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adrian smith, Advertising, assessment sheet, Business, Client Cooperation, Collaboration, Consulting, Cooperation, Marketing, media knowledge, Social Media, Social Media Consulting, Social Media Strategy, Social Strategy
When you’re a social media consultant, you can tell right from the start if your client is worth pursuing or not. I use a simple assessment sheet, with very simple questions in order to determine if the client will cooperate. Some of these questions might look stupid, but it really helps in determining the level of social media knowledge of the client, and how willing they are to cooperate with the strategy.
Adrian Smith (@AdrianHSmith) and I had a client meeting once, and gave this assessment to the client. He told me it was a stupid questionnaire, and I should be the one answering these questions for him, not himself. I knew from that point forward that it was not going to work out between us, as he was not open to ideas (which is important in social media). The more the meeting went on, the more I understood it wouldn’t work out. This client didn’t want to do anything himself (collaboration between the consultants and him), wanted the consultants to do all of the work, including video production, social media management, etc. He also wanted everything to be run by him for approval, and didn’t want to pay much. I fully understand that some things, like a video production, should be run by him for approval before sending it out to public. However, he also wanted every content piece that we shared to be run by him for approval before it was scheduled to tweet out, which we all know could never happen. He was not open to trusting others with his brand image. This can translate to: he was simply not ready to open up his brand to his customers on social media.
I had another client in the past that had similar remarks. It took a while for the consultants to educate the client about social media management, however it never fully worked out. Why? Because the client never fully accepted the strategy from the start. Six months after our first proposal, the client asked why we didn’t have a blog yet. We told them it was in the original proposal, but they never accepted it (even though we would mention it on a regular basis). The client ended up cutting the social media budget after about 8 months, because they didn’t get the results they had asked for. However, they never fully accepted the strategy, so they never could have gotten the results they asked for.
Not everyone is cut out for social media. Not because the company’s customers aren’t using it, because the customers are on there (whether you are or not). It’s because internally, the person in charge is simply not ready for change. If the person asking for social media help is not ready to cooperate with the social media consultant, it’s simply not going to work out. There’s a world of opportunity out there on the web, waiting for everyone to take a grasp. However, that opportunity comes at a certain price: Relinquishing control over the brand.
Let me ask you this: Why do you even bother asking for help from a social media consultant, or any consultant rather, if you don’t want to hear their ideas? I understand that there is a certain level of collaboration that needs to happen between the consultant and the client, but at some point, there has to be cooperation from the client. You, the client, want help with your digital strategy. Why? Because you don’t fully understand how it works, and where to start. So if you’re asking for help, why aren’t you open to receiving it? After all, the consultant is supposed to be the expert on strategy building, don’t you think?
Awesome post. Goes to show you its a two way street.
Thanks for the comment Adrian!
Yes, it is! Creative people have great ideas that are trump by the client all the time in Advertising. It just simply can’t happen when it comes to social media, or the client relationship won’t work.
Great post, Daniel – You tell them!
No point forcing water down the throat of a horse that doesn’t want to drink.
It’s discouraging but true that there are good businesses and bad. The good ones know the value of being social.
The bad ones, are better off not getting on social media because their business will just suck louder.
Thanks for the comment Ray! I appreciate it!
And you’re right. If you know that your client won’t be worth it from the start, why bother trying to convince them right? If they don’t cooperate from the start, do you really think they’ll cooperate later on? I don’t think so
Wow, this post illustrates exactly the terrible attitude that make a small percentage of social media consultants so difficult to work with. Good luck finding clients.
Thanks for your comment!
I don’t think it’s a terrible attitude. I just know for a fact, based on experience, that if the client isn’t ready to open up their brand to social media, the results will suffer. I could go in with a client, and do whatever they want, and take their money. But I consider that stealing. If I know the strategies that will create results, and the client just won’t accept it, there’s no point in continuing on. All it will do is waste the consultant’s time, and the client’s resources. Also, if the client isn’t getting results, the fault goes on the consultant, which affects the consultant’s reputation.
Some clients are worth pursuing, and some aren’t. It’s like that in every industry, not just social media.
Hi Daniel, I’m sorry to say I think you shot yourself in the foot. Here’s the thing – Social Media is just a tool. Nothing more. Would you walk up to a dentist and insist they start using a pipe wrench? I don’t think so.
Perhaps the conversation should have been started by a brand strategy or marketing specialist and, if social media was right for the client, that person could have briefed you in on the client’s requirements, their level of SM knowledge. With the knowledge you could actually add value and where, you would have been able to develop an outline of issues and opportunities and perhaps preferred investment options to discuss with the client. That would have received an entirely different response from the prospect I suggest.
I sense you’re trying to sell SM as the answer to everything, or at least a key tactic or channel for every brand. It isn’t, and for many products (most?) the ROI will be higher using alternative methods.
Thanks for the comment JV!
Actually, the conversation for both clients started off as a marketing conversation (I graduated from a marketing degree). Social media was suggested to supplement what they were already doing with their other marketing activities.
Unlike other social media consultants, I don’t believe that social media is the answer to everything. I understand that it can be used as part of the marketing mix, but the key word there is ‘part’ – social media shouldn’t be the single answer to every problem. For some companies, social media can work wonders. For others, it simply won’t.
The point I am trying to make in this post is that some companies are just not open to receiving help. They ask for help, but if it’s different than what they already had in mind, they suddenly aren’t interested anymore. Someone in this discussion suggested that companies hire consultants to re-affirm what they were already thinking, and if the consultant doesn’t re-affirm their thoughts, they drop the consultant. If that’s the case, why ask a consultant/expert, and not just any random person that will agree with you? (Here’s the link to the discussion, if you’re interested – http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=2105432&type=member&item=126617621&qid=388d20e4-4e16-4894-82ea-8e4ab63fb3c8&trk=group_most_recent_rich-mc-rr-ttl&goback=%2Egmr_2105432 )