Your company has accepted the fact that you need to be involved in social media in order to maintain your presence in the digital marketplace. Excellent decision! But after constructing your Facebook page and creating your Twitter account you discover one glaring point; you don’t have any followers.

Just because you have created a social media presence doesn’t mean that clients and potential customers are going to automatically “follow” or “like” your brand.  Now, if your customers are offered an incentive to subscribe to your company’s social media newsfeed, two things can happen:

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Picture a brand, very simply, as an ongoing conversation with a consumer, business decision maker or any audience you target.  From your brand’s first introduction, through ongoing discussions, encounters and experiences, you build a relationship with each person.  That relationship is fragile and can be breached at any point.  It takes focus, investment and consistent messaging to ‘brand’ – defined as winning the minds and, most importantly, the hearts, of your users.

Everything in the advertising/marketing industry has changed dramatically, yet, I believe, has stayed completely the same.  Recent research shows that consumers and businesses have shifted spending to brands that create, maintain and strengthen their relationships while delivering both value and values.  This reflects the principles of a classic marketing approach – listen to your target and speak with them, not at them.

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We all talk about keeping our clients happy and satisfied, but do we delight them?  That may sound like an odd objective but let’s look at the definitions.  “Satisfied” is defined as “filled with satisfaction, content.”  Whereas “delight” is defined as “a high degree of gratification; also extreme satisfaction.”   Given these two definitions, I would prefer to delight my clients rather than simply make them happy.  This is particularly important in today’s tough economic climate.  Companies that have successfully weathered the economic storm are those that understand that service excellence is a business strategy and recognize that delivering on this strategy is a key differentiator.

According to the recent J. D. Power and Associates Inaugural Cross-Industry Report on Best Practices in Customer Service, during the past decade, average satisfaction scores for service-oriented industries have remained flat, unlike in product-based industries, for which satisfaction has improved steadily. In addition, across all service industries measured by J.D. Power, gaps in satisfaction between the highest- and lowest-performing brands have increased considerably between 2003 and 2010.  This is a sad state of affairs for the “service” industry.

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Measuring Public Relations has never been simple. It’s difficult to tie it directly to sales; unless glaringly obvious it’s tough to determine a hard and fast public opinion of your company; and without a consistent measurement tool or equation your public relations ROI can differ depending on who you ask.

For example, in public relations we measure a total number of impressions by multiplying a publication’s circulation number (which in itself can be unreliable) by a specified number. This is known as the “pass along rate.” I stick with the number 2. Meaning, for every person that subscribes to the publication, there’s one additional person reading it. Some folks are not as conservative and will use a pass along rate of 2.5 or 3. By using “2” I may err on the conservative side but at least I’m not making any false promises. The pass along rate is justified for many reasons; dentist and doctor’s offices often have magazines in the lobby so several people are reading them, there’s usually more than one person in a household reading a magazine that’s delivered there, and in other cases people will share magazines or interesting articles with friends and colleagues. Regardless of the ways to justify it – there’s no exact science to it.
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A crisis is any situation that’s threatening or could threaten to harm people or property, seriously interrupt business or damage reputation.  Every organization is vulnerable to crises.  Therefore, crisis management is critical in preserving the positive perception of a brand and protecting the business interests that may be damaged in the long term, short term, or both, by an unexpected crisis. Top-notch crisis communication strategies can greatly improve a client’s ability to plan for, respond to, and recover from a wide variety of crisis situations.

Domus’ approach to crisis management is strategic and disciplined, yet flexible enough to deal with any crisis; we plan for both the expected and unexpected alike.  This approach includes five key strategies: 

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Already, in Philadelphia, we are coming to the end of our first heat wave of the year.  The dogs days of summer seem to have arrived yet, technically, it’s still spring.  The hot days are often the ones that bring on the afternoon head nods (or the winter days when the building has the heat turned up to broiler level).

The afternoon blahs got you feeling fatigued and lethargic?  Can’t find the energy you need to focus?  Need a pot of coffee just to make it through the afternoon?  It happens to all of us sometimes. I exercise frequently. I eat well. My metabolism should be running high, but still I get tired in the afternoons, on occasion.
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Most agencies claim that their number one goal is to ensure that each and every client has a top performing team to deliver the highest quality work, results and client satisfaction.  But, can traditionally-structured agencies deliver on this promise when they have a finite set of resources?  The Domus business model is client-centric by design, a model that we believe is a smart and efficient alternative to the traditional ad agency.  By the term “client-centric” we mean that Domus conforms to a client’s particular account and their specialized needs.

Some clients need technical writing, others need help with media buying, others want efforts devoted specifically to social media – we cater to all of these needs and evolve as the client’s needs and objectives change. By using this approach we’re able to be nimble and move with the client – our clients aren’t locked into a rigid, 12-month plan; as their focus changes – so do we. They move, we move. We believe each client and each project presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities.  That’s why we develop customized teams of specialized resources to fulfill each client’s unique needs.
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There are many keys to a successful social media campaign. Different things work for different companies and organizations, but there are a few roadblocks that will hinder even the best laid campaign. Check out three roadblocks to avoid below!

The first roadblock of social media is not being fully ready to be “out there.” You’re exposing your company to the public’s opinion. You need to be ready for their honesty. Take negative comments as constructive criticism. Defend your brand well, but be respectful of your audience’s opinions and issues. Once you’ve made the leap, there’s no turning back so make sure you’re company is ready for that type of exposure.

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There are many different client/agency relationships. Some clients like to direct their agency on exactly what they want, including creative development and media selection. Other clients hire their agency for their expertise and counsel but may be hesitant to discuss certain business matters.

At Domus, we believe in a collaborative team effort. This includes complete immersion in our clients’ business. Our responsibility is to constantly evaluate market dynamics as well as client data and translate that understanding into strategies and recommendations that builds our clients’ business.
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For those of us in marketing who watch Mad Men, we see a simpler, yet antiquated, ad industry business model. Paid media drives all of the billings and revenue, Public Relations and Market Research are burgeoning, yet-to-be-trusted disciplines, and the internet is a nickname for Betty Draper’s hair curlers covering.

But, in this TV show, the definition of what an ad agency delivers is crystal clear, and to me, always has been. In this seductive reenactment of the early days of the industry, Don Draper’s agency’s role is to understand a client’s business, develop the compelling point of difference for the brand, conceptualize the main campaign idea and then use mass media to turn up the noise level in the market.

It’s still the same today, only now agencies, on behalf of their clients’ brands, have a myriad of traditional and electronic avenues beyond mass media with which to build clients’ brands while keeping an ongoing conversation with their prospects, customers and referrers.

So, the answer to Advertising Age’s April 25, 2011 cover story, “Why Does it Seem Like Agency has become a Dirty Word?” is simple to me. It’s semantics – no matter what you call my company, Domus, Inc., we still have always taken the same approach, both before and since internet marketing became an option: 1) Define the market need, strategically position the client against that need (considering their core competencies and where their competitors are positioned) to create a compelling point of difference; 2) know their target audience(s) demographics, psychographics and media habits; 3) develop the creative concept that breaks through and has “legs” for promotion and longevity; 4) consistently implement a cohesive message; and 5) measure, measure, measure – and adjust accordingly to maximize our clients’ ROI on building not just their brands but, importantly, their businesses.

On the cover of the same issue, Advertising Age also points out that agencies are “ …starting venture funds, buying brands and developing products.” I don’t think this has as much to do with the industry’s identity crisis as much as it has to do with the fact that they need new accounts and revenue streams to survive and thrive, and they are finding more self-reliant, innovative means of accomplishing this objective. Kudos – entrepreneurial approaches helps the agencies as well as their clients and make for a more vibrant industry.

So I can’t resist the notion that, somewhere in a room, a group is brainstorming our industry bible, Advertising Age’s potential new name: some options are: We Brand for you but Can’t Brand Ourselves Age; Former Admen Turned Entrepreneurs Age; First We were an Ad Agency then a Digital Agency and Now a 360 Agency, and my favorite, We Don’t Know Who We Are Age. I suggest it remains Advertising Age and we stop talking to and about ourselves and focus on the clients’ needs in our ever-changing communications world. When marketing decision makers on the client side need help introducing, growing or saving a brand they say either “What does the ‘Agency” think? or “Do we need an new/different ‘Agency” to help us get this done?

If you want to learn about Domus, Inc., visit www.domusinc.com or call me directly at 215-772-2805. We know who we are and can deliver what you need.

Survey question: Marketing Directors, how do you define what your agency’s role? Do you still use the term agency?”