We embarked on a social media marketing campaign for one of our mid-sized corporate clients three months ago. It has been an unqualified success, beyond what the client had dared to hope. They’ve enjoyed an over 150% increase in traffic to their website, and by analyzing their logfiles we see a direct correlation of their spikes in traffic with our efforts.
This is only phase one, mind you- a small pilot program. But this pilot program has been successful enough that the client is now getting ready to make our program a regular part of their digital marketing mix.
A lot of people contact us after they’ve read an article in the Wall Street Journal or USA Today, wanting to discuss social media, Web 2.0, and how it can help their business. We’re always happy to talk with potential clients, but we’ve found there are a few things a prospective client needs to understand.
Here’s a few of them:
- Your product or service needs to be good. Don’t kid yourself, if your product sucks all a campaign like this will do is get the word out faster that you’re lame.
- You need to let people talk. They’re already talking about you, and you need to accept that. If you try to stifle their voices, you’ll lose. Openness is key.
- You need to trust, and give some time for your campaign to work. This isn’t a one-shot deal, here. This kind of work builds upon itself, and needs the freedom and funds to succeed.
Done right, a social media marketing campaign can be the best money your company can spend. It takes guts to get involved, but no guts = no glory.
