Marc Hausman

An interesting blog post by Marc Hausman of Strategic Communications Group got me to thinking. In his post he admits that one of their social media campaigns is not delivering on all 8-cylinders for their client. Although results are far ahead of expectations when it comes to creating awareness and positioning they fell far short of expectations in generating leads.

Exploiting one of the primary advantages social media affords companies, it’s adaptability, Marc’s firm has decided to add a Webinar into the mix in an effort to communicate more formally with the social media “audience” they’ve established. Trying to convert Webinar attendees into actual prospects is a far cry easier than herding the cats roaming across social networks, the twitter-verse, and elsewhere online. It’s a great idea.

Marc went on to explain that clients want and expect measurable “results” from their investment in social media. I don’t blame them for trying. The problem is in setting realistic expectations. I don’t believe anyone can predict how valuable engaging with clients and strangers on social media platforms will ultimately be for any given company.

Communicating via social media is akin to “being there”. By that I mean the same “being there” that you experience when attending a conference, trade show, or professional networking event. There must be great value in “being there” or no one would invest the time and money it requires to attend these offline networking opportunities. We’ve all heard the phrase, “it only takes one new client…”.

So my advice to Marc’s clients is to be patient with efforts to position your firm as one that is an industry leader and active member of the community. As long as you are doing no harm, keeping your investment within your comfort range, and continuing to see growth in connections, subscribers, attendees, etc…, it should prove to be a better investment than any traditional form of media can deliver.

Marc’s blog: Strategic Guy

Follow Marc on Twitter: @StrategicGuy