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Part 2 of Five Things We (Probably) Cannot Do

Screen Shot 2015-04-22 at 10.56.28 AMHere’s the conclusion of Five Things We (Probably) Cannot Do. If you missed the first part of this post, click here.

  1. Can Facebook double my sales in three months?

Yes and no. I say, “yes” because it is certainly possible.

I say “no” because it requires the client to work closely with us, and often clients cannot or do not help us help them. For example, we were once retained to manage a retail establishment’s social media with the aim of building name recognition–and by extension–increasing sales for a “test run” over one quarter.

Despite the fact that we created exceptional content (including fun videos) that garnered hundreds of views and many engagements per day, the client ultimately determined we had not moved the needle.

Here’s the thing: from the beginning, we asked the client to keep track of each sale by asking, “How did you hear about us?”

It was a high-end product, so a few sales a day was typical and would be easy to track by asking this simple question. It was also a tracking question they could easily add to any online purchases. In the beginning, the client said they would do so.

They didn’t do it. They never asked buyers if they saw the sale posts or fun videos on social media. The client even admitted that sales were good that quarter–not great–but good.

How could we know if our efforts were actually pushing sales if the client did not track purchases? If the client had helped us with that information even on a weekly basis, we could have adjusted our content tactics more effectively. Instead, at the end of the trial period, he just had a vague notion that social media “doesn’t really work.” He may have been right, but without working with us on tracking, he would never truly know.

  1. Can you heavily discount your rates (or work for free) in exchange for full-priced work or a bonus after we succeed?

Folks, we’re just like you. We have bills to pay, dreams of success and plans for expansion. That’s why we cannot subsidize other businesses by working for a fraction of our rate or the promise of “good things down the road.” I’m sure most business owners who ask for that, if the tables were turned, would run, not walk, from such a proposition.

That said, we occasionally work on a commission basis for clients–usually because they impressed us with their idea, we have the capacity and feel we can learn something or grow from the experience.

There you have it, five things we (probably) cannot do. We’re very careful to explain up front the possibilities for success and failure in utilizing PR and social media, so expectations and roles of the client and our firm are clear.

What do you think? Am I right or wrong? I’d love to hear your opinion about these five things in the comments section below.

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