or not this is STILL very typical in today’s market nationwide.   Seattle is a city ahead of the curve in many regards.  Boeing, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, for example, drive the market towards technology.  Most residents looking for work, especially home repairs, will find the information to make the right choice online.

{If a company isn’t online that company will miss countless opportunities.}

In the old days information would be gathered from the town square because that’s where the people were.  Today the internet is the town square.

In the past, Premier Home Repairs consciously tried to stay out of the technology scene.  What they were doing was working.  BUT, it was working less and less as more and more people chose the internet as their primary way to find information about home repairs.

“It was time to make a change,” said Derrin Watson, owner of Premier Home Repairs.  “We were tired of missing out on leads, and we were tired of giving a proposal and then never hearing from the homeowner again.”

This is actually quite common in the home repair industry.  A homeowner will ask for a bid on a selected project.  The contractor will provide a bid and leave the scene feeling like he has got a real shot at landing the job.  What happens next is a vicious cycle all contractors want to avoid.  The homeowner then looks online and there is no information about the contractor, or even worse, bad information.

Is the above mentioned cycle better then not getting the call in the first place?  You decide.  On one hand the contractor has no chance at EVER getting contacted because he’s not online.  No gas burned, no time invested, no money in or out of his pocket.

The second scenario is if a contractor got a lead (let’s say a referral from a friend) and left with a good feeling because of the word of mouth connection.  BUT, then as the homeowner does his own research, he sees another contractor, who also bid the project, with great reviews online everywhere!  In this hypothetical scenario the other contractor has 26 good reviews online, on sites such as Google places, Yelp, and Angie’s List.

Who gets the bid? Is it the word of MOUTH contractor or the word of MOUSE contractor? Think about it.  Which is better; the strong reference from a friend or the endorsement of an entire online community?  It’s 26 vs. 1!

Social Rocketship has now built a website for Premier Home Repairs.  This is the first part of our service.  As soon as the “home base” is established we built online profiles such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and more.  Then we set up a content marketing campaign for Premier Home Repairs.  Now they are off and running!

Never heard of Premier Home Repairs before?  Just wait, you will!

~Social Rocketship

Does Social Media Work? Track It and Find Out!

Looking back at 2011, it’s easy to see that nothing has business owners more discombobulated than social media. Whether its Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, or any of the hundreds of others that seem to pop up almost daily, the question is the same – does it work?

People take strong opinions on both sides of the issue. Some people say that it absolutely does not work. In fact, they go on to say it’s a fad and will soon fizzle out. Some people even go on to say it’s a total waste of time.

On the other hand, people are claiming to have huge success with social media. They claim to have grown their brand awareness, increased their customer base, and even made significant sales. In many cases, entire companies have been built using only social media. And this isn’t just the big companies. It’s the everyday local small businesses.

Benefits of Social Media

By now, there is no question. The jury is in on whether or not social media works to help grow your business. It does. So many companies have already had so much success that by now, you really have to stick your head in the sand to say it doesn’t work.

But here’s the big caveat – it must be used correctly. Obviously the platform you choose to use must line up with your business and your customers.

The clearly evident benefits of social media include growing your brand awareness and connecting with your customer base where they already hang out. It gives you a way to reach out in a format that they’re comfortable with.

For example, maybe you’re happy as a clam getting on the phone but your customer would rather send you a direct message on Twitter. It’s not what you like, it’s what your customer likes.

Following brand awareness and customer connection leads to increased revenue. By using contests, giveaways, coupons, and generally supplying good information, and more, it’s easy to watch the bottom line get bigger.

Now, for everyone that still wants to ignore the companies already using social media successfully, no amount of talk is going to convince you. There’s a solution for that.

Why Not Track It and Find Out!

Take away any confusion by testing social media in your business by tracking it! Before dismissing it and saying it just won’t work for you, give it a try.

For example, you can implement something as simple as a company YouTube channel. Load up some great videos and start utilizing them to act as sales agents for you. Make sure your videos have a clear call to action and drive traffic to your website.

Now comes the best part for the unbelievers.

Insert your own Google Analytics code on your website and start tracking the results. You can see with your own two eyes where all of your web traffic is coming from. This includes any social media platforms that you’re experimenting with!

It’s obvious, right? If you do even one thing differently and you get increased traffic to your website or your phone starts ringing more, something worked right? Why not take the same scientific approach to social media?

Try It. Test It. Track It.

Tweak what’s working and what isn’t. If your $500 a month in yellow page ads isn’t working anymore, why not try something new? Again, it doesn’t have to be a guessing game. There are very real ways you can track the results of a social media campaign.

It’s simple marketing: in order to grow, you need to place your message in front of the right people at the right time in the right medium. Your customers are online. They’re using social media networks. You need to also be there. And now you can actually track it to see that it’s working!

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How to Leverage Online Reviews into More Business

Recently, some friends of mine were buying a pre-owned minivan to accommodate their growing family. While they were still in the dealership, they looked online (on their smart phones) for an auto mechanic who does pre-owned inspections to make sure the car was in good condition.

After the mechanic completed his inspection, he thanked them for their business and asked how they heard about his shop. They said they went to his shop because he had the best reviews online. He looked puzzled and asked, “Reviews?”

He didn’t even know his business was being rated online! Fortunately for him he was getting good ratings. Imagine if the opposite were true.

Because of online review sites, like Yelp, businesses are now gaining or losing business and might not even know why. Online review sites are becoming one of the most powerful ways of finding new products and services for consumers. If you’re a business, it’s now time to learn how to navigate review sites and use them to grow.

It’s important to recognize online reviews for what they are – word of mouth! And we all know word of mouth marketing is one of the best ways to generate more business. Everyone likes to see that a business helped “someone like them”. The places our peers visit and like will most likely be the places we like and visit.

Here are a few things to consider about review sites and managing your online reputation:

  • Yelp and other review sites offer a very public forum where your business will be talked about – be sure you’re representing your business in the best possible light. Be real. Be nice. People are smart and can spot a good business when they see one (the opposite is also true).
  • Review sites are powerful. Because it’s not an ad from the business itself but a review from peers, people are more inclined to believe what they read.
  • Some people are going to be your raving fans while others are never going to be pleased. Treat each review on an individual basis and always respond with grace.
  • Going online and writing a review about your business takes time. Be grateful for the attention and free advertising the reviewer is giving your business whether it’s a good review or bad.
  • Understand that people who review online are vocal people. Treat them with respect because you never know how big their audience might be.
  • Consider when to take things off the public forum. Maybe you’re willing to give the customer a total refund and that’s not something you normally do and you don’t want everyone else to see that. Ask them to contact you at your own email or personal phone number.
  • Keep your replies brief, positive, and humble – it goes a long way in online communication.
  • Make sure you claim your own business on the major review sites. This can lead to increased visibility and, of course, increased sales.

Steps to responding to a positive review:

  1. Introduce yourself as the owner of the business or one representing the business.
  2. Thank them for taking the time to post a review.
  3. That’s it! A simple thank you is usually good enough.
  4. You might consider inviting them to join you on your other online homes like your main website, Facebook page, YouTube channel, and anywhere else that’s appropriate for your business. *Caution* be sure not to sound too pushy. You want your “Thank you” to be genuine and not a sales pitch.

Steps to responding to a negative review:

  1. Do not reply immediately. Possibly even sleep on it for a night. This gives you time breath, calm down, and think about the best solution for the situation without “emotional retaliation”.
  2. Think about the review. Was it legitimate? Be honest. If it was, then see this as an opportunity to better your business.
  3. Consider what you’re willing to do to relieve the situation. What can you do to make them feel better?
  4. Write your response. State your name and title and first thank them for taking the time to review your business. If you can tell it’s not a very legitimate review (like just someone having a bad day) this is all you need to do. Thank them and be done. If it is a legitimate review then…
  5. Apologize if needed and briefly explain what you’re willing to do to correct the situation.
  6. Thank them again.

In the end, how you respond to reviews is all about customer service. You get business through marketing and sales. You maintain and grow your business through amazing customer service.

So get online! Make sure you know what’s being said about your business. Interact with your customers. Thank everyone, provide amazing customer service, and watch your business skyrocket!

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8 Reasons Why Content Marketing Works

Let’s say you want to remodel your house starting with your kitchen. Now let’s say you had the chance to line up two contractors side by side almost as if it were a presidential debate. You pose a question like, “What’s the best type of tile for my kitchen?”

You’re going to then listen to their answers and whoever has the best reply will probably win your business. But let’s go even further. Let’s say that when you ask the question, one of the contractors simply holds up a sign that reads, “Kitchen Experts-Free Estimate-Call Us Today” but doesn’t actually say anything.

Crazy right? Well this is exactly what’s happening in the world on online marketing. Businesses who are using content marketing, like a well written blog post or a step-by-step video, are dominating the businesses who do nothing more than pay for a 15 word ad only visible in the pay-per-click section of your browser.

People go to the internet to find solutions to their problems. Maybe they want a new kitchen for example. The person or business that successfully provides that solution is going to get the business every time.

This is the world of content marketing and it’s rising in popularity. In fact, many marketing firms are using content marketing more and more as a way to generate new business.

Content marketing consists mainly of blog posts, articles, white papers, videos (my personal favorite), powerpoint slides, photos, podcasts, online radio programs, and more. It’s any content that’s created by your company with the end goal of capturing more leads and sales.

Here are 8 really good reasons that illustrate why content marketing is one of the best ways to grow your business:

  1. Demonstrates Your Expertise – nothing could be more convincing to a potential customer than actually showing them you know the solution to their problem! Maybe they need a new roof, or to get their dog to stop peeing on the carpet, or to learn Spanish. By actually demonstrating your knowledge through sharing your content, you’re going to land the deal every time.
  2. Know, Like, and Trust – we all know we do business with people we know, like, and trust. By sharing your content, it gives potential customers a chance to get to know you. Through giving away your knowledge, it almost makes them feel indebted to you. You certainly become top of mind when it comes time to make a purchasing decision.
  3. Cost Effective – most people know marketing online is a much more inexpensive than marketing through traditional channels like TV, radio, and print. But with content marketing, most of the time you don’t even have to pay! This results in huge advertising savings for you.
  4. Always Working – once your content is up, it’s up for as long as the internet sticks around. In fact, many businesses have reported getting new customers from content they published even years prior. Contrast that to a paid ad that comes and goes depleting your ad budget and leaving sales reps wondering where their leads are.
  5. Search Engine Optimization – no matter how many times the major search engines change things around, good content will always reign supreme. Keyword rich content helps your website rank better in the search engines because it’s doing what people are going online to do – find a solution. This is also empowering savvy businesses who do more than throw an ad up and hope the phone rings.
  6. Quality Content Gets Shared – people like helping each other out and referring them to where they can find answers. By creating and distributing content that solves problems (the reason you’re in business) it has a very good chance of getting seen by huge numbers of people. In some cases it even has the chance of going viral. This may not lead to direct, immediate sales but it leads to brand awareness.
  7. Leadership Role – you obviously know what you’re talking about when you share content because, well, you’re talking about it! Do your competitors know just as much as you do? Probably. But are they demonstrating that fact through targeted content marketing? By marketing your content, you have the chance to demonstrate your leadership role in your industry and beat out your competition.
  8. Get Quality Leads – the most important job of any marketing activity is to generate leads for your business. Through sharing your quality content, you’ll be able to reach your exact target market. Not only that, by attracting customers through your content, they’re already lining up with your methodologies and it serves as a qualification process for you. This results in only the highest quality leads for you making your sales job much easier.

So, think about your customer. Are they going to choose your simple banner ad or PPC advertising? Or are they going to choose your article or video that exactly answers what they were looking for? It’s a no-brainer.

Put content marketing to work today and watch your business take off.

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Content is King – Why Google Loves Content

There’s an interesting new infograph that was recently published by Brafton.com showing the relation between content and search. This should be nothing new to anyone who’s trying to market their business online.

Content is what people are searching for. Content is what answers peoples questions. Content is what leads to purchasing decisions.

And now with the added layer of social media, people are sharing that content with their contacts. But there’s a catch – it’s got to be quality content! Search engines and real humans are not going to share bad content.

With that said, take a look at the graph below and think about how you can apply it your online marketing efforts. Of course, if you need to know where to get started, pulling quality content out of you and marketing it online is one of our specialties!

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Brafton's Infographic: Why Content for SEO?

The 7 C’s of Marketing Your Business Online

There’s no doubt now that regardless of what industry you’re in, you need to market your business online. The barriers to marketing online are low and the upside is huge!

While the benefits are almost never ending, here are 7 powerful reasons to get your business online and fast!

Credibility

Businesses that can be found online have more credibility. Why? Because your customers can get online and check you out.

More than ever, people are researching the internet before making buying decision. If you have a website that explains all of your services or products in detail, you’re more likely to get the sale.

Also, being online gives you a chance to list your qualifications. It provides a place to show off the associations you’re part of like the Better Business Bureau and so forth.

Cheap

Whoops! Did I say cheap? In business we say “cost effective”. For starters, getting a quality website up and running has never been easier. Gone are the days where you need to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a company website.

It’s as simple as buying a domain, getting some hosting, and setting up a WordPress site – all of which can be done in a few hours.

Also, advertising your business is incredibly cost effective as you can set the exact amount you wish to spend and then see your immediate ROI. In fact, in many cases, you can produce amazing results advertising for free through places like Craigslist and Backpage. It’s a very low entry cost (free) with potential huge returns.

Customers

Your customers are online. Are they going to find you or your competition? Do all you can to get listed in the local search results. Learn to dominate your niche online. Be where your customers are looking for you.

Naturally you need to have a website, do some SEO, produce some great content, and connect through social media. That will put you in place to be found by your customers.

Connections

Once your customers have found you online, be sure to connect with them. With the various social media platforms, it’s never been easier to stay in touch with your customers.

You can increase traffic through your doors by offering specials through Groupon, Living Social, and Google Offers. You can build up customer loyalty by using tools like FourSquare and Facebook Places. You can even give customers “inside information” by connecting with them on Twitter or Facebook.

Close

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a salesperson that never calls in sick, works 24-7, and presents the exact right message to your customers every single time? You can! It’s your website!

Many companies still have “legacy websites”. These are the kind of sites that talk about a dopey mission statement, list hours of operation, and company address. Who cares!

Your customers are searching for a solution to their problems. Let your website (and your social media outlets) save the day! If done right, your website can “close” your customers automatically.

Customer Service

Because you’re a superstar at growing your business online, why not use the same tool to address all of your customer service concerns? One of the easiest ways to slim down customer service issues is to set up a F.A.Q.’s section on your website.

Want to address the concern immediately? Have one of your employees monitoring Twitter and get your customer an answer instantly. By interacting directly, you’ll resolve the problem quickly and your reviews on Yelp will skyrocket!

You can also use your awesome customer service skills to reward your best customers. As mentioned before, you can incentivize your customers by using platforms like Foursquare or Groupon. You can even offer secret deals if they join your mailing list or a special “elite members” closed Facebook page.

Cash

What business wouldn’t love to generate more revenue? Are you a brick and mortar business? What want or need does your business satisfy? Turn that expertise into an information product of some sort!

Let’s say you have a kitchen remodeling contractor. You can take your years of experience and create a series of how-to videos and sell them on your website.

What if you’re a product-based business? Let’s say, for example, you own a clothing boutique. You can create an online store that features your best clothing. You can even direct your in-store traffic to your website for special inside deals.

By creating on online portion of your business, it creates an additional revenue stream. It also takes your business from a local business to a global enterprise with unlimited income potential. In short, you become scalable.

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So there you have it. We’ve covered some of the basics of marketing your business online.

By doing just a little bit to market your business online, you’ll soon pull ahead of your competition. Do what it takes today to make sure you take advantage of the internet – the most powerful marketing tool ever invented.

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7 Ways to Modernize Your Website

Chances are if your company’s website is over 3 years old, it’s already outdated. In the “olden days” (olden days being late 90’s/early 2000’s) it used to be enough to have a website. For the most part, it acted as a place holder online for your company giving some basic info and maybe a way to contact you.

Nowadays, having a simple website isn’t enough. Your website must engage. It must share your knowledge. It must sell. And it must do it all quickly. To do this, it’s got to have an up-to-date feel or you risk losing your visitor before you ever got a chance to woo them.

So here are 7 ways you can modernize your website:

Add a Blog

There are a number of reasons why adding a blog helps your website. It helps with your SEO and discoverability, demonstrates your expertise, and pre-sells your customer. A blog also helps you to prove to everyone that you’re active on your own website. And being active means increased customer engagement.

Add Social Media

Social media is still relatively new and by adding all of your social media links to your site, you’re showing that you’re on top of the game. It also adds multiple ways for your visitors to get in touch with you and learn more about your business. Add as many social media outlets that you have a strong presence on.

Add Video

Few things are as powerful as having video on your website. It’s one of the best ways for people to consume your content. By having even just a short introductory video on your homepage, you’ll increase the time visitors stay on your site and the likelihood they’ll want to learn more from you.

Add an Email Opt-in

Online there’s a saying that the “money is in the list”. This refers to building your database of potential customers by getting their name and email address. You can offer something of genuine value in exchange for their name and email. Then you can go to work turning a random visitor into a possible customer by setting up a drip marketing campaign.

Change to WordPress

Many of the older websites out there were built using good old fashioned HTML. Not that this is bad, but there are much easier ways now to build (or rebuild) your website. WordPress is one of those ways. You can pick a template (they call them “themes”) and have a new, professional looking site up within a day. And you can do it with little to no web design skills. The result? A modern looking website that’s aesthetically pleasing.

Make it clean

Many of the older websites are jumbled with a bunch of text and photos with poor choice in colors. When you go to upgrade your website, be sure you make sure it’s clean and easy to look at. Use light, pleasing colors, great images, and simple, concise text. Many of the most successful websites are highly minimalistic. Just look at Google or Craigslist. Simple. Effective. Clean.

Make it sell

This is one of the most important aspects of your website. You’ve got to make it work as a sales tool for you. Instead of just listing boring information about your products and services, show your visitors (like through video) the benefits of doing business with you. Then, have a clear call to action placed prominently so visitors know what to do next.

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7 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Blog

OK, great. You’re online. You’ve got a fully functional website that shares everything about your company and what you do. Question – is your website attracting a loyal following? Is it establishing you as a leader? Is it interacting with your target audience? Chances are, it’s not.

Fear not. There’s a super easy solution. Four letters: B-L-O-G. Yep, it’s time to implement your company blog if you haven’t already.

Why? Check out 7 reasons here:

  1. Expertise – people aren’t online looking for your website. People are online looking for solutions to their problems. A blog gives you the ability to demonstrate that you really know your stuff. Be the solution and people will be loyal to you and tell others about you.
  2. Leadership – closely related to expertise is leadership. Having a blog establishes you as a authority in your industry. Why? Because you actually have a blog while others don’t! That means that you’re regularly pushing out great content and contributing to the pool of knowledge. There is more competition than ever and you need to stand out as a leader and a blog is the perfect way to do it.
  3. Search engines – search engines like Google or Bing love fresh content. Most company websites have the basic information that explains who, what, why, and so forth but once they’re built, that’s it. Every company needs a website but this is only the start. If you want to get discovered in the search engines, provide them with new keyword rich content updated on a frequent basis.
  4. Commenting – if half of blogging consists of publishing great content, the other half would be building great relationships. Every good blog allows readers to comment and add their own expertise. You can then interact with those readers in an uplifting way and grow your company community. This also goes hand in hand with the concept of giving and that’s next.
  5. Giving – by sharing your expertise online for free, you’re showing to the world that you’re willing to give without expectation of return. Yeah, this is a little new-agey but it’s true. You never know who might be on the receiving end of your information. They might be someone with a lot of influence and your generous nature was just the thing to turn them on and champion your company to their people.
  6. Company Culture – people like knowing that the business they’re dealing with is run by real people. Using vernacular and ridiculous industry jargon is barely ok for printed materials but not online. People want real information from real people. Talking about your latest products or services is good but also try throwing in some stuff about the funny things your dog does or fun things you do at your office.
  7. Social Media – of course I had to mention social media because I love it so much! Having a blog is the perfect way to launch your social media campaign. Why? Content! Really, how many times can you tweet out your contact info? But if you have a nice, juicy article that helps someone out in some way, you can spread that thing across the social media universe as fast as someone can hit “retweet”.

These are just 7 reasons of why your company should have a blog. Hopefully it’s now a bit more clear on why you need a blog for your company. Happy blogging!

8 Powerful Marketing Benefits of YouTube

People go to the internet for a number of reasons. One of the biggest reasons is because they want to find information that will help them solve a problem. Google has made a fortune by providing links to information they think would help.

But guess what? YouTube has now become the second largest search engine after Google. What does that mean? It means that people are going to YouTube not only to find answers to their problems but to see them. Instead of reading the information, they would rather watch it.

What does that mean to you? In a nutshell, if you have a business, you have to have a presence on YouTube! There are some amazing benefits to doing so. Here are eight powerful reasons:

1.       It’s Free – Besides your investment of time, making and uploading videos is completely free to do you YouTube! Are the Yellow Pages free? No! Is a billboard free? No! But YouTube is.

2. Content is Powerful – In the online world, content is king and that would make video content the king of kings. Like I mentioned before, people would much rather watch something than read something – especially online.

3.       Potentially Viral – If your video is creative or funny or informational enough, it has the potential to go viral. That means that potentially thousands of other people will be sharing your video with their people. That’s exposure to your business to an infinite amount of people.

4.       Global and Local Audience – Based on the key words you use, your video has the potential to be seen around the world. This means you could have new clients or customers overseas! Have a local business? Not to worry. You can target local searches as well and become the go-to person in your region.

5.       Demonstrate Your Expertise – By giving away great tips, you will literally show your viewers that you know what you’re talking about. For many potential clients or customers, it often comes down to choosing between two businesses. Your business is going to stand out if you have a video showing them why you’re good.

6.       Selling for You 24/7 – Making a video is like creating a virtual sales person. You make the video once, load it up, and then let your video sales person go to work for you around the clock. Every new video you make is another full time sales person. There’s no limit to what you could do!

7.       Give Them a Face – Having a video gives the potential client a face. It shows them you’re really a nice person that knows what you’re talking about and how you can help them. Camera shy? No problem! You can make a powerpoint video and still show your stuff. Just be sure to give your viewers a head shot in your intro.

8.       Video is SEO Friendly – This is a big one. When someone searches for something online, very often a video will come up in one of the top spots in the organic search. If this is your video, this is huge because it stands out above the other links. It then carries with it all of the above listed benefits.

With all of these benefits the question is, why wouldn’t you do YouTube marketing? Of course if you need help getting kick started in your video marketing efforts, we know some great people who can help you!

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Social Media Manager: to Outsource or to Hire?

It’s obvious now that every company needs to implement a solid social media campaign. The big question is: should you outsource your social media needs or hire someone to do it? Maybe it’s easiest if we set a few ground rules first and then decide.

First, you have to have someone who knows what they’re doing.

Sounds pretty obvious right? Well you’d be surprised at the number of companies who are trying to get their secretaries to do it. Or worse yet, hiring a college kid because he/she says they know their way around Facebook.

Having someone who has experience in marketing and communications (especially online communications) for companies is a requisite. Sure Facebook is new, but company branding isn’t.

Second, you have to have someone who is a real professional.

What does this mean? It means that due to the online and conversational nature of social media, it’s easy to spend hours on Twitter without accomplishing anything! You want someone who is going to be focused and get you the information you want, grow the relationships you need, and share the content that will bring in new business. Bottom line, you want someone who is going to get you results.

Third, you have to have someone who is a good communicator.

Again, this seems like another obvious one but there’s more to it than you think. Communicating via social media on behalf of your company requires a special finesse. It’s not just another place to pitch your business. It’s a place to develop relationships through engaging conversation not selling.

Keep in mind also that it is conversation! It’s not a place to spew out industry jargon that nobody uses in real life. Contrary to what your English literature professor would have you believe, people think and read in spurts. They like information fast. Nouns, verbs, and the little things in between to put it all together. That’s it.

To outsource or to hire?

With the ground rules established, let’s get on to the question at hand. To answer the question you need to ask yourself a few more questions. If you were to hire an employee, do you have someone that knows enough about social media to supervise them? If not, how will they be accountable? How will you track their progress? Will you put them on some sort of incentive program? If not, how will you ensure that the hours you’re paying them won’t be whittled away Facebooking all day?

These are all things to seriously consider because when hiring any employee (especially these days) is a big investment and you want to make sure it’s the right thing to do.

Maybe it’s helpful to analyze some of the advantages of a contracted social media firm (SMF) over an employee.

  • First, an employee often requires, or at least hopes for, benefits. At a minimum they require a place to work including equipment like computer, desk, phone and all the other overhead you’re bound to supply as an employer. This is a big advantage of an SMF as they are their own business already and have the equipment and do not expect benefits from you.
  • Closely related to overhead and the actual cost of an employee (not just their salary), and this is a big one in this economy, is unemployment. Should things go bad, an employee can collect unemployment costing your organization more money. An SMF can’t collect unemployment as a result of being contracted by you. A contract is a contract and once it’s over that’s it.
  • Another advantage of an SMF over an employee is that their business depends on the quality of their work and the results you pay them to get. Why? Because nothing builds a business better than quality results. If an SMF does well, you’re more likely to tell your fellow business owners about them. Employees may have some initiative but generally speaking, they lack the drive a consultant does. An employee gets paid to work. An SMF gets paid to get results.
  • Another advantage of an SMF over an employee is in the numbers. Often an SMF is made up of numerous social media gurus with varying backgrounds. This means more people putting their heads together on how to make the most of your social media efforts. That’s just not something you get with a single employee.
  • How about some more numbers? What’s the cost difference? Across the nation, the average salary for a social media manager ranges from $32K to $58K (according to Payscale.com). That breaks down to $2,666 to $4,833 a month. That’s just salary. That’s not including the additional costs of benefits, taxes, overhead, etc.

Contrast that to a quality SMF whose prices range from $500 to $2,500 a month. Even at the high end, you’re still paying substantially less for a contracted SMF with all costs considered. Now add the fact that a quality SMF has a professional background with expertise in marketing, communications, and branding your company online.

Hopefully this helps you to see the benefits of a social media firm and how it could help your business. The cost comparison alone should be reason enough to persuade you! Why pay more and get less?

When you’re ready to hire a social media firm, we know just the right people!  Check out our packages and give us a call and see what would work best for you!

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