Building A Great Social Media Presence With Eric Elkins

Andy Splichal [00:00:00]:

Welcome to the make each Click Count podcast. This is your host, Andy Splichal, and we are happy to welcome this week's guest to discuss today's topic, which is building a great social media presence. Today's guest is a strategist author, professional speaker, and CEO of Wide Focus, a Denver based agency he founded in 2007 using organic and paid social strategies. Along with full service community manage mint. His team drives tangible results for B two B tech SaaS companies, b two C brands, the home service industry, nonprofits, and global corporations. For more than 25 years, he has helped companies grow their visibility and increase revenue. He writes an occasional novel, host Denver food faves at Denverlicious, and loves to share his eating and travel adventures on Instagram. A big welcome to Eric Elkins. Hi Eric.

Eric Elkins [00:00:53]:

Hey Andy, thanks so much for having me.

Andy Splichal [00:00:55]:

Thanks for joining us. Now your firm offers numerous services, it's online reputation, I saw community management, content management, social advertising campaigns, and a lot more stuff. So I'm curious, what are some of the problems that a client generally has when they first reach out to you guys?

Eric Elkins [00:01:17]:

Clients who reach out to us are looking for, usually looking for comprehensive social media management. The problems that they're having are either their social media is not really performing or it's not consistent. A lot of times we work with small marketing teams where they just don't have the time and expertise to do a daily strategic cadence of posting and supplement that with social media or with paid social campaigns to drive up the numbers that matter. They might not have the bandwidth for that real time community management and engagement and monitoring for questions, comments and feedback. And a lot of times it's just like, hey, we're doing social, it's not doing anything for us. How can you help? For us, it's all about tying the social media efforts back to business goals and showing those tangible results.

Andy Splichal [00:02:13]:

A lot of the stuff you offer, you got the online reputation, managing the communities. But a lot of those, it's really hard to measure what leads to actual sales or leads if you're a service provider. So on those type of services, how do you measure the ROI?

Eric Elkins [00:02:35]:

Yeah, we live and die by our measurements. Like, when I started the company 16 years ago this month, it was really vague and social media was about generating awareness and getting more visibility, and that's still very much a part of it. But we want to make sure that we're moving the metrics that matter to our clients. So the first and most important thing is really understanding what's important to them. I just got off a call with a company today that they'd like website traffic and they'd like some lead generation. But really what they want is brand awareness in the US. And they know that with their target audiences and they know that social will be good for that. But other clients want to sell widgets or want more qualified website traffic or donations or b to b leads. And so we have to look at those metrics and then figure out how we're going to measure them using the social channels. I think the social channels themselves have gotten much better at providing insights that we can use to tie back to sales and revenue and we use other tools like Sprout Social for instance, to get deeper into those metrics. But honestly, it's kind of low tech, but it works really well. Is we assign a custom UTM or line of code to every single link that goes back to the website from every post, ad, link in Bio, whatever. Those are, and then we can track much more clearly what's happening. Once people leave the social media canvas get referred to the website and what they're doing there. So for our clients, understanding what their measures of success are or for us, understanding what our clients measure of success will be is really important because that's what's giving us the impetus to figure out how to show that. So there are all kinds of ways to measure it, but it's not just visibility. Like how many new leads did they generate, how many form fills were there that came that were referred from our social efforts? All that stuff can be measured now.

Andy Splichal [00:04:38]:

So I know one of the things that's very daunting for companies that want to get into social media is the content creation and whether they're static images, whether they're videos. How do you work with your clients to produce that kind of content?

Eric Elkins [00:05:00]:

Yeah, honestly Andy, that's probably one of the biggest challenges that we have because we are hands on and we're a real time social media agency. We're trying to create a strategic, consistent cadence, which means we need creative know quite a few per month. Over the years we've tried a few different things. It's always helpful if a client already has some assets available, whether they're videos or photos or screenshots for b, two B, whatever those things are, we can supplement those. We have a graphic designer on staff who's good at turning static stuff into something that has some motion and has some creativity behind it. Stock photos and images, especially ones that are unique and can be tied back to the brand in a specific way, can work. We also team up with content creators and sometimes that's the best way to go is either using a tool like Billow where we can get a lot of assets from content creators fairly quickly at an affordable rate or working with an influencer marketing to get some really good, authentic user generated content can work really well. So it depends on what the clients have available as resources and then what we need to do to supplement that.

Andy Splichal [00:06:18]:

What do you think is the most important type of content? Is it imagery? Is it videos? I mean, what do you guys really makes you start to drool if somebody says, I have this already and you can use it.

Eric Elkins [00:06:33]:

Yeah. Video snippets are still the most engaging and best performing types of content out there. So anytime a client has broll or short snippets of video or video that we can take pieces of and turn into pretty what I want to say sort of self select or self the word escapes me right now. But things that can be used in stories and reels on TikToks and snippets of video that we can have working on Facebook, those are all really important aspects of content. But I'd also say we don't really want to just depend on video content. You always want to mix, right? Because you want something that's going to cut through the noise, that's going to get somebody's attention. So we don't rely solely on video. And as much as we'd love to have as much video as possible, we want still images. We want graphic images, we want gifs. We want some cool, fun marketing creatives. And for us, we're really big on content writing. So powerful words and messaging that gets through and that's resonant to the audiences.

Andy Splichal [00:07:56]:

And what do you recommend if a client comes to you and has I know you use other things, you use static images, but video, especially now, video is king. What do you recommend if they have absolutely no video? Do you set up video shoots? Do you tell them to get their cell phone out and start shooting? Where do you even go if somebody's got nothing to start with?

Eric Elkins [00:08:19]:

Yeah, all of the above. So it really depends on are we talking B to B or B to C? What is it that they're trying to communicate with their audiences? What's the messaging that's going to be most meaningful? Who are those target audiences? What are their pain points? And how can we show that our clients are alleviating those? Right? So sometimes it's as simple as creating a wish list of hey, here are some talking head videos you could do that would be super helpful. Go around the office and ask the experts or give us some still photos that we can turn into something that's going to feel more dynamic and video focused and we'll put some voiceover or some music behind it. A lot of times for consumer products, either they'll send us products that we can kind of turn into something or like I said, there are some really good tools out there where you send products to content creators. They create videos and photos based on the assignment that they're given. For 100 or a couple of $100, you have a bunch of new assets that you can use if you want that user generated feel. And yeah, if you're a high end company that's catering to people who are going to differentiate between that UGC and more professionally developed video content, then it's good to get. There's some really talented people out there who can do B to B content, who can do B to C that's snappy and interesting and that captures the attention of the viewer.

Andy Splichal [00:09:51]:

Do you use AI at all in your agency?

Eric Elkins [00:09:56]:

Not at this time. And I literally have had two big conversations about this in the last two days. I see the power behind it and we're definitely exploring ways that we can deploy it strategically. But we're artists, we're creatives, and AI can do some pretty decent content writing, but it doesn't provide that hands on nuance of a voice of a brand that we really provide. And even if it did, the thing our clients count on us for is that personal connection. So I see it coming and I'm definitely exploring it and figuring out ways maybe it can save time at the back end as we were kind of ideating and doing some of that work. But for the moment, other than using the AI that's built in social platforms through algorithms and ad placements, we're not using it yet.

Andy Splichal [00:10:54]:

Now, one of the services that you guys, I saw you offer is community management. What clients typically engage in that service and what does it entail with you guys?

Eric Elkins [00:11:06]:

Yeah, every single one, barring clients who are just focused on influencer marketing, in which case we're probably not providing as much content direction and daily service on their social channels. But every other client, they know that you can't just post and leave it and hope that something good is going to happen. So we're not a set it and forget it agency. We firmly believe that you need to post that content and then monitor daily for questions, comments and feedback. You need to be able to respond very quickly to those kinds of things. You also need to look for opportunities for engagement to get into conversations that are taking place and build visibility. Authentic engagement on Instagram means that you're in their socials every day, right? You're liking, you're commenting, you're regramming, you're thanking people. And then on top of that, especially on the B to B side on LinkedIn, if a high value potential prospect likes or comments on a post, you need to be able to escalate that to someone on the sales team so that they can take that and turn that into a lead. So there's different levels. We have clients where we're just basically monitoring to make sure nothing goes sideways and occasionally thanking people for a positive comment. And there are other ones where it's deep in customer service and reputation management to make sure that the negative stuff gets handled and the positive stuff gets elevated.

Andy Splichal [00:12:32]:

What are the different social media platforms that you're using for your clients?

Eric Elkins [00:12:37]:

The primary ones are the big three facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, depending. Again, it always starts with target audiences. Who do you want to reach? And let's make sure that we're using the channels that are going to be best for them. We've had years and years of experience with Twitter. We don't have any clients on Twitter right now. It just feels very toxic and we don't have clients where they absolutely need to be there. If a client had a target audience that is very specifically on Twitter, we would jump back in. We probably wouldn't recommend advertising because it's still kind of a messy landscape, but go where the audiences are.

Andy Splichal [00:13:11]:

What do you think about Threads?

Eric Elkins [00:13:13]:

Threads? Yeah. That's an interesting piece of the puzzle. I would say we're on it as wide focus because we want to be there investigating. Depending on the target audience, we might recommend someone be on there. But what we're seeing now is the commercial aspects of it or marketing aspects are pretty limited. We wouldn't recommend right now going out there and going on Threads and trying to sell the shit out of something. Right. We see it as a fun way for engagement. And the brands that are doing it best on Threads aren't taking it too seriously. They're playing with a sense of humor. They're not in a constant sales mode. They're using it really to build relationships, which was that was my favorite thing about social media for brands in the beginning, is less about sales and more about creating relationships, building conversations. I think Threads has some potential there. The user base has dropped off already. We're going to play with it, we're going to investigate it. It is like any new platform we're looking at what are the conversations that are taking place there, what's the content that's doing best and who are the audiences? And if it makes sense for a client to be there because their audiences are there, then we'll use it more deeply. The nice thing about Threads is it's intuitive. It's Twitter mixed with Instagram, so it's not like we have to dig in and learn a lot. When we started working with TikTok, which is obviously another platform we work with, we had to figure out what the play there is and what brand do and what's effective. At least on Threads, we know the mechanism. It's just a matter of saying, is there a place to play there? And I think for brands that want a fun and maybe irreverent consumer experience, that's an interesting place to be right now.

Andy Splichal [00:15:12]:

If somebody wants to get their brand out there on social media, how often do you recommend they post?

Eric Elkins [00:15:22]:

In the old days, we'd say post every day. Like the more content the better, because organic reach obviously still is very low, but you can generate awareness and build engagement through more content. But what we're finding is there's a critical mass of how much you want to put out there versus the effort that it requires. So on Facebook and LinkedIn, we're looking right now at anywhere from three to five posts a week. We feel like there's sort of the golden means probably four posts. Like, you're consistent there, and you're posting on different days each week to get in front of audiences. You're using paid social campaigns to increase the reach of those things, of those posts. Instagram, you can post a lot more often, and because of the ephemeral nature of stories and reels, you want to have some of those up there on at least a weekly cadence because you're getting a lot of engagement there. Twitter has always been about multiple tweets a day. Some of those are pre planned scheduled tweets, but a lot of that is conversational, so retweets and at replies to make sure that you're engaging in real time with the conversations that are taking place there. LinkedIn is also a place where three to five posts is probably plenty per week, and you might even get away with three if your posts are high impact and they're getting in front of the right audiences.

Andy Splichal [00:16:47]:

Now, do you have a favorite success story that you could share of a client that came to you?

Eric Elkins [00:16:55]:

The most recent one that comes to mind isn't even a traditional ongoing social media management. I mean, I think the one I would think of most for that is a nonprofit where we were able to really drive up visibility and reach and thought leadership for them and increase their donations and registrations, which was really meaningful for us and meaningful for them. It was a grant based approach that allowed us to just build up their audiences to get their resources and the leadership that they provide and the resources they provide to more people who could really use their help and to give them real momentum to move forward and get in front of more of the people they needed to get in front of. But that's a really small but very meaningful success story.

Andy Splichal [00:17:43]:

And what marketing channels did you use for that company?

Eric Elkins [00:17:47]:

That was primarily Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and it was really about mental health awareness and getting people the mental health resources that they needed. We differentiated by content. So LinkedIn was really about mental health professionals and letting them know that this organization was there to provide them with support and resources. And then Facebook and Instagram was really about whether you need or could use some mental health support. Yourself or someone you love or care about could use those resources, sharing that on those channels, and getting more people to engage and not just putting out the megaphone of we have this for you, we're available to you, but meaningful content that people could use the most. Viral content, the stuff that got the best organic and paid reach were three or four point lists of things you can do to help someone in need or things you can do to help yourself. Very practical, simple, bite size content that was meaningful to the people who saw it.

Andy Splichal [00:18:51]:

What are some of the challenges that you guys struggle with in getting results. For clients.

Eric Elkins [00:18:59]:

Probably the biggest challenge we'll find is a client who they don't really know what they want or what metrics of success look like, or they might not have a clear understanding of the product market fit. So there's a lot of exploration in the beginning. There's a lot of trial and error. Clients who understand that and understand it takes time to find audiences and dial them in and get them to do what you want to do can be really successful over a three to six month period. Clients who are looking for success in the first four to six weeks, we try to be very clear about expectation and what's possible, but a lot of times there's heavy pressure from above to turn their social media efforts into a revenue driving piece of the puzzle, which I totally agree with. It just there has to be some patience and it takes time. And so sometimes telling that story of, hey, we're seeing website traffic now, it's gone up quite a bit from what you had before, but it's not turning into conversions. So now the next step is dialing in those audiences, making sure your website is converting, like doing all those things. And I think the biggest challenge is setting clear expectations and then continuing to make sure and educate a client in understanding what to expect and when it's going to happen.

Andy Splichal [00:20:25]:

So you made a great point there. You can get a lot of traffic through social, but if it doesn't convert, is it worthwhile? Yeah, let's say you do that, you get a company, a bunch of traffic and it's not converting. What are the next steps that you take with that client? Do you help them with their website? Do you advise them on the website? Where do you go to make sure that that traffic is worthwhile for their efforts?

Eric Elkins [00:20:51]:

One of the key benefits of focusing solely on social media and being really good and staying in our lane, good at what we do and staying in our lane is we have lots of strategic partners we can call on to help when our clients need more than the work that we can provide with a smaller client. I may take a look at the website or we'll offer to do a quick audit and just kind of see we're not conversion specialists, but we can see if there are some glaring errors or obvious things missing. But our preference is to say, yeah, you need someone who really specializes in conversions and we would like to connect you with that person and then help make that connection and get a strategic partnership in place. We know what we're good at and we know where our blind spots are. But being so focused on social means other agencies come to us as well when their clients need social media, consistent social media management versus the services that they provide. So I love hooking people up with the right people.

Andy Splichal [00:21:54]:

So how does your fee structure work?

Eric Elkins [00:21:57]:

We work on a retainer basis for the writing, posting, organic content management and community management and reporting and communications. And then we have an ad management fee based on the size of the advertising spend. So if a client is spending whatever that is, x amount of money on the paid side, we just charge a percentage based on that spend.

Andy Splichal [00:22:22]:

And what would be a typical budget that somebody would need to work with you guys?

Eric Elkins [00:22:28]:

Our smaller to medium sized clients usually run on the retainer basis between $5,000 a month for all of that strategic work and the consistent strategic posting and the community management and the content writing and production. And their ad spends on a monthly basis can be anywhere from 1000 to a couple of month. Our larger clients, especially at an enterprise level, might be paying $10,000 a month on the retainer. Plus, large ad spends several thousand dollars a month depending on what the priorities are. And then we have influencer management, which is really our charge, is really based on the level of influencers they'd like to get in front of.

Andy Splichal [00:23:13]:

And who is the perfect client for Wide focus?

Eric Elkins [00:23:18]:

The perfect client is usually a CMO or a marketing director at a company where they have a pretty healthy marketing budget, but they don't have a lot of internal resources to make things move. So they might have a small marketing team, they might have a marketing team of one, and they're really looking to get that strategic social media happening, but they don't have the time or the bandwidth and often the expertise to do it in house. So without increasing their headcount for the cost of roughly the cost of an FTE, for instance, they have this entire team US, doing all of that heavy lifting for them and they can trust that the work is being done well. So it tends to be both on the B to B and the B to C side. It tends to be companies with a small marketing team, occasionally a larger one, but nobody focused solely on social media and we just slot right into taking on that role.

Andy Splichal [00:24:20]:

It's great. And how can an interested listener learn more about working with you guys?

Eric Elkins [00:24:26]:

Well, the best way would be to email me at eric at widefocus widefoc US. And that's our website as well, Widefoc US. They can follow us on the social channels, but send me an email and I'd love to chat.

Andy Splichal [00:24:44]:

Well, this has been fantastic. Is there anything else you'd like to wrap it up before we close out today?

Eric Elkins [00:24:50]:

I don't think so. It's always good to talk about this stuff. I think people know that most companies and marketing people, not always the CEOs themselves, know social media is important and that it's a key piece of the puzzle. But a lot of them don't have the bandwidth or the expertise to move that into something that's actually driving more revenue. So I always like educating and talking to and brainstorming with people who might just have a question. We may not be the right fit for them, but they're just trying to get to the crux of how they can use social media, and I love those conversations as well.

Andy Splichal [00:25:29]:

Well, this has been great. Well, thanks for joining us today, Eric.

Eric Elkins [00:25:31]:

You bet. Thanks so much, Andy.

Andy Splichal [00:25:33]:

For listeners, remember, if you like this episode, please go to Apple podcasts and leave us an honest review. And if you're looking for more information on wide focus or connecting with Eric, you'll find the links in the Show notes below. In addition, if you're looking for more information on growing your business, check out our Podcast Resource Center, available at podcast. Make each click account. We have compiled all of our different past guests by show topic and included each of their contact information. In case you would like more information on any of the services I've discussed during previous episodes. Well, that's it for today. Remember to stay safe, keep healthy and happy marketing, and I'll talk to you in the next episode.