Call in the Social Media Agency

The team at Elemental Technologies staged its biggest product launch ever at the 2010 National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas.

“It was a really big step for Elemental. We really needed to do it right,” says Lisa Epstein, senior marketing manager for the 36-person video technology company in Portland. Oregon.

Rather than attempt to handle publicity for the launch internally — including social media and public and analyst relations — Elemental brought in McClenahan Bruer Communications, a Portland-based full-service advertising and PR firm that specializes in high-tech clients.

The result was a hugely successful launch for the company’s Elemental Live video encoding technology, which streams live video on iPhones, laptops and other devices. The $15,000 campaign, which included contacting reporters and putting out targeted Twitter updates, garnered the coverage the company wanted and racked up sales leads. When Elemental’s product unexpectedly won an award at the show, the firm spread the news far and wide.

“Beyond just the mechanics of the launch, they helped us with positioning and, frankly, got us into places we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise,” Epstein says. “We definitely benefited by bringing them on.”

As more advertising, PR and marketing goes online and social, mid-sized companies that may have once attempted to run their own campaigns are seeking agencies to do the job for them. Although upfront costs can be daunting and pairing with the wrong agency can do more harm than good, when the match is right, the results are worth it.

“If a company can make the investment to bring on the right partner, what they get out of that should make up for the cost — and then some,” says Avi Savar, founding partner of the New York marketing and advertising firm Big Fuel Communications.

When In-House Doesn’t Cut It
While companies like Elemental engage agencies for specific projects, others hire them on an ongoing basis to oversee all PR, marketing and advertising, including social media. Which option is best depends on how aggressive a company is about growing and what their competition is up to.

A company’s marketing budget also plays a determining role, says Kerry McClenahan, co-founder of McClenahan Bruer. She suggests a company bring in an agency as soon as they can afford it. “It’s rarely the case that the in-house folks can do as professional a job.”

While management may think that staff can handle an email marketing campaign or social media program of blogs, Facebook and Twitter, employees are often stretched thin and end up doing a less-than-comprehensive job. Meetings and other daily obligations can be distracting. Even if an employee’s sole focus is social media, that person is often a junior worker who doesn’t have the necessary experience to run a successful campaign. “It can really come down to focus,” McClenahan says. “We do this for a living, not as part of a bigger piece of something.”

Savar, too, says that companies often suffer from something he calls “the curse of knowledge,” where employees are too close to their own products to see them as a potential customer might. “An agency brings the perspective and objectivity you need to position your product and highlight its more important aspects, and the language you need to use,” he says.

Finding the Right Agency
Because there are so many social media agencies out there, finding the right one can be a chore. Kent Lewis, president of Portland’s Anvil Media, which works with mid-sized and large companies, says the best place to start is by talking to people you trust about agencies they’ve worked with. Then research firms online to find out about their areas of expertise and talk to past clients about their experiences.

Epstein is a fan of working with a local agency, primarily because she values in-person, face-to-face meetings that can be scheduled with little advance notice. “I’ve done it both ways, but having the agency right here in town made it so much easier,” she says.

Many companies use a standard request for proposal to evaluate marketing and advertising agencies. While that’s helpful, McClenahan says it’s important that an RFP be more than a “check-the-box” survey that only asks whether an agency can provide social media, email marketing and other services. “When they’re done that way, everybody is saying yes to the same thing, so all you end up comparing is budget,” she says. “That’s only one part of the story.”

Instead, find out how an agency measures return on investment — case studies on Anvil’s website show ROI of 200 percent to 2,000 percent. Ask what reports they’ll provide and what they expect from their clients in terms of participation and communication. Savar says the best RFPs cover the nuts and bolts but also the company’s philosophy, challenges and goals.

Measuring the Impact
Although hiring an outside social media agency isn’t cheap, it’s hard to say exactly what a company should expect to pay because so many variables come into play.

According to Lewis, most agencies charge by the hour, with fees ranging from $75 to $150 an hour. Agencies also work on a monthly retainer basis; Anvil’s fees begin at about $5,000 per month. Regardless of how fees are structured, McLenahan estimates that an average mid-sized business-to-business technology company pays about $10,000 a month for public relations and social media functions.

No matter what the cost, McClenahan recommends that companies be up front about their budgets from the beginning to keep expectations realistic on both sides.

Once managers pick an agency, they need to stay involved. While some agencies take over almost every function, including posting regular Facebook status updates and Twitter tweets, clients still need to be aware of what’s going on. McClenahan’s firm monitors social networks so clients don’t have to, but when something pertinent comes up, say a blog post that the company should respond to, they give clients the proper heads up. “We try to do as much of the heavy lifting as possible,” she says, “but they do need to participate.”

Keeping the lines of communication open and being responsive to an agency’s requests can go a long way too, Savar says. “In an ideal world, the agency-client relationship is a true partnership, with us becoming almost an extension of their organization.”