Online Marketing Agency – No Social Media?
October 2019 UPDATE: Out of the Box Innovations was registered in August 2015. This article was written in July 2017 to explain why we didn’t create any social media pages for our business. Now, in October 2019 we’ve set up new LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts. Here’s the quick answer as to why:
LinkedIn: Much of our prospective audience chooses LinkedIn to spend a lot of time online. Our networking and outreach efforts are starting to bear fruit there. It’s convenient for people who want to find out more about us to do it on the LinkedIn platform. They’re more likely to explore us there than take the time to search for our home site. If a social media network is working, spend more time on it!
Facebook: We’re in the process of creating a new service for our clients – Managed AI Chatbots! We’ve created the first couple in beta mode and will be adding one here soon. We’ve chosen Messenger based bots, to begin with, and will add other integrations over time. We need a company FB account to connect a messenger bot.
Twitter: Since we’re going to get more active on LinkedIn and Facebook, we may as well add Twitter, since many of our posts will get posted from a social media management dashboard. We see possible growth and collaboration opportunity on Twitter, so we can be in the third most important online ecosystem for our niche.
We’re leaving the original explanation below as to why we chose not to create social media pages earlier. Partly for posterity, to track our journey, but mainly because this page gets visitors who are in the same dilemma as to whether they need social media pages.
Why don’t we have our own social media pages?
Hi, this is Jason, the Founder of OOTBI. You might wonder why the connected Twitter and LinkedIn links at the bottom of this page, go to my profiles, not an Out of the Box Innovations company page? Surely every company needs social media pages – don’t they? How can we offer social media management as a service, when we’re not doing that ourselves?
This post will go over the reasons why we’ve decided to avoid having social media community or fan pages. Hopefully, you’ll understand our position, and perhaps it might help you in your business. While we may create some company pages later, for the time being, we see it as a net negative.
Here are the reason why:
Most of our client business is transient
Once we’ve created a new website for an oil and gas company or got a local solar installer to page 1 of Google, our job gets temporarily done. How many decision-makers in energy companies want to follow an internet marketing blog? Not many.
Our regular clients don’t want to learn how to do what we do
That’s why they’re paying us! They come to us to complete a contract, to their satisfaction (for a great price). They don’t want to know the ins and outs of SEO or web design.
Do you follow the Facebook page of your local dentist, to keep up on dentistry? Do you spend hours chatting on Twitter to the people who helped you to move house? Unlikely. For formal business arrangements, why follow on social media?
We’re too busy working on YOUR social media pages
Just like a skilled mechanic who drives an old car, we always put our clients needs first. There aren’t enough hours in the day to allocate some to what is a very labour intensive activity.
One day, we might have extra human resources and revisit the idea of running another bunch of social media pages. At that time, there are likely to be better avenues to deploy our additional capacity.
In the energy industry, people prefer to interact with people
Every industry is different, and then the same applies to each sub-sector too. We’ve noticed that oil and gas and energy workers are quite active on LinkedIn. They chat to each other though, and most company pages ought to have a background image of crickets or tumbleweeds!
If you came to us for a social media campaign, we’d look very carefully into whether it was even worth it for you. Again, it depends on what you do and for whom you do it. The most significant industry players have active social media pages because of the sheer numbers of people who know of them.
For most of the SMEs that we deal with, a paid & well-targeted social media advertising campaign might produce a high ROI. A fan page or a community page? Not so much.
Inviting you to connect with me personally is more appropriate
The majority of our clients work with us on a contractual basis and want the result, that’s it. A portion will become friends, and I welcome new connections. I receive direct messages through the social media channels for which my clients (and friends) have a preference.
Also, when someone is looking for an online agency, they want to know who’s behind the company and whether they’re accessible. You can connect with me, and message me through email, LinkedIn, Twitter or Skype. This strategy means that you always have access to the person ultimately responsible for the contract that you enter into with OOTBI.
So, does this answer your question?
Out of the Box Innovations is very important to me, and so are my clients. A personal relationship is welcomed, but not the most crucial aspect of what we set out to achieve. I am, and I always plan to be the face of the company and be extremely accessible and accountable to you.
If you want to connect, with me, scroll to the bottom of the page, and there are some links.
Cheers,
Jason
