Social Media Consultant Services

Q. Describe the most common types of jobs you do for your clients.

A. So far, my most common types of jobs have been "correction" jobs - fixing earlier website mistakes; rebuilding websites; fixing incomplete websites, etc.

Most mistakes that I'm paid to fix can be completely avoided if the business owner determines what results are wanted from a website. Leaving it up to the person that is building the website isn't always the best idea. They may be able to build a great looking website. But, most people that build websites do not know how to make them effective. They don't know and the business owners that hire them don't know that they don't know.

Too often, these are the types of jobs I have.

Q. What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A. New customers now search online before they make a buying decision. Traditional methods of advertising such as newspaper ads, Yellow Page ads and display ads have lost most of their effect - and many of them are too expensive.

Q. If you were a customer, what do you wish you knew about your trade? Any inside secrets to share?

A. You might know the importance of being online and having an influence within your industry. What you may not know is how to measure your influence and how to build your business' influence online - where new customers are looking for you.

Just having a website or just a Facebook page isn't enough. It is important to have those two online elements as well as others such as a blog, a twitter account, etc. and they must be set up to be interactive with each other.

Q. What questions should a consumer ask to hire the right service professional?

A. Can you show me how I currently rank online?
Can you provide me with concrete results of how my business' online influence can be increased?
I already have a business website. Why isn't that enough?
Will you establish a "social media" marketing strategy for me that works?
Why are your methods more effective than traditional Yellow Page advertising?
Will your social media strategies allow me to interact with my customers?
How will your social media strategies get my former customers to buy from me again?
What if I'm too busy already and do not have the time to manage this social media strategy - will you manage it for me?

Q. What important information should buyers have thought through before seeking you out?

A. What outcomes they want from their web presence. It isn't enough to just have a website. An effective website must have targeted visitors and must have them consistently.

Having an attractive website is important. But, your website must have the information that visitors are looking for. And your website must now have an element that allows visitors to "engage" - such as a Facebook Business page or a YouTube channel.

Determine what it is that you want your business website to do. That way, you should be able to better quantify whether you are getting a good return on investment or not.

Q. What do you like most about your job?

A. These days, technology is advancing at a very rapid rate. It is really to fast for most business owners to keep up with. I enjoy being able to take complex technology and making it useful for small business owners.

For example, most business owners know that they need a web presence. But, most don't know that just having a website isn't enough anymore. And having a business website is a 'start.' But, businesses must be everywhere that their customers are. And, currently, their customers are online.

Knowing how to target, engage and follow up with an effective web presence is key. And I enjoy helping businesses grow by establishing their web presence.

Q. How did you decide to get in your line of work?

A. I'm a photographer with a passion for photography. So, I built photography websites to display and to sell my work.

I would go to businesses and offer to take pictures for their advertising. But, none of the businesses were interested. Most of them complained how bad and slow business was. As I would talk with some of them, I would mention my photography websites - which were ranked very high on Google and all of the large search engines.

They then began to offer to pay me to make their websites highly ranked on Google. After awhile, I became better known as a very good marketer that "produces results." So, a business was born!

Q. What are the latest developments in your field? Are there any exciting things coming in the next few years or decade that will change your line of business?

A. Technology is revolutionizing marketing and the way that people make buying decisions. Research reports that 14% or less of consumers 'believe' or 'trust' ads. They now seek out the opinion and 'reviews' of their peers online at websites such as Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, etc.

Over 67% of shoppers report first going online to find comparison information before they shop. Also, 50% of shoppers say that they use their mobile phones while they're shopping (re: buying mode) to find store directions and to call the store.

Mobile is taking over! That's a good thing - for some. If a business's website is not "mobile-friendly," they're losing some very serious money.

Q. Describe your most recent project, what it involved, how much it cost, and how long it took.

A. Just completed establishing a total web presence for a contractor. He had a thriving handyman business and wanted to rebuild his contractor business (he shut it down due to the 2008 meltdown). He wanted a web presence that would make him a leader in his industry. And he wanted to specifically be seen as the industry leader in three states, Nevada, Arizona and California.

For a fee of $15,000 and a $1,500 monthly management fee, we built him a state-of-the-art website; built a custom Facebook Business page; established an ongoing Twitter marketing campaign; submitted his website to Google, Yahoo, Bing and over 100 other search engines, etc.

Of course, we optimized his business website for local keywords.

By the way, he made his investment back in two weeks!

Q. If you have a complicated pricing system for your service, please give all the details here.

A. My pricing system isn't complicated in any way. Most of my services can be scaled to accommodate the marketing and advertising budgets of the business. As a comparison: our services routinely produce 6 - 7 times the results of yellow page advertising - for the same costs.

I always suggest to business owners that they consider how much a customer is worth to them. And then, use that figure to determine how many new customers and leads they want from their online marketing. Then compare how much it is worth it to them to get each new customer (for life) to how much they are willing to pay me to help them get those results.

Q. If you were advising someone who wanted to get into your profession, what would you suggest?

A. Do not 'dazzle' your client with 'geek speak' and 'techno babble.' Speak to business owners in terms that they can understand, relate to and can see how it applies to growing their business. Having the 'latest' bells & whistles doesn't necessarily translate into more customers or more revenue for businesses.

Q. What are you currently working on improving?

A. Developing a resource that business owners can use to research online marketing and how it can help their business without feeling like their being pitched to all of the time. Business owners know that, especially in this economy, if their business isn't growing, they will be out of business very soon - like so many others. Most now know that this "internet thing" actually works. What they don't know is who to trust, where to start and what are the possibilities. And, to make things worse - if they've been burnt already investing in this "internet thing," they're that much more skeptical. They need a non-threatening source of information that can reassure them and offer them a dependable option.