It’s happened to the best of us. We invite a sales consultant into our office and have them demonstrate a product or service for us. They whip out a binder or slide-deck of compelling information and data points. Their voice whistles along as they speak about the features and benefits. You are hooked. Then you ask the fateful question. “So how much does something like that cost?”

Consultants many times answer this question with “It depends”. I tend to lean towards full disclosure. While I am not the first to disclose what a Community Manager makes, I may be the first to disclose the costs involved in social media in comparison with other forms of traditional media.

I tell companies that I usually charge $499 to setup a blog site, tuned for the search engines, loaded with features and set to effectively market their product. This blog also allows them the ability to update their own content.

“Well.. I don’t have time to write my own content” is the next thing that my clients usually say. OK, I can create unique, creative content to build your brand for between $200 and $300 per month.

$499 one time.
$250/mos.
Total first year investment: $3,499

Once presented with the initial years expense many owners will balk at the price stating that they cannot commit that sort of funding to this type of marketing. So, I then set off to find out what these businesses were spending on other sorts of media advertising.

• 10 day radio spot on one station in a medium sized market: $10,000-$15,000

• Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising: $3,500 per month
  • Total first year investment for ONE PPC campaign: $42,000

• Billboard cost: $1,000 and $2,500 per month
  • Total first year investment for ONE billboard ad: $12,000-$30,000

• Direct postcard mailing to 10,000 households: $3,800 one time
  • Total first year investment to send out 4 postcards per year: $15,200

• Yellow Pages 1 inch listing: $30-175 per month
  • Total first year investment for ONE Yellow Pages 1 inch listing: $360-$2,100

• Two magnetic signs for your car/truck: $300 one time cost

• Pack of 1,000 business cards: $50 one time cost

As you can see, my social media rates sit somewhere between  the 1 inch advertisement in the yellow pages and sending out 10,000 post cards 4 times a year. Available 7x24x365 social media is a very affordable form of advertising. And unlike the yellow pages or post cards, your customer distribution grows exponentially for free. Say 1000 people look at your blog in the first month. 3,000 in the third, and so on and so on. Very quickly you find that you have exceeded the distribution targets of both the yellow pages and direct mail campaigns.

Now that I have fully enraged Community Managers everywhere by revealing my Social Media pricing, I have to throw out a few caveats.

• First, I am a full-time blogger and can handle multiple campaigns at once. We buy in bulk and pass the savings on to you!
• Second, I live in the Midwest so I don’t have the overhead my friends on the coasts do.
• Third, while my rates demonstrate my average blogging and SM consulting fees, I do have several customers with complex needs who pay significantly higher rates.

Again I have to ask.. Are you paying too much for your Social Media campaign?
Is it slurping up cash like a freight train? Does it keep you from paying your utility bill or from sleeping at night? Then yes.. you are probably paying too much, but overall social media has demonstrated that it can be highly effective at reaching more people who are better targets for your advertising dollars with a higher propensity to buy. Think higher conversion. Think Socially.

This morning I had the opportunity to meet with Bridget Oaks at Panera Bread (at the Greene).We chatted a bit about business incubation and the poor labor market in the Dayton region. Both Bridget and I have a strong desire to help make the Dayton Area a happening place. However, we both recognize that the unemployed or under-employed Dayton professionals only further hurts the local economy by “cratering” private and public investment and more importantly, taking creative minds “offline”.
My strongest take-away from our meeting had to be the “brain-twisting” on the different types of capabilities that job seeking professionals bring to the labor market. In order to differentiate the type of job seekers I classified them by alpha character.

Type A job seekers

• Totally unaware of their true gifts and abilities.
• Cannot easily describe why someone should hire them.
• Are fearful that they lack the skills to obtain a good job yet still SPAM out their resumes to any and all job openings.
• Fear that their age will hold them back from getting hired.

Type B job seekers

• Recognize that they lack the education necessary for the jobs that they want, and actively seek out retraining to further their education.
• Often find that they lack the funds to obtain a better education.
• May often shoot for jobs either greatly above their capabilities, or under.
• Often have weak resumes and do not recognize their own worth.

Type C job seekers

• Focus on something that they not only are qualified for, but also are passionate about.
• Are willing to sacrifice salary for job happiness and work/family balance.
• Have a strong, clear and concise resume that demonstrates their value to the position being sought.
• Find value within adversity.

Both Type A and Type B need to receive a transfusion of faith and understanding from those who can provide both. Additionally, Type A and B will never find jobs in the Dayton area without first understanding their predicament and then dealing with each challenge appropriately. Active networkers often lend a committed hand to folks through job shadowing, cross-training, free education resources, free resume review.. the list goes on and on… I am personally taking on the challenges presented by this exercise through my work in the following organizations:

The Northern Miami Valley HYPE organization (Helping Young Professionals Emerge)
Dayton Marketing Community
Linked Dayton
Rain Ohio

All of these organizations provide Dayton professionals with an opportunity to network with their peers and build their “street cred”.  While everyone can agree that networking is an important part of a job search, the members of these organizations actually go a step further to develop the individual into a better and more educated job seeker readying them for the challenges of today’s job market. I have a strong belief that tomorrow’s economy will be driven by those between the ages of 25-45 and also that the positions that these individuals will eventually have are not even currently envisioned. Think all new job titles, new responsibilities and new focus.

So what’s in it for me?
Easy… This business transformation will occur without the understanding, prior-approval or recognition by those currently leading today’s established corporations. The transformation will be driven by the consumer (rather than the producer) who will identify what is most important to them. All new businesses will sprout up to fill the vacuum and accommodate those new consumer wants and needs. As a Community Manager I get a front row seat for the formation of this new economy thanks to my immersion into the social media stream of conversation that both heralds the birth of the new economy as well as the death of the old.

p.s. Thank you Bridget for helping me gain additional clarity on this challenge, and then find the proper insight behind this blog post.

One of the well established practices of small Midwestern towns is the Memorial Day Parade.
My hometown of Tipp City, Ohio is no exception. With a population of only 10,000 the Hgh School band, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Brownies accompany about 75 children on Red White and Blue bikes as we make our way first to the Veterans Memorial and then the cemetery to honor our family members who have served in the armed forces.

Connor was able to finally ride a bike (versus being pulled along in a wagon) in the parade. We were so proud of him. Here is a picture of us with his decorated bike.
Have a blessed day!

Social Media is highly effective if you want to initiate and moderate online discussions about your brand. Digital Marketing (SEO/SEM) is highly effective in drawing visitors to your website where you either sell or offer a product or service.

So how do these forms of advertising and marketing aid our local plumber or roofer’s business when:

• Their customers will never email a request for service.
• They receive their service calls by phone, and usually when something is broken and needs to be fixed.
• A Real-life Reputation for being honest, reliable and trustworthy is not equivalent to online reputation points and scoring.
• Their real-life local competition reaps more financial benefit than any online competition will.

So, with those out of the way, are there any compelling reasons why a plumber (for example) would want to engage in digital marketing or social media?

• Search Engine placement. With a growing majority of people “Googling” their search results to find a local product or service, your placement in the results are key. Have you setup your Google business profile yet? You will want to be the first hit when people search for service + city/location.
• Online reputation. While word of mouth reputation is still the most truest and effective form of reputation gain/loss for the “plumber”, a blog site that includes customer comments (rants or raves) could bring positive buzz about your services, increasing the effectiveness of your search engine placement and competitive edge.
• Affordability. Many times contractors and other businesses have loads of information that they need/want or are required to share with their customers. Things like contractor license numbers, privacy notices, financing terms, or legal documentation can be easily stored, referenced and posted for customers (either current or potential) to view. Think of the cost of mailing this information or printing it out for each customer versus posting it on your company blog.
• Keyword definitions. I once owned a small computer store and on my website I posted an ATI video card along with its SKU number. When folks entered that SKU into the search engine my website was the first hit. I sold 11,000 video cards that month, making me the largest distributor of ATI video cards in the state of Ohio. This trend lasted only a few months until the biggie parts distributors caught on and cannibalized my trendy marketing work. If your business has keywords or product SKU’s you need to own them digitally.

Are there any other “good reasons” you can think of for digital marketing that would enhance a contractor’s business? At the end of the day it comes down to a customer picking up the phone and dialing a number and listening to the reassuring confidence of the contractor who wants to earn their business.

I constructed the comment below in response to a blog posting within LinkedIn by Pete Hollier, SEM/SEO Consultant who had asked “Is Social Media really Complex?”

I felt that my response communicated JUST the right sentiment, so I am reposting it here for your constructive criticism.

Social Media is absolutely simple, often resembling the earliest form of communications – word of mouth. Stories carried on the lips of the old and passed on to the ears of the young.

Consider the thought that “if someone is bit by a rattlesnake, you should attempt to suck the venom out of the wound” Now this is a statement that may have been communicated as far back as ancient Egypt. Think of how you first heard of it.. Someone told you this, and what did you do? You probably went to confirm it with your mother or father, or possibly a friend to ensure that it was true.
After all, it sounds like an awkward thing to do, sucking the venom out, but once you validated the information with others, you were more confident in the authority of the source. Social Media is a way to provide consumers with a way to “validate the authority of the source” on whether the product claims are true!

First Consider… “Does the soft cloth pickup 20oz of fluid?” You can either:

1. Trust that the marketing claim is true.. and purchase the soft cloth;
2. Ask one of your friends whether or not the marketing claim is true;
3. Go online to find an authority who can assure the validity of the claim.

Social Media helps to speed the decision to purchase. If the marketing claim is judged to be truthful and honest, the move to purchase is strengthened. If the marketing claim is judged to be false.. Beware, they may not only not purchase your product, they may be the first ones to comment negatively about it within the context of Social Media.

Many times, this is a key reason for corporations not to engage in Social Media. They want uninformed, zombie “sheeple” to believe their marketing claims regardless of their voracity. AND they don’t want anyone to tell them that their “baby is ugly”!!
From the core context of communication, Social Media is very simple, however the implementation and demonstration of value proposition can be incredibly complex.

What are your thoughts?

This afternoon I had the opportunity to run down to Kettering for the Network Dayton networking event. I was surprised at first with the number of attendees. There was actually a small line out the door.

One of the first tables I wanted to hit was the RainMakers out of Indy. I spent all two hours there and were not able to find their table. They must have been cloaked.

What I was pleasantly surprised about was the number of social media folks there, as well as the over-riding buzz about social media within the conversations.

I wanted to give a run down of the folks that I spoke with and received business cards from. You would be surprised about how many people with tables did not have business cards to share.

Tim Wanwick with All-World Travel here in Dayton. I would absolutely love to bring unique and interested would-be travelers to your door.

ChrisChaffin, Rocky (RockOn) VanBrimmer, and Mary Wehrle from Start Engaging Others. A social media company that appears to be out of the Columbus/Lancaster area. I’ll definitely be darkening their URL in days to come to see what goodness they are up to!

Peter Haigh, agency manager with HBW Insurance.

Mya Jackson Brown from Mary Kay. She was so sweet that I couldn’t help but to lay some free tips on how she can build her online network through LinkedIn and Facebook. I also promised her that if she would keep visiting my blog that I will be sure to write up new tips for her.

Nicole Amsler of Keylocke Services. Now Nicole definitely wins the “best business card” award of the evening, even beating my snazzy blue bird. Nicole is a Writer and Marketing Consultant. Nicole’s booth was really well put together and she had near constant foot traffic. Note to self: Nicole is going somewhere!

James Reynolds from Cox Publishing (Dayton Daily News). James introduced me to the new advertising and direct marketing business they have gotten into. While their prices are still high by Social Media standards, they are much more reasonable than I would have thought. They even throw in the use of their address lists which can be premiere since they are delivery machine!

Jon Cowell from Select Signs. I spoke to Jon first this evening and he was a very good ice-breaker. If I had a mind to wrap up my Accord I would definitely be calling Jon.

Julie Chamberlain with Graphic Impact Communications. Julie is the only soul that I recognized there. She has a great heart and I hope to encourage her to grow her business into the “third rail” of marketing. (Social Media) Even just setting up Digital Outposts, Julie could begin to have conversations with potential clients.

Overall no regrets other than I would have loved to have spoken to more of the folks there. I have such a passion for what I do I have a hard time just delivering the elevator speech.

Well.. Off to prepare for the Social Media Breakfast up in Toledo tomorrow EARLY.

OK, so help me out here. Over the past week the TV, print and online news has been inundated us with information about swine flu. This is just the latest in the onslaught of pork related news in 2009.

This year’s first pork media blitz came from J&D’s where “everything should taste like bacon”. I remember seeing articles in January about it as well as TV spots featuring their award winning bacon-flavored lip-balm. They also have bacon-flavored salt, mayonnaise and other tasty products.

Funny as it may seem, the second news entry of “the other white meat” came up in the headlines of the Financial section. Millions upon millions of dollars in pork-barrel spending was being made by congress in their fast-track budget appropriations for this year. It was voted upon so quickly, no one could even tell what was in it until it was law. I think that should probably be considered a greased pig.

Of course, the third newsworthy item was the introduction of the Swine Flu epidemic. Twitter users were fired up about this subject, tweeting over 10,000 times an hour about it. Some were providing guidance to their followers to not eat pork, others were recommending the purchase of Tamiflu medication by the case. At the end of the day, the “puerco flu” appears to be strongly growing in Spain and Mexico for some reason.

I applaud the stalwart support that the guys over at J&D have been providing to this much maligned species this year. It has been hard to put a good face on piggies what with them being associated with US deficit spending and nasty cases of respiratory disease. I also applaud President Obama for renaming this epidemic to H1-N1. This new name is much less detrimental to the long term online reputation of our favorite breakfast meat.

If the National Pork Producers Council would be interested in other ways we can positively impact swine online reputation, they can contact me at 937-573-8535

Over the past couple weeks I have been searching for  an “anchor client” that would be interested in hiring me to use Social Media as a Reputation Builder, versus traditional Advertising. In working with these potential clients I educate them how to understand the importance of engagement and interaction, and then I strive to push them to reach outside of these traditional marketing barriers to develop interactive strategies to enhance their brand. Is your brand ready for Social Media?

One resource from a major cosmetics firm felt that social media was a great thing, but did not want to disclose information about the products, or moderate discussions about its brand online. This sort of protective sensibility works to possibly insulate this company from knowing what people are saying about their brand, but it does not stop the conversation from happening.

Counter that with the response I received from Vera Bradley. They actively pursue individuals to join their communities (note plural) to have discussions and an open dialogue about their products. They engage in industry segment discussions and have a true passion to support their consumers through good works and charity events which are prominently displayed on their corporate website and associated blogs. Why is Vera Bradley spending so much time, effort and expense to reputation build versus straight-up advertising?

They understand that their relationship with their customers is much more important of a commodity than just their sales dollars. During a time of economic instability, those companies that have bonded with their customers are fairing much better than those that rely on simple-minded one-time adverts. The executives all the way down to the marketing interns must understand and grasp this in order to successfully implement the Social Media strategy. I think Vera Bradley definitely has the potential to reap the similar rewards that Zappos and the other Social Media mavens have.

What are the Top Digital Marketing trends?

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The key take-away from this article is how the company blog is truly the center point for a successful digital advertising media campaign. Without a blog the companies out there dabbling in SM will quickly find that their efforts are wasted and consider them unwarranted in the short term.

If your company is not really desiring a two way conversation with consumers about their product or their industry, they should not even begin to enter the SM space. The last thing you want to see in a digital community is someone “telling you something”, without ever listening. For those companies, other traditional adverising is for you. Pay Per Click, Affiliate, etc.

My job as Community Manager is to add focus for these companies who are interested in beginninng a conversation with consumers as well as to moderate these multi-faceted conversation to ensure a lively, interactive and positive social experience. In the long run, this is what your followers desire. SM is not a popularity contest where the most followers wins. I could easily work to get thousands of electronic accounts to look at my clients updates on Twitter, Facebook, etc. The trick is to get these followers talking and sharing information about your coompany and its products. The viral nature of interesting information that engages the reader well surpasses the benefits gained simply from a high follower count.

SM has never been about the One to Many equasion. It has always been about the Many to Many interaction.

Just sat for the skills test for an IT Consultant position with the state of Ohio. Wasn’t too tough. I only had about 3-4 real competition out of 20 or so. I sit for the second round at 1pm today. They said it was tougher. “it has protocols and stuff” Lol wish me luck peeps… Being a blogger and community manager Still does not qualify you for healthcare and 401k.