consulting

Should you hire a full-time employee specifically for your Social Media Marketing?

The options are:

Do it yourself
Let the current marketing person handle it
Hire your 16 year old niece
Hire a part-time employee
Hire a full-time employee
Hire a professional consulting company

Your Social Media Marketing Strategy should be ongoing. It is not a billboard you put up next to the interstate and wait for the mad rush of customers. To effectively market your business using sites like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, you should be adding content regularly.

Another big question to answer is, “What is my budget for Social Media”?

The answer to this question as well as who you should hire depend on the type of business you are in and the size of your company. Most businesses can benefit from implementing a marketing campaign that utilizes Social Media. If your product or service is purchased by humans then there is a good chance your potential customers and current customers spend time on Facebook and other social sites.

“Go where the eyeballs are.”

The following statistics are from Facebook:

More than 500 million active users
50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
Average user has 130 friends
People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

What type of businesses can skip the social aspect of marketing? Maybe a corporate attorney…maybe… morgue owner…there are not many.

If your business provides a social type of product or service your marketing budget should be significantly in favor of Social Media.

A bowling alley, golf course, and a restaurant all fit into this category. Your customers may actually help you populate your own social space with user generated content.

Here are some quick tips regarding all these questions:

If you are doing it yourself…who is running the business?
If you let your current marketing person handle it…they are probably not experts in this area and they will need training.
If you hire a part-time employee…expect shoddy part-time work unless the person has a passion for your industry, your company, and your product.
If you hire a full-time employee…make sure they know what they are doing. They do not qualify to be a social media manager just because they have 10,000 Myspace friends or 5,000 Facebook friends. It proves they like to spend time on those platforms but it has nothing to do with writing great content, enticing copy, recording engaging videos, and analyzing and testing various marketing metrics.
If you want to hire a consulting company…good for you. Just make sure you are not tied into a long-term contract. Probably the #1 over blown hyped up business to start this year is a Consulting business with a focus on social. People are hurting for money and looking for ways to pay the bills and next thing you know, they are a consultant.

Look at their website and determine what type of content they provide. Do they provide valuable content? Do they beg for business? Do they allow you to pay month-to-month because they are confident you will continue to use their services?

While you are considering all the questions above watch this video from CBC News about social jobs.

Then check out our Social Media Marketing Services page for a more in depth look as well as one of the most powerful and informative videos online.

When hiring a consultant that offers PPC Management Services there are important questions to ask:

Will you run various ad groups?
How many keywords do you use per group?
Is it more important to target the right person or to write a great ad?

Below you will find the answers to these questions as well as the BIGGEST mistake you can make that will waste your money.

Explanation and key points for PPC

Answer to #1– The number of ad groups you should run depends on several factors but it is important that it is more than one. Some people will get lazy and run one ad group with 50 keywords in it and that is a mistake. Each ad group should be highly targeted and the ad should be written based on the keyword and the mindset of the potential lead for that particular keyword.

For example…if someone types in “PPC management” they may be looking for a company to run their campaigns but they may also be someone looking for information on how to properly manage your campaigns.

If someone types in “PPC managment services” they are more likely to be searching for a consultant or company to run their campaign for them.

So an ad in the first example where someone may be just searching for more information I may write an ad that talks about my Pay Per Click course that will help them understand the secrets to successful pay-per-click advertising and mention my consulting services.

In the second example they are very likely looking for a company to manage their campaign for them. Here I am going to focus my ad on why they should choose us to manage their PPC and list the benefits to doing so.

Running different ad groups allows you to target your specific ad for a very specific person.

Answer to #2– Their is no exact number but once again make sure it is not a large number like 50. Launching a campaign with large numbers of keywords per ad group may get you a ton of clicks but they will be more expensive.

Answer to #3– Targeting the right person with a bad advertisement is better than targeting the wrong person with a great ad. Ideally you want both a good ad and good targeting but the targeting is more imporant. You can’t sell steak to a vegetarian no matter how good your ad is written.

The big mistake that will cost you money…

Writing ads to entice people to click on your ad. You want as many people as possible to click on your ad and drive your click through rates up and your click cost down but it should be the right people. Your goal should be to have only highly interested people clicking on your ad.

An example would be to put the word FREE in your ad. Everyone clicks just to see what it is that is free. They may have no intention of buying.

The opposite of the enticing ad is to put an ad up that states something that may drive away people that are not buyers. You want buyers not clickers.

The fastest way for getting exposure and online leads when marketing a small business is pay-per-click.

Have a quick question about PPC? Ask it or type it in the comments section below or just let us know if this article provide you insight.