April « 2009 « FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

40 Ways to Take Your Ad Agency’s Blog to the Next Level

April 30, 2009

As important as it was for your ad agency to have a website, it is now equally important that your agency have a blog. A blog is the gateway to your agency.

Many agencies have a blog to be able to say, “yes, we have an agency blog.” But their blog’s content is all over the place. No focus, no target, no purpose and therefore no traffic.

Here are 40 ways to help take your agency’s blog to the next level:

Make your target audience crystal clear.
Build a community that keeps coming back for helpful, relevant content.
Consistently deliver original content.
Be personal and conversational in your tone. This isn’t an academic exercise.
Post consistently but don’t post just to post. Make sure your material is worth the read.
Asks questions, enlist feedback. You’ll build a loyal audience if they can contribute.
Get your own unique URL. This is critical if you are on a site such as WordPress.com, Typepad or Blogger and you decided to change platforms.
Have a clean layout that highlights your content, not a bunch of sidebar widgets.
Highlight your best posts based upon your blog’s analytics, with a Best Of or Most Popular Posts page.
Have a “cornerstone” post that is a summation of your blogs purpose, your point of differentiation, your stake in the sand.
Start out with WordPress.com, an easy platform to upgrade from without dependency upon someone from your IT department and allows you to concentrate on the most important part of your blog, the writing.
Dominate a few key words that your target audience will most likely use to find you.
Your blog’s design and layout should be configured for SEO.
Get in the habit of checking your blogs analytics frequently. Keep it simple, but know at least daily the number of unique visitors, page views, top posts, how people got to your blog, search terms and incoming links.
Provide links to and from your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.
Include your blog address on your business cards as well as your email signature.
Allow your blog to become the “gateway” to your agency.
Become the face of your agency. We are in a relationship business. Your blog should be your central platform for online engagement with your prospective client audience. People want to work with people they know, like and trust.
You don’t have to be naked but be transparent.
Repurpose your blogs content using Twitter and Twitter tools such as Tweetlater.
At the bottom of a post provide “Additional articles that may be of interest” and have a bullet pointed list of relevant articles as a convenience to your audience.
State the purpose of your blog in the header. Don’t force people to have to dig to find out what your blog is about because most often times they wont!
Don’t sell! The moment you start to sell on your blog is when you will most likely lose your audience.
Show that you have a genuine compassion for your audience and a willingness to help with their marketing challenges and obstacles by “giving away your thinking.”
Always lead with “the nugget, the takeaway” of the post. Use an inverted pyramid newspaper style of writing.
Identify who your audience is in your post titles. This is especially helpful when you repurpose your content on Twitter and an important part of SEO for your blog.
Always take the time to link when writing about another person, company post or website.
People reading differently online so write for “scan-ability.”
Have a disciplined, organized, strategic approach to your online reading by using an RSS Reader. I recommend using Google Reader. Stay committed to it until you get through the awkward stage.
If you are using WordPress.com, in the Tool Section of your Dashboard add “PressThis” button to your browser bar. It will simplify adding new material to a draft that you can later turn into a posts.
If you are referencing resource material that isn’t specific to your target audience, in your intro paragraph “bridge the gap” so that they understand how it is relevant to them.
Take time to develop your post titles. Great titles will generate traffic.
Mix up your blog with occasional videos, podcast interviews, write something more personal that your audience might not know about you.
Include search tool at the top of your blogs side bar to make it easier for your audience to find content.
Be sure and list your blog site on Google, Yahoo and Technorati.
Include your blog feed in your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
Make it easy for people to contact you.
Encourage dialogue, feedback and engage your with audience. Allow for differing points of view. Remember to, “do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”
Comment on the well known blogs that your prospective audience are reading. This will help generate interests and traffic back to your blog.
Make sure your blog’s URL is on all of your other social platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Provide your thoughts and additions to this initial list. Also, please feel free to asks questions.

Additional articles that may be of interest:

57 Comments | New Business Tips, Social Media | Tagged: agency blog, Blogs I Recommend, Michael Gass, midsize ad agencies, small ad agencies | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Do you buy or build your ad agency’s new business database?

April 29, 2009

A recent survey reveals that only 34 of advertising agencies and 57% of all other marketing services companies understand how to implement a proactive new business program. A key to any new business program is prospective client database.

This is a guest post written by Todd Knutson, CEO of The List, a leading provider of prospecting information on corporate marketing, advertising decision makers and a sponsor of FUEL LINES. Todd has extensive experience in new business development, particularly for ad agencies.

Many ad agencies and marketing services companies expect their new business director to build their own marketing and sales database. Is this a smart business decision?

I remember speaking with, Jeff, a twenty-something new business guy. Jeff was a new employee at a well-known regional ad agency. His management team had given him a group of industry categories that they wanted him to pursue, and had charged him with identifying likely companies and people he should talk to.

So, he called my company, The List about purchasing a customized database of corporate marketers that fit their criteria. Jeff determined that he could purchase exactly what his agency needed for only about $3,500 and have it in 24 hours. He said he’d call back with his president’s approval.

A few days later, I called Jeff and learned that his president told him it was his job to build the database. I told him I’d call back in 6 months to hear how he was doing.

Right on schedule, I called Jeff 6 months later. Not surprisingly, he had just been fired for not generating any new business. Why? Because he’d spent the entire time building the database (at the request of his president).

Let’s do some simple math: Assume Jeff was paid $50,000 a year. Add in benefits and his total annual cost was probably close to $60,000. So, over 6 months this regional agency spent $30,000 building a new business database they never used.

Think of the losers in this equation: Jeff is out of a job; the agency lost 6 months of potential revenue; and, the management team is disheartened about the “failure” of their new business effort.

This is a common mistake made by ad agencies and other marketing services companies that illustrates the fallacy and drawbacks of building instead of buying. I encourage readers to do the math to avoid making the same mistake.

Ask these 5 questions to help determine the quality and applicability of your new business database:

How frequently do you call and verify the accuracy of each contact in your database? If you hear 6 or 12 months, given turnover in corporate America, you have to question the veracity of what you’re buying.
How many companies can I access that spend more than $____ (fill in your minimum) per year on marketing services? If how much your potential clients spend on marketing is important to you, be sure that the resource you buy provides a number that tells you approximately how much it is (no one knows a company’s marketing budget, so media spend is usually the surrogate).
How many (marketing) contacts do you have at the companies that matter to me? Too often, you purchase contacts that aren’t important to you. If you need marketing, brand, media, or C-level contacts, be sure your chosen resource has them in the quantity you require.
What contact information do you provide? Do you need mailing address, direct dials, main phone numbers, email addresses? Be sure they have what you need.

3 Comments | New Business Tips, New Business Tools | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, database, prospect lists, The List, Todd Knutson | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

35 Ad Agency Blogs, Vote for Your Favorite for April

April 26, 2009

It’s time for you to vote for your favorite agency blog for the month of April. 35 ad agency blogs have been submitted to FUEL LINES. The winner will be featured on FUEL LINES throughout the month of May.

These are the ad agency blogs submitted for the month of April:

A Ride Uptown, Mascola/Group, New Haven, CT

B&A blog, Columbus, OH

BINGenuity, Bing Design, Yellow Springs, OH

Blip, Martino Flynn agency, Rochester, NY

Blue Collar Branding, Locomotion Creative, Nashville, TN

Bolin Digital Blog, Bolin Marketing, Minneapolis, MN

Brains on Fire Blog, Greenville, SC

Brunner Digital Blog, Brunner Digital, Pittsburg, PA

Contact Media Blog, Contact Media, Tampa, FL

Creating A Brighter Shade of Green Marketing, Park&Co Phoenix, AZ

Cure for Common Marketing, Jackson-Dawson Marketing Solutions, Greenville, SC

Demi & Cooper Advertising blog, Elgin, IL

Design Buzz, Design Matters Creative Group, Lake Forest, CA

Direct Dispatch, Haggin Marketing, Mill Valley, CA

Fluid Studio’s Big Idea Blog, Bountiful, UT

Free Advertising Candy, EVOK Advertising, Lake Mary, FL

Healthy Conversations, Trajectory, Morristown, NJ

Karasma Media blog, Harlem, NY

Koroberi agency blog, Chapel Hill, NC

ID-ology blog, ID Branding, Portland, OR

Mind Finds, KJA Communications Group, Alexandria, LA

MLT Creative blog, Atlanta, GA

New Ideas, The New Group, Portland, OR

Paramore | Redd blog, Nashville, TN

Razor Branding, The Russo Group, Lafayette, LA

Redpepper blog, Nashville, TN

The Creative Department blog, Cincinnati, OH

She-conomy, Holland + Holland, Birmingham, AL

Silver Square blog, Silver Square agency, Fishers, IN

SPURspectives, Spur Communications, Overland Park, KS

Stream of Consciousness, True Creek agency, Alexandria, VA

Tidbits Blog, The Yaffe Group, Southfield, MI

Underground Blog, The Creative Underground, Boca Raton, FL

VBP Out Sourcing, Glen Burnie, MD

WOMENK!ND , Womenkind agency, New York, NY

1 Comment | Social Media | Tagged: 28. The Creative Department blog, ad agency blog, B & A blog, Bing Design, Bolin Marketing, Brunner Digital, Contact Media, Demi & Cooper, Design Matters Creative Group, EVOK Advertising, Fluid Studio, Glen Burnie, Haggin Marketing, Holland + Holland, ID Branding, Jackson Dawson Marketing Solutions, Karasma media, KJA Communications, Locomotion Creative, Martino Flynn agency, Mascola Group, MLT Creative, Paramore Redd, Park & Company, Razor Branding, Redpepper, Silver Square agency, Spur Communications, The Creative Underground, Trajectory, True Creek agency, Womenkind agency | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Ad agencies should rise to the challenges of this new social media era

April 23, 2009

The cost of your education is going to be great but if you don’t invest in your education now it will be costlier later.

Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWork, an award winning PR and New Media agency is one of those emerging new leaders. Encouraging his industry to arise to the challenges of this new era. Brian recently wrote,

“Media is experiencing a textbook Darwinian definition of survival of the fittest … Media will re-emerge as a more dynamic, nimble, and innovative medium.

In the era of Socialized Media, relationships are the new currency and participation and collaboration are emerging as the new information exchange.

Mainstay brands will persevere, but the cost of their education to learn how to compete for the future will be great. Some will wait until it’s too late only to awaken to a daunting challenge of creating and earning presence and relevance in a new economy.

Times are definitely changing and the mood of a large number of small and midsize agencies is somberness instead of an excitement for this new media revolution. They haven’t kept up with the changes and find themselves behind in by a lack of knowledge of social media and how to use it correctly for themselves and for their clients.

My encouragement is to get involved now. Experience it for yourself to know the many great opportunities it provides. Learn the use of new media to engage your prospective client community. It takes time and effort to have a working understanding of this new technology, but you will be amazed at how quickly it will provide benefits to your agency and allow you to utilize these new tools for your clients. Experience truly is the best teacher.

1 Comment | New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, Brian Solis, FutureWork, new media agency, PR agency, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

5 Reasons Ad Agencies Have Problems Creating Online Communities

April 21, 2009

Social media teaches ad agencies to do new business the right way, the way they should have been doing it all along.

I owe Mack Collier, author of the blog, The Viral Garden, for the inspiration for this post. He provides some straight talk regarding the lack of growth to individual and company online communities.

Many ad agencies also struggle with building an online community. I’ve discovered a number that have the attitude that “if I build it, they will come” but that isn’t the case. There is a lot of work involved to generate traffic to an online community of your best prospective clients.

Below are five reasons ad agencies have or will have problems building their online communities:

1. You are thinking of income first (and your prospective clients aren’t dumb, they can sense it)

Many agency principals are anxious to sell. Generating income for their agency first and foremost in their minds before paying their dues and earning their way with social media.

We are in a business where relationships are important. People want to work with people they know, like and trust. I’m a strong advocate that an agency can build and sustain a pipeline of new business leads for their agency through social media, but it must be done the right way, with the right motive and with genuine transparency to be effective. Social media can show you how. Be a friend first.

2. A lack of value/benefit to your audience.

Your audience will be your judge and jury as to whether you have an appealing position, post titles that spur interest, content that is beneficial.

You can’t blame your audience if they don’t respond! It’s your responsibility to figure out what is appealing and what isn’t. You have plenty of tools in social media to provide you the information just use them!

You will need to dig deeper to figure out how you can best be of value and benefit to them. Remember, you will cannot be of value if you are constantly leading with your agency’s capabilities, accomplishments and awards. It’s not about you or your agency it’s about them.

3. You are waiting around for your audience to find you

My blog is well optimized for my target audience. For the key words they would use to find my blog as a resource I have dominated the first two pages of Google. But search comes in a distant third generating traffic to my site.

I generate the most traffic from the use of repurposing my blog posts and my networks through Twitter.

Secondly from my email newsletter and a opt-in strategy for sign-ups. I also will receive a good bit of traffic through my comments on popular blog sites. The point being, I not sat around waiting to generate traffic to my blog through search. I’ve been proactive in reaching out into a number of online communities where my target audience resides.

4. Lack of appreciation for those that are helping promote you

There are scores of people that are willing to be of help to you online but they’ll be quickly turned off if you don’t show appreciation. Your agency’s credibility rests upon what others are saying about you. Be sure to show your love to those who go out of their way to promote your services. Also be willing to reciprocate.

5. You could care less about the prospective audience you are trying to reach.

Matt really hit the nail on the head when when he wrote this point about the reason why many companies and individuals are having a problem building their online community,

“You don’t give a damn about the people you are trying to reach.”

Matt said it first and I totally agree, “The key to successfully building an online community is to genuinely care about the people that you want to reach.”

If all you want out of social media is to make money then social media is not for you. Don’t waste your time and effort.

But, if you are willing to be transparent, open, honest and caring then social media can teach your agency how to do new business development the right way. The way we should have been doing it all along.

Take the time to read Matt’s post: Six reasons why no one likes you online

“You really do have to CARE about the people that you want to reach,” he writes. “If you don’t, and instead view your potential community as a group of people to monetize, then your efforts are doomed from the start.”

16 Comments | Social Media | Tagged: ad agency principal, agency business development, Blogs I Recommend, Mack Collier, Michael Gass, online communities, The Viral Garden | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

14 Tips for Creating An Agency Blog for New Business

April 15, 2009

To keep your ad agency’s new business pipeline full, create an agency blog.

I’ve shared often that the “gateway” to your agency is shifting away from the agency website (static, online brochure) to an agency blog. As important as it was to have an agency website it is now as important to have an agency blog.

Benefits for creating an agency blog:

Is better designed for SEO
Provides more “benefit” to your prospective client audience
Gives your audience a reason to come back frequently
Is a platform for dialogue and rich feedback from your audience
Generates new business leads for your agency

Here are 14 tips and recommendations for how to get started include:

Use the WordPress.com blog platform. It is easy to use. You don’t have to involve your IT Department or initially anyone from Creative. Keep the process simple. To begin just concentrate on doing two things: reading and writing. Content trumps everything.
Own your URL. WordPress is a free service but they do charge $10 to allow you to use your own URL. It is a necessity to own your URL. It will allow you to change blog platforms in the future without losing your traffic.
Identify your audience. One of the most critical questions to answer, “who am I writing to?” Your blog will have no focus and you wont be able to generate traffic without choosing an audience. Think “narrow and deep” rather than “wide and shallow.” The blog She-conomy states clearly that it is “A Guys Guide to Marketing to Women.” The audience is male advertisers who should be marketing to women.
Create the subtitle for your blog before your blog title. The subtitle should be your “descriptor” that states clearly what your blog is about. Mine is “Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media.” The descriptor statement is more important than your blog’s title so create one that is crystal clear.
Choose a blog title that is differentiating. One agency received little attention and traffic with their Brand Tracks blog. A closer introspection the agency president said, “we’re all about boots, bowling balls and boats. When you look at the brands that are the best fit for us its almost all blue collar. Thus he came up with a blog title and emphasis for “Blue Collar Branding” which is receiving much more attention and traffic because it is differentiating. Will Tiffany’s ever call on this agency? No, but they weren’t going to call in the first place.
Identify the categories that you will be writing to. This provides an outline for your blog and will help you to stay focused. I would suggest keeping them around 10 to 12 instead of a large number.
Prominently provide a way for your readers to subscribe to your blog. Place it toward the top, above the fold in your sidebar.
Use your photo as a logo. Keep it consistent, not only for your blog but across all other social media platforms (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.).
Get in the habit of publishing a post 5 days a week, Monday through Friday. These can even be written and a publish date and time preselected.
Repurpose your blog’s content through an email newsletter that highlights the posts that are trending higher in traffic. This simplifies the creation of a newsletter which helps you to be consistent. Also repurpose posts through Twitter and tools such as Tweetlater. These things will also greatly increase your blog’s traffic and traffic generates new business opportunities for your agency.
Write your posts the way people read online. They usually don’t start reading a posts word-for-word, they tend to scan. Make your posts scan-able.
Lead with the “nugget” the “benefit.” The inverted pyramid style of writing that copywriters use. Peoples attention span and patience for online reading is much shorter than print.
Agency principals should have a prominent role writing for the agency’s blog. They are the consistent face of the agency and particularly for the small-to mid-sized ad agencies prospective clients want to know you. People always want to work with people they know, like and trust. An agency blog provides a great way to introduce yourself to them.
Create a list of keywords your audience is most likely to use to find your blog. Check these keywords with Google’s Key Word Tool. Select the words or phrase that you should try and dominate in search.

Leave a Comment » | Agency Blogs, New Business Tips, Social Media | Tagged: ad agency blog, Michael Gass, midsize ad agencies, new business pipeline, small ad agencies | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Design Your Ad Agency’s Website for New Business

April 10, 2009

An excellent example of an ad agency’s website designed for new business with their audience in mind.

I really believe that a lot of advertising agencies are designing their promotional materials and websites with other agencies in mind rather than designing it for their prospective audience. I could possibly be wrong but that is my perception.

For instance, even though we know that most of our audience dislikes a flash intro and the majority will skip it, agencies are still intent on including it as part of their website design. I don’t get it.

I review dozens of ad agency websites weekly. I recently came across an agency’s redesigned website that greatly impressed me. It was clear to me that it was designed for their audience without fear of another agency’s critique.

off-madison-ave

Why do I like this agency website design so much? My answers are strictly from a new business perspective:

It’s very clean, easy to read
It’s interactive and provides are reason to come back more often
Agency information is very easy to find
It includes a call to action for continual engagement with their audience through their email newsletter
It demonstrates experience with social media and provides easy links to make connections and build relationships with their audience
This site does a better job than most leading with benefits instead of capabilities
Their list of agency services is very succinct. They weren’t trying to check “all” the boxes of agency experience
Ways to contact the agency was easy to locate. You’d be amazed at how hard it is to find this info on other agency sites
The ‘contact’ tab at the top requesting more info was thoughtful. I even filled it out. I wasn’t surprised that they were monitoring it well and I received a personalized contact back shortly after sending it

The Off Madison Ave is an early adopter of both digital and social media. I’m told that they are generating at least five new inbound new business leads daily through their web presence and through social.

To review their site go to : http://www.offmadisonave.com

And just for the record, Off Madison Ave has never been a client, so I’m completely unbiased in my praise.

Also of interest, some advertising agency blog sites that are differentiating to appeal to particular target audiences:

10 Comments | New Business Tips, New Business Tools | Tagged: ad agency critique, ad agency websites, Blogs I Recommend, off madison ave | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Edward Boches, CCO for the Mullen Agency: What Twitter Can Do For You

April 7, 2009

Warning: Twitter doesn’t come with instructions.

It would be helpful if it did. But people continue to find a multitude of creative uses for Twitter. One of those persons, from the advertising agency side is Edward Boches.

I met Edward Boches through Twitter. Edward is the Chief Creative Officer for the Mullen agency. He recently wrote a great piece for AdWeek about Twitter that was released today. In it he says,

“Whenever I start a conversation about Twitter with someone who doesn’t use it — or who tried it, but never got beyond the inane act of twittering some insignificant detail of his daily life — I get eye rolls, throat clearing and other signals that suggest I should change the subject.

But if I start a conversation about Twitter with someone who has taken the time to use it, I get the exact opposite response: an instant conversation about fresh ideas, emerging thought leaders, newly revealed content and trends in social media that comes at me faster than an overcrowded chat room.“

Edward goes on to share five of the benefits that Twitter has given him:

Instant access to thought leaders
An opportunity to experience crowd sourcing in action
A new way to connect with Millennials
The first hand experience needed to become an authority
A better understanding of how to weave together all things social

You can click on this link to read Edward’s article: What Can Twitter Do For You? Also follow Edward on Twitter: http://twitter.com/edwardboches

Reading Edward’s piece caused me to reflect upon my own journey using Twitter. My perspective is a bit different than his because my main objective is helping ad agencies with their new business using social media.

Here are some of the new business benefits that I’ve found through the use of Twitter:

A tremendous networking tool that initiated friendships with dozens of people on a global scale. Chances are I wouldn’t have met these people otherwise. So thank you Twitter!
A way to introduce new people to my blog’s content. Twitter generates more new traffic to FUEL LINES than any other tool. As Twitter grows, my followers on Twitter grows and my blog traffic explodes.
Instant feedback and insight. I’ve introduced concepts, messages and posts through Twitter and am provided instant feedback. I’m also able to easily create polls and surveys on a variety of subjects that I’m researching.
The ability to generate communications quickly. I’m able to propagate information at lightening speed through Twitter. I sent a direct message to followers yesterday with a direct link to some new research and had over 700 click-throughs within minutes.

Those are just a few of mine. What has Twitter done for you? Feel free to share them in the comment section below.

54 Comments | Social Media | Tagged: ad agency, creative officer, Edward Boches, midsize ad agency, Millennials, Mullen, small ad agency, Social Media, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Fueling Advertising Agency New Business Through Social Media

April 3, 2009

I want to set an example of practicing what I preach. My new business model is simple: I am an active participant in social media and use the tools that I recommend you use to generate new business for your agency. Hopefully you will be able to do the same for your clients.

Social media “teaches” ad agencies to do new business the way they should have been doing it all along:

Identifying a target audience
Leading with the “benefits” to your target audience rather than agency capabilities
Developing a differentiating appeal that resonates with your target audience
Establishing relationships first. Ours is a relationship business. People want to work with people they know, trust and like

Social media is networking on steroids.

For you as an agency principal to “get” social media you have to be a participant. I know you probably already feel that you have enough on your plate and you will never be consistent. Just understand that in reality all you will need to do is two things. And they are the two things you should be doing irregardless:

Online reading (a systematic, organized and pinpointed reading program to keep you ahead of the curve)
Writing (Greatly improving your communications skills to clients. Learning the language that resonates with your prospective client audience and learn appeals to them)

The great advantage of social media for agency new business is that it allows you to accomplish a number of things at the same time that are of great benefit to you and your agency:

Professional enrichment. A systematic way to stay ahead of your clients and provide leadership. Clients want leadership not partnership. It is possible for you to know better than your clients how they should go to market.
Hone your communication skills. You don’t know what you know till you write it down.
Networking. Social media is networking on steroids. You can reach and engage so many more people on a daily basis through social than you ever could in person.
Organic search. SEO is a huge plus from the use of social media.
Feedback from your target audience. They are your ultimate judge and jury. They’ll let you know what is appealing and what isn’t. It’s your job to figure it out.
Relationship building. It is just natural for people to want to work with people that they know, trust and like. The transparency that is a big part of social media allows you to build more relationships without geographic limitations.
Repurpose your content. Your blog posts for instance have a long, long shelf life. You can reuse that content in email newsletters, Twitter, Facebook, press releases, article marketing, white papers, ebooks, slideshare, just to name a few. The time that goes into one post is magnified dozens of times over.
Drive traffic. I’ve found that as optimized as my blog is for search I’m able to drive targeted traffic to my blog site using tools email newsletters, Twitter and other social platforms.
Improve your outreach. If you can’t measure it you can’t improve it. Social media is more measurable than traditional media.
Consistency. No new business program will work unless it is consistent. Social media allows you to “maintain” a new business program even when your agency is at its busiest. The many benefits of social make it prime important to you and to your agency and also to your clients and thus easier to maintain.

This all sounds like a lot of activity but again all an agency principal needs to do to make this happen is read and write.

Use Google reader to organize your online reading habits and write for your agency’s blog, anywhere from three to five posts per week. Junior level staff or even interns can be easily trained to repurpose your content across a number of social media channels.

As important as your website was for your agency it is now more important to have an agency blog.

The blog is the gateway to your agency and your website has become your agency’s online brochure. A blog should be your agency’s central platform for all of you social media activity.

I thought you might like to see a break down of my analytics for the month of March, plus some from this past year, to better see how social media is working for me:

It’s been a “March Madness” for FUEL LINES. A number of records were set:

25,712 page views for the month
99,946 page views for past 12 months
2,787 page views, March 25, for busiest day ever
824 votes for blog of the month

Page Views By Month

15 – March 2008 (changed blog platforms from Blogger to WordPress)
123 – April
1,150 – May
1,483 – June
2,995 – July
3,817 – August
5,170 – September
7,829 – October
9,506 – November
8.478 – December
15,554 – January 2009
17,241 – February
25,712 – March

FUEL LINES Top 5 Posts for March:

Total page views over the past 13 months (March 2008 thru March 2009) = 99,406. I now have over 292 blog posts that I’ve been able to repurpose through other social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, email newsletters and white papers.

I hope that I’ve been able to set a good example. It takes some work to stay out front of your clients but that is where you should be, in a leadership position.

A position of leadership is the best position to be in to gain the right kind of new business for your agency.

I welcome your questions. Please feel free to share your insights and suggestions for ways that I can continue to improve and to be a better help in the future.

Thanks for reading and thank you for your feedback.

2 Comments | Social Media | Tagged: Blogs I Recommend, Michael Gass, networking, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Facebook: An Important Tool For Ad Agency New Business

April 2, 2009

With all the excitement and popularity of Twitter, agencies need to remember Facebook as a tool for new business.

The number one reason to have a Facebook page. Facebook is the largest social network in the world with some 200 million subscribers. More people can find out about your agency because your Page gets indexed and is searchable inside and outside of Facebook.

Facebook Quick Facts:

Over 200 million active members.

Predicted to be at 500 million by 2011

The 5th most trafficked website in the world.

The largest photo-sharing platform with over 30 million photos are uploaded per day

It’s hard to believe that Facebook was just started in February of 2004. It will continue to have amazing growth and dominance for the foreseeable future and can be an important component to your agency’s new business.

From Facebook:

Establish an interactive presence on Facebook.

Every Facebook Page is a unique experience where users can become more deeply connected with your business or brand. Users can express their support by adding themselves as a fan, writing on your Wall, uploading photos, and joining other fans in discussion groups. You can send updates to your fans regularly — or just with special news or offers. Add applications to your Page and engage your users with videos, reviews, flash content, and more. Creating a Facebook Page is easy, free, and great for all types of businesses.

Facebook guru, Mari Smith, author of “Why Facebook?” advises,

“The CORRECT way to register an account on Facebook is in your personal name.
On Facebook, Profiles Are Personal. Pages are for business.FACEBOOK PROFILES are for your own personal account in your first and last name. In order to represent your business (agency) on its own “profile” in Facebook, you must set up a FACEBOOK PAGE.”