There are hundreds of social media companies out there trying to get your small business's social media work. They show up at your industry conferences and make all sorts of promises to get you to sign up for a social media contract. A typical contract to provide two blog posts a week for your blog, including posting, will run you about $500/month, or even more. That buys you eight blog entries, usually running between 300-350 words. Each blog entry ends up costing you about $64. So, what do you get for your money?
- Your blog article is written by a pool writer for 4 cents a word. The writer may or may not know anything about your industry, and will quickly search for other articles on the same topic, then essentially rewrite that article. The writer gets about $12-15 for writing your post. That comes to about $100 per month. That leaves $400/per month.
- An editor assigns your blog to one of the writers in the company's writing pool. It's rare that the same writer writes all of your blog posts. Usually, it's whoever grabs the assignment. After the writer sends the post to the editor, he or she makes minor changes. That's it. Neither the writer or editor necessarily has any knowledge of your business. The editor typically spends about 15 minutes on your blog post, and earns an average of $15/hr. For your eight posts, that comes to about $30 per month. That leaves $370 from your $500.
- Someone at the social media company, also earning about $15/hr., then posts the article to your blog. That takes, maybe, about another 10 minutes per post, adding up to about $20 per month. Now, there's $350 left from your orginal $500.
- The $350/ month goes to the management of the social media company, who really have nothing to do with your blog articles. It's a nice profit for them. The benefit to you isn't so obvious.
So, the bottom line for you is that you get two blog articles a week, written by someone who very likely doesn't know a thing about your industry or business. Odds are that a different writer writes your articles each week. Then, it's hastily edited and posted on your blog. You may or may not get a chance to review it. Quite frankly, you're not getting your money's worth, to put it kindly.
That's why 8 out of 10 small businesses that sign up with these typical social media outfits for a year never renew their contract. They didn't get what they paid for, so why should they renew. The social media outlet will just sell the same song and dance to other small businesses at the next trade show or conference. And the cycle will repeat itself.
On the other hand, you could contract with a local professional writer who has top-notch skills and knows your industry and how to write social media content that actually works to promote your business. The cost? About half of what you're paying that social media company for their poor performance. With a professional writer, you get unique content, tailored to your specific needs and full of useful SEO phrases and information that gives your potential customers a great impression of your business. Which sounds better to you?
Email Me for an free, no-obligation evaluation of your current social media content. Check out the sample content I've written for local businesses at the links in the column to the left. Go with proven strategies, excellent writing, and a focus on your business.
