Digital Marketing Coach

Earlier today I tweeted a link to a good article from this morning’s Globe and Mail about what to look for in a social media consultant. It has some very good advice, some things that I don’t agree with and some critical things that are missing.

What’s missing?
 

Although certainly helpful, this article and it contributors have missed a couple of hugely important points. Why does a business want to engage with social media and what is the return on investment?

You cannot make a good investment of your company’s recourses without having clear goals. While some very large companies can find value in a PR campaign that delivers only brand promotion, this is not the case for most small to medium sized businesses.

We advocate for an integrated Inbound Internet Marketing methodology that utilizes social media as one of a suite of tools to help your business Get Found, Convert Leads, and Grow Sales. Ask your prospective online marketing / social media consultant about measurable ROI. If they don’t have a clear plan for measuring ROI, they are going to waste your money.

The Good
 

Don’t confuse brand with results. As with any industry, an expert’s credibility is important … It’s not hard to develop a ‘personal brand’ on social network, oftentimes with large numbers of friends or followers. It’s also possible to build a brand by dispensing advice far and wide, without actually having successfully managed a business plan.

Ask for examples and references.

Watch out for number-mentality. Metrics are important in the online world, to be sure, but the most important one is your bottom line. “If you have a consultant on your hands who wants to talk about viral hits and follower counts, that’s a problem,” says Ian Capstick, principal at MediaStyle.

I agree with Mr. Capstick on this. Good metrics are vital to good management, but you have to be measuring the right things. This comes from understanding the business goals of your marketing campaign and the relative contribution of each tactic, like social media, to those goals.

We advocate the approach of being your inbound online marketing partner. A good consultant will first want to understand your business goals and opportunities, and then work with you on an ongoing basis to achieve measurable and sustainable results in growing your business. Throughout the process, there are stages of rapid growth and then things level off for a while.

Choose a partner that is not just looking for the quick hit and run. Make sure they plan to work with you to build consistency and push through those plateaus to reach your next goal.

The Bad
 

Know when to stay in. As always, aim to have a clear vision of whether going outside your own firm for social-media advice is worth it in the first place. Mr. Capstick suggests that businesses and organizations that are bringing in less than $1-million in annual returns are wasting their money by not doing social media themselves. “If you’re not DIYing your social media, you’re an idiot,” he says.

Mr. Capstick’s penchant for hyperbole is showing a bit here. This may be because he seems to approach social media as purely a PR exercise for brand development. However, for the thousands of small to medium businesses out there under his $1 million threshold, who have a stable cash flow and are looking to grow their business by investing in an integrated online marketing plan that includes a social media component, there are many affordable options that will yield measurable results.

My experience has been that most small to medium sized business owners are already busy running their core business and don’t have the time to take the DYI approach. That is where partnering with a good inbound online marketing consultant can make a lot of sense.

Look for a consultant that is focused on your business growth goals and has a methodology for delivering measurable results.