I recently went to meet with a potential client and after some extensive conversation to find out how I could use social media to grow her business we got to the part of the conversation where we needed to discuss the budget. She shared with me that she had a very small budget to work with. After more conversation, it became obvious she had spent the majority of her allotted monies on a prior company who had over-promised and under-delivered. In addition, they were continuing to charge her for things she didn’t really need.

This kind of experience is unfortunately far too common and it’s not the first time I’ve experienced it and I’m certain it won't be the last. Choosing a marketing professional isn’t something that should be taken lightly and not everyone is a great fit for each other. When finding the professional that’s right for you there are a few things to consider.

Make sure to do your homework on each person you meet with or interview. Even if they are not consistently active, do they have social media accounts with a decent following? Does the content they’ve posted make sense? Do they have a presence on the channels they are claiming to have knowledge of? These are often good indicators of your professional knowledge on the industry.

Secondly, don’t feel pressured to make a decision after the first meeting. Once you receive your initial proposal take another meeting to ask questions or obtain more details about the services you will be receiving if anything remains unclear.

Meet with more than one company and compare pricing and services. Most proposals are confidential so you shouldn’t share information from the company to the company but you are allowed to know what will work best for you. Paying a high price for something doesn’t always mean great results and paying less for something doesn’t mean you’re getting poor service- quality versus quantity.

It comes down to knowing your own business and finding a professional who you think has a clear understanding of what your business wants, goals, and needs are. If you’re a small business with a very specific target market you may need to spend more than a business that has a broad demographic simply to make sure you’re properly reaching your clientele.

To schedule a meeting or phone call and discuss your businesses digital marketing needs email me at marketingwmel@gmail.com

What this change means for consumers:

Consumers may begin to feel overwhelmed and shy away from following brands on EVERY platform. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube, it can all begin to be an overload of info and a consumer is typically seeking out a certain type of content from a brand whether it be articles, videos, or photos. When they can access video and photo from their favorite brand in one place they have less of a need to access the information from an additional platform.

What this change means for brands:

Brands may see a shift in their viewership on Snapchat. My suggestion for brands looking to see where their audience is would be do both starting out and see which gets the most interaction. There’s no sense in continuing to put effort into Snapchat if you see your followers are no longer there. At the end of the day it’s about knowing your audience and what they want and how you can best accommodate them.

My thoughts:

Consumers will continue to use Snapchat to stay updated on the lives of friends, family and celebrities. Instagram adding this feature is HUGE for brands and may cause brands to gravitate towards solely using that platform and neglecting Snapchat. Additionally, Instagram now includes analytics on business accounts allowing brands to track data that Snapchat does not have available which is an add value. Only time will tell!