We are an advertising agency, with our roots firmly established in the Garden Route. Our motto has always been to deliver the best service to our clients, and offer the best advise with regards to budget-spend that leads to maximum return on investment (ROI). We even used to own our own publications – some of you may remember some of the titles: Vibrant Living, Business Bulletin and Garden Route Property Finder amongst others. Some of these publications we sold, and the last one, Business Bulletin, we closed down ourselves after a successful 12 years. Why you may ask?

Well, let’s start at the beginning. Advertising and marketing is my passion. It has always been, and it will always be. There is nothing as satisfying as a client who becomes a friend and who trusts us to build their brand, while they focus on the nuts and bolts of growing the business. Our core services has always been brand assistance, be it graphic design, copywriting, print solutions – whatever the client required. We would design advertisements for local newspapers (including our own) for clients and  assist with annual strategy planning around marketing budgets.

We started realising that people don’t really read as much physically printed matter as they used to. The forward-thinking publications are all moving online, and you often see people, wherever they are, cluthing a smartphone or an iPad or tablet, browsing the internet. Our target audience has moved online – and that is where we firmly believe our clients should be marketing themselves.

We’ve simply moved our advertising agency online, and opened a strong social media leg: Be Sociable. Social media is an excellent marketing platform choice – with the constant change-over to technology, and with iPads, Tablets and smart phones becoming more accessible and more affordable, more and more people are online. It simply makes sense to advertise your product where your target audience already spends a lot of time. Less people pick up newspapers, magazines, booklets, etc, and prefer to spend time online. Also, as with all responsible businesses, we realise that our eco-footprint makes a substantial difference in the world we inhabit, therefore advertising in printed media really makes little sense. Also, if you compare print media costs to online media, there is simply no comparison. You get far more results online for less expenditure.

Here, I cannot put it better than Marsha Friedman, and I agree with every word.

What tends to be happening now, though, is that businesses are realising that they should be on social media, but they are using the wrong approach.  I remember when the internet first gained prominence and it became apparent that having a website was essential for any commercial enterprise.  Back then, web designers were not plentiful and few people thought to hire a professional to create a site. They felt that any web presence was better than none at all and they found people they knew who were “into the whole internet thing” to help them.

As an advertising professional, when I saw a website that didn’t represent people well or looked amateurish, I’d ask who created it. Invariably, I’d get answers like, “My nephew did it,” or “I bought Web Design for Dummies and did it myself,” or “My son has a friend who just graduated with a degree in computer science.” While those days have passed for websites, I’m afraid I am seeing the same thing happen with regard to social media.

As social media has become an integral element of all mainstream media, some people regard it the same way they used to regard websites—as a good addition to their marketing tactics, but not so essential that they need to approach it with a professional sensibility. As with any marketing outreach, social media done badly will actually set a person back rather than move him forward.

At the end of the day, social media is serious business. Done right, it can create a base of thousands of followers. Done wrong, it wastes time and energy and, most important, gives people the impression that social media marketing isn’t important. In fact, it has become one of the most critical and fundamental components for any marketing strategy, which every company needs to put in place.

Speak to the Be Sociable team and book a free session with one of us – we will happily evaluate your current social media presence and advise you on the best way forward.

10 reasons to hire a social strategist and community manager:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you’re not on social media, then you’re not where your audience is—and you’re missing out. The social media potential for brands is astonishing, and it includes:
•    An endless stream of information and trends that are happening in your industry
•    The chance to check out your competitors to evaluate what you are doing right (and potentially wrong)
•    The ability to engage one-on-one with your audience and form a more personal connection
•    Tracking mentions of your brand online so you can offer customer service through social media and answer inquires (as well as dispel myths)
•    Content creation and curation
•    Community-building
•    Increasing advocates of your brand through word of mouth marketing
•    The opportunity to increase trust and  credibility with your community
•    Social media can be used for sales