Social media and pr

Stevo79 · Dec 27, 2012

Hi, I run a UK distribution business and I'm thinking of hiring a pr company to sort out the social media side of things.

What I want to know is exactly what they do. Will they just offer advice in a consultant kind of way or will they actively post on twitter Facebook etc or do we still handle that and they again just advise us on what to write, frequency, engaging fans etc.

What would be typical social media campaign?

Thanks everyone

Young Recruit · Dec 27, 2012

Hi Stevo,

Social media is just another way to communicate with people.

Who do you want to communicate with and why? Unless your clear about what your trying to achieve, then you shouldn't even bother wasting your time with social media tools, let alone paying someone else.

JA

andygambles · Dec 27, 2012

What are you distributing that will be interesting to users of social media?

Stevo79 · Dec 27, 2012

Our distribution is in musical instruments and accessories.

We want to utilise social media to promote the products we distribute to muscicians so in turn the dealers get feedback and possible sales.

What im unclear about is with our facebook and twitter pages, do we hand over the username and password to the PR company for them to post on our behalf and try to attract not only more fans anf followers but more interest and possible sales for our dealers or does the PR company basically tell US what to post, how to post what images work, what engagment to have ect.

Its just an area im unclear with as I dont really know what a PR company does regarding a social media campaign:|.

Any examples of what they do would be great and if they (the pr) do it or if we do from what they suggest to us.

S-Marketing · Dec 27, 2012

You are putting the cart before the horse. How do you know you need someone, when you dont know what they do? Equally, why do you think you need someone to deal with your social media?

Stevo79 · Dec 27, 2012

We need someone as our social media is not perfect, we need more fans, interation and ideas basically to engage musicians and promote the products in he best way. we would like it to be handled by a professional company that deals with this sort of thing day in day out, we are also very busy and dont have the time to sit and analyze where we are going wrong and what can improve.

We know that PR companies deal with social media campaigns and can be very successful, so we want to know what they can do for us, I would like to know before attempting to contact them so I have some idea of what to ask etc.

andygambles · Dec 27, 2012

Using a PR/Social Media company can work well, especially when you are unsure what to do yourself. However you first want to ask them what they plan on doing and what the scale of charges are.

Agree what results will look like. The PR company might think results are more followers whereas you might be more interested in more sales. If so then say you want results based on sales. If they say ROI on Social Media can not be tracked then move on and ask another PR company.

Make sure they produce a plan of what the aim is and how they will achieve that. Check if you think the plan is credible and at what points you will pay.

S-Marketing · Dec 27, 2012

How have you decided that social media will be useful for your business? Does this form part of a wider marketing strategy, or are you hoping the social media will be a 'stand alone' effort?

Stevo79 · Dec 27, 2012

Stretchy said:
How have you decided that social media will be useful for your business? Does this form part of a wider marketing strategy, or are you hoping the social media will be a 'stand alone' effort?

I would like it to be an ongoing effort that runs with other aspects of the business. When we take on a product its usually from the USA and we need the social media side to get to the UK musicians fast. We want to create a buzz around what we distribute. I think being able to share news, new products, where people can buy a product ect is a great way to go. but we need it planned the right way

andygambles · Dec 28, 2012

Stretchy said:
How have you decided that social media will be useful for your business? Does this form part of a wider marketing strategy, or are you hoping the social media will be a 'stand alone' effort?

The fact is perhaps the OP hasn't decided and that is why s/he is looking for a pr company to help them. A decent one would charge for consultancy and may even at the end of it say that social media is not an appropriate strategy and that the money woudl be better spent elsewhere. But they are unlikely to say that

The PR company should be the one presenting a credible strategy. Not the OP telling the PR company what to do, otherwise he might as well just employ someone, do it themselves!

The whole point of getting in outside consultants is to help you in areas you do not understand yourself.

10Yetis · Dec 29, 2012

Hola, a few things...

1. PR Company may not be the best source. May be an idea to look for a dedicated social media agency/freelance to help. Many PR's think they can "do" social but they can't.

2. It is more cost effective to maybe get the agency to put a strategy in place for you to then deploy. By "you" I mean someone in your team. Reasons for this... your team know your business far better than an agency would. Your team can react quicker and post the more urgent updates far faster. Finally, it is bloody expensive to have someone manage your tweets and facespacing all the time. Most agencies say they will do X amount of updates per day. For it to work well, you don't need a set amount, you need the right amount for it to work for you.

3. Don't get sucked into going for an agency or freelancer that goes on about developing customer relationships over getting a good ROI. People (businesses) forget that social marketing is just another customer service/marketing tool and as such it is ok to push for sales, just not all the time, and, of course, when done in the right way.

4. If budget is tight, a freelancer may be the most affordable option.

Hope this helps.

Jose Jimenez · Dec 30, 2012

Agree with the above poster's points. I would be careful about using a PR company as there are many that don't actually understand it as well as they like to make out.

The question on whether they will post on your behalf depends on if you have the resources to do it yourselves in the first place. If you do have the resources, I would advise taking on some of the work and getting them to train you on the basics/advanced stuff and how to use the appropriate tools. Your involvement is important as no one can replicate the expertise and the culture of your organisation. You obviously need a plan based on what you want to achieve and this can be used to review the activity.

stender · Dec 30, 2012

I don't know how pr companies charge because if I were doing it I would give an hourly rate and you choose how many hours pw you wish to purchase. Do they just charge a flat rate and commit to x hours?

It sounds to me like you tube would be of greater use in your case.

andygambles · Dec 30, 2012

If they want to charge hourly then they have little incentive to get results. If you agree to pay them by lead or sale then they can make more money and will hopefully do better.

Retriever WS · Dec 31, 2012

I think that social media is going to become a big part of most business over the next year, and if your thinking of paying a PR or similar company for total social media support it will benefit you greatly.

Although, if its just a bit of a extra push you need to develop your social media further maybe training on social media is something to consider? as then you will gain the insights you are seeking externally yourself and can decide on the best course of action more appropriately by understanding if you can look at doing it yourself or move forward with outsourcing it.

ArleneBrill · Jan 2, 2013

Social media is not just posting on social media networks, there is a lot of things these social media companies do. They managed all the your social media campaigns so that you can get better traffic on your site and also keep your fan-base actively engages on your pages.

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AdamCuthbertson · Jan 2, 2013

I agree with what a lot of the above posts say in regards to:

1. Social Media is one of the best routes to go down. IMO its one of the most effective methods of gaining customer loyalty and developing more intimate relationships with your customers, IF it is done well.

2. Don't just go for a company that say they can do social media for you. Choose one that has the experience to do it well. Anyone can set up a Facebook page but managing it in a way that effectively communicates the brand and builds leads requires experience and know how.

3. If possible go with a company that offers to teach you how to run your own online content as well as being able to produce a strategy that either you or they can implement. That way whenever you get a chance you can contribute to the online effort. A good social media/marketing agaency should be able to offer both - at a price of course.

Running my own freelance social media service (as way of gaining experience while still at Uni ith the view to expand when I graduate) has shown me the above are important to consider.

justbought.it · Jan 3, 2013

Hi Stevo79,

There are specialist social media agencies that work with retailers. I've worked with http://felicitasmedia.com before and they are exceptional! Ask for Martin Brown.

Using social media is very powerful if you facilitate engagement amongst your customers instead of faking it which is always my concern with hiring freelancers.

I would also encourage you to monitor what people are saying about you, your products and your competitors. I recently wrote a blog about it, feel free to have a read:

http://blog.justbought.it/2012/12/28/shoppers-falling-on-deaf-ears/

I hope that helps.

stender · Jan 3, 2013

We are generalising here aren't we? Social media usefulness is going to be dependent on your line of business. I'd like to see how many followers you have for your flange and sprocket business.

adamcjames · Jan 4, 2013

Hi Stevo,

Fortunately for you, your target audience of musicians are likely to be high social media users, particularly Facebook and Twitter. And I can understand why you would be eager to exploit social media for maximum benefit and increase sales.

Different PR agencies will have different strategies. For example, the agency I head is running the social media strategy for a unique new restaurant.

We post on Facebook and Twitter on behalf of the company, and we have a strategy on how best to reach and interact with potential new customers.

You can also arrange for both the PR agency and yourself to post on Facebook and Twitter, for example. In this way you are both working on your social media accounts.

There are also now a number of 'social media monitoring dashboards' to insist in top-quality and refined social media campaigns. The value of social media, for example, is that if there is a UK-based discussion on Twitter about the latest Fender guitar, you can find and join that conversation, and hence (subtly) promote your products. You can even locate Twitter conversations in London on Fender guitars.

If you work with a PR/social media agency, it would be best to negotiate with them on how you'd like to move forward. Maybe try it out with the agency running your social media campaign for three months, and then review it. You may then decide to bring it in house. Or maybe your brief can be, for example, for your Twitter account to reach an agreed amount of valid followers.

Our approach to using social media for clients is to make their social media campaigns unique and creative. It is this uniqueness that can make a difference, reach customers and promote your brand. Use videos and photos if you can. These are higher value social media tools.

Always happy to advise over the phone - my direct line is 07950 337379.

Best wishes,

Adam

SDGSteve · Jan 5, 2013

adamcjames said:
your target audience of musicians

Unfortunately as a distributor of musical instruments his target market is music shops rather than musicians I'd assume.

Some of the advice above is long winded but it's accurate, you need to speak to a few social specialists and see what they think, how your page gets managed will often come down to your budget, having someone do everything for you is obviously a lot more expensive than them just consulting you here and there. Bear in mind they'll need a lot of support early on as they may know social but they'll know f-all about distributing musical instruments or what the average music shop owner is into, you'll need to educate them really well in your target market, the more you put in, the more you'll get out.

And social is really worth doing, it's starting to get integrated into SEO and SEM and is already one of the best ways of drawing humans to a website.

SDGSteve · Jan 5, 2013

adamcjames said:
your target audience of musicians

Unfortunately as a distributor of musical instruments his target market is music shops rather than musicians I'd assume.

Some of the advice above is long winded but it's accurate, you need to speak to a few social specialists and see what they think, how your page gets managed will often come down to your budget, having someone do everything for you is obviously a lot more expensive than them just consulting you here and there. Bear in mind they'll need a lot of support early on as they may know social but they'll know f-all about distributing musical instruments or what the average music shop owner is into, you'll need to educate them really well in your target market, the more you put in, the more you'll get out.

And social is really worth doing, it's starting to get integrated into SEO and SEM and is already one of the best ways of drawing humans to a website.

KHawey · Jan 31, 2013

A consultancy would be the best way to go as they can package up something that is suited to your business. Most consultancies will give you an initial insight as a freebie to try and win your business. So this will then determine if they think social media would be suitable for your business (and if needs be you could ask for SEO and PPC to be looked at as well) and how they think they can help.

There are usually many different options in terms of what they do for you. The most common are:
1. They could run everything for you, so you hand over access, they write the strategy, keep up the social media activity and report back to you.
2. They could just write a strategy, set up a training session with your staff to explain and then report each month. (depending on how it goes, they often suggest renewing the strategy as time goes on to keep it 'fresh' because of the ever-evolving digital scene.

I would maybe meet with a couple of different companies and see what each can do for you. It's very easy for a digital marketing consultancy to talk up their services as well as the price with lots of jargon so it is worth shopping around.

Hope that helps in some way

.

Force Digital · Feb 7, 2013

A PR agency will have a social media department that will work with you to do the following:

Identify your target audience
Develop a strategy to reach them
Establish a tone of voice for your brand
Set clear objectives

After this work has been done, you can decide how much of the campaign should be undertaken by the agency and work with them to achieve your goals.

Social media marketing is not just about Facebook and Twitter, it consists of a complete online awareness exercise. A PR agency will have the skill set and understanding to help you with this.

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