When it comes to social media, businesses often make the same assumption: create an account and customers will come in their droves.
The reality is somewhat different. There are many ways to fail on social media – and many businesses do.
“A lot of businesses don’t do social media properly,” says Mark Saxby, founder of Status Social, a consultancy that has helped clients generate up to £4 million through social networking sites.
“Many use it as a blunt marketing tool – they’re swinging a golf club around, hoping something gets whacked.
“Our approach is more like a bow and arrow. It’s specific and targeted.”
A Family Business
Status Social began life in a spare room at Mark’s home in January 2011. Since then, the company – now a team of seven at Friar Gate Studios, including his wife and fellow director, Kerry – has trained nearly 2,000 people how to use social media.
“One of our clients told us how they’d seen an opportunity with RyanAir,” says Kerry. “But they didn’t know how to get in touch – RyanAir had no publicly available phone number or email address.
“We trained them to use LinkedIn – and they got a sale worth £19,000.
“Another client in the double glazing industry told us they had generated £200,000 in sales over the last few years.”
A Track Record of Success
The list of happy clients seems endless.
Derby City Council saw gym memberships boosted by 60% following a social media campaign designed by Status Social.
Within two days of his LinkedIn workshop, Flint Bishop business development executive Mark Honeybell had generated eight newleads through his profile.
Fellow Derby company Portixol secured up to £300,000 in additional sales by undergoing the same training.
Further afield, Motorpoint sold an opening-day record of 38 cars at its new showroom in the north-east after Status Social supported its launch.
And the Visit Cleethorpes website saw an additional 20,000 hits with Mark’s input, helping it to page one on Google.
The Power of Social Media
Mark says the success stories demonstrate the power of social media.
“A lot of businesses fear being on social media,” he says. “They’re worried people will say bad things about them. The trouble is people could already be saying bad things.
“Instead, businesses should look at how social media can benefit them – because often it can.
“One client who we’ve trained is on the verge of a £500,000 deal through social media. They said it’s down to the training they received from us. For me, that’s so exciting to hear.”
A Record Breaking Year
Status Social’s own social media content is seen more than a million times a year and generates a steady stream of leads.
In addition to the clients already mentioned, the agency has worked with companies such as East Midlands Trains, Denby Pottery, Vision Express, Booker, Close Brothers and Marriott Hotels.
Mark says the hunger for social media support accelerated towards the end of 2017.
“We had a record-breaking December and January and have already beaten our all-time February and March sales total. We expect the trend to continue in 2018 and are looking to increase the size of our team.”
Original and Best
Status Social was one of the first social media agencies in the UK and it remains one of the few that specialises only in networking sites, such as LinkedIn.
“In terms of size and experience, I think we’re pretty unmatchable certainly in the East Midlands,” says Mark. “There are a lot more social media agencies in London, but not elsewhere.
“It’s intriguing. Lots of businesses have added social media onto what they’re doing. But even today, there still aren’t many of us who specialise just in social media. The reason we just do social media is because we don’t believe we could do it as well if we were doing other stuff.”
Mark’s passion for social media developed when he was news and sports editor at BBC Radio Derby – a role he left in 2011 so he could set up Status Social.
He recalls: “I was sent on a training course to learn how to find news stories on Twitter. After that, I was talking to a lady who used to run a café in Sadler Gate. She said the best marketing tool she’d used was Twitter. She used it to tell people in Derby about the café and offered the 15% if they came in and mentioned the Twitter post. It made me realise the power social media has in terms of enabling businesses to build relationships.”
Where Do Most Businesses Go Wrong on Social Media?
Almost a decade on, Mark has a much better idea than most as to where businesses go wrong on social media.
“Most don’t have a strategy,” he says. “Businesses will often be on social media but they don’t know why. Even if they do know, they don’t know how to achieve what they want to achieve.
“They end up wasting lots of money paying Facebook to boost their posts, without much success.”
Other businesses might as well not bother at all, believes Mark.
“I met with an estate agent and they said, ‘you’re going to try and persuade me I need to be on social media, aren’t you?’
“I replied, ‘no – I’m here to find out what your business needs are, and then to see whether social media can help’.
“There have been times we’ve turned people away because we don’t think social media would be worth their time and investment.”
He adds: “One of the strongest things about us as an agency is we’re values-led. Being ethical and honest are our two most important values.”
This interview was conducted by Paul Wyatt of the Derby Telegraph. It has been reproduced with permission.
