The Cobbler’s Kids Don’t Have Shoes or a Facebook Fan Page…Anymore.

Throughout my career in media and advertising I’ve never worked for an agency or corporation where keeping up with self-promotion (websites, printed collateral, themes, strategies, etc…) didn’t take second, third (and on and on) place to the immediate needs of paying clients.  Even today as I visit their URLs I see  that the same perpetual non-motion is prevalent.  Irony at it’s best and worst.

But how do you justify such inaction when you’re hanging your hat on your own door?  I won’t.  Agency 140 is a newbie agency with talented people whose expertise more than offsets the new paint smell that still permeates the office.  We hit the ground HARD. Running very quickly to meet and exceed the demands of very excited clients.  Among other things we’ve counseled our clients on what, if any, social media channels they should use to connect with their customers – emphatically demanding they not create a social media presence where they don’t have the time to create relevant content.  

Which makes the fact that we created a quick-to-be orphaned Facebook Fan Page all the more embarrassing.  Like some of our clients, it was created Blog feeds just aren’t enough.  What do we tell our clients about this?  Creating a conversation channel that is ultimately ignored is a distraction to  your brand that ultimately creates a negative impression – quite the opposite from the original goal!

Apparently our advice is spot on as it was brought to my attention recently that our Fan Page’s lack of fans was used as ammunition by a marketing manager who felt threatened when his boss suggested bringing in Agency 140 to help create a strategy for his company’s social media efforts. OUCH!

Why share this?  Social Media is also about transparency and I won’t make us hypocritical  by ignoring this ultimate meta-media case study. Essentially this takes the ammunition away from the fearful and gives it to the hopeful.  What we say about social media really is true – when done correctly it’s a powerful mechanism to connect with customers. It’s not to be feared because even when we have missteps we can quickly learn from them, adjust our strategy and move on, much better than we were before.

So we’re saying good-bye (for now) to our Fan Page to focus more time on the Blog and Twitter.  We’ll bring it back when it makes good strategic sense for us.  And we’ll add this case study to our pitch presentation 🙂