So yesterday I got an interesting message from a friend. She and I have always compared notes when we see a company out there “doing it wrong” or someone we think could really use the other’s help (we are in different, but related, industries).
She was scheduling an in-person meeting and wasn’t 100% sure the venue was open for inside seating. She checked their Google listing, it wasn’t clear. She checked their Facebook page – and there hadn’t been a post on that page since 2019.
Now, most people would just move on to another venue and that place would have lost a customer. But not this friend. She called to check. The person on the phone said, “Wait, you’re getting our Facebook posts right?” This is when my friend, the potential customer, had to inform the business owner that there are no Facebook posts. So they had a chat.
First, people don’t “get” Facebook posts. They aren’t email. If this small business isn’t advertising at all and trying to successfully use a Facebook page purely organically, well they aren’t going to see a lot of return for their efforts. But that’s not the worst part.
What struck my friend and I as just plain sad is that the business owner told her (this friend is good at having random strangers confide their business challenges to her) that they had been paying a “poster” to handle their Facebook page and just assumed it was being done.
Ok. Several issues here.
- What on earth is a “poster?” We don’t do that. Those who practice working in social media everyday simply do not just post. We engage, we communicate, we build community. But posting? Just throwing something out as a “post?” Uh uh. Wrong. Whoever you’re paying sold you a bill of goods from the get-go.
- What’s worse… the fact that the business owner paid someone and never checked on it, never heard from that “poster” never had any communication?
What on earth?
Look, whoever this “poster” person is should really be ashamed. Frankly, they owe that venue a year and a half of fees back (can you imagine taking advantage of a small business like that during a pandemic?).
Here’s how our team does it.
- I already we mentioned we don’t just “post” – there’s way more to this than that.
- We collaborate and communicate. Monthly meetings (at a minimum) are necessary so that our clients know what we’re doing and that we are doing what they pay us to do.
- We cannot possibly authentically represent our brands in their personalized persona if we aren’t communicating regularly with our clients. We need to know if their objectives change, if their business shifts gear, what events are going on and what specials they are running. We need to collect the footage it takes to create content on their behalf.
Collaboration is key. Not only do we expect to collaborate closely with our clients, they expect that from us.
Whoever that “poster” is – they are giving us all a bad name. Good luck to this little place… I hope they make it.
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