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Hey sports fans! Haroon Rashid Khemeia Consulting and welcome to Haroon's Hangout where we make
digital marketing simple, straight forward and fun. Today the state of social media in
Leeds, Yorkshire. And I'm going to be talking about the state of the social media industry
not just in Yorkshire. But what I'm going to be saying will apply internationally as well.
Welcome welcome welcome. So please you could join me today. Who is this for? And what are
you going to get? Well, maybe you're a business owner or a marketing manager and you're dabbling
in social media. Maybe you've engaged a social media company or an agency and they have got
you set up on Facebook, Twitter and maybe you've done a few videos as well. And you're
spending a lot of time on social media, your posting a lot of stuff, you are engaging and
your trying to make things happen but the phone still isn't ringing. Maybe you're not
driving any inquiries. Maybe your followers aren't increasing. Maybe you're just thinking,
"I know it can work but something is still not working." Well today I'm gonna talk about
the state of the social media industry as a whole and I'm going to talk to you about
what makes a good SEO agency and what makes a bad SEO agency. And altogether you're going
to have some information that will help you pick the right SEO agency for you and that
you can get results. Okay so, social media is a very, very fast-moving industry. It's
still a relative new method of marketing. Okay. It's not been around that long when
you think about it. And things are really moving on a - just really fast. Okay. And there
are changes happening almost every month. Okay. And there's always a new technique.
There might be a new social media channel that comes out or a site that comes out
and it can be very overwhelming. Now, the truth is, is that, any social media agency-
nobody knows everything. We are all in the same boat if the truth be told. But what you
want is a social media agency. Who is forward thinking. Who is being proactive and learning
and keeping abreast of all the latest social media trends that are happening. And not relying
on technique or tactics that happened- that you could use back in 2008. Okay because not
everything is going to be applicable to 2014 at the time of this video. So you need to
make sure that the social media agency is forward thinking thats number 1. Make sure
they are up to date and that they use the latest social media techniques. That's number
1. Not everybody does that. And I'm going to go into that a bit more. The second thing
and this is really, really important is that, you don't need to be on every social media
platform that out there. Okay I know that there are people who say well you have to
be on Facebook because what there close to a billion people on it now. And you have to
be on twitter. And you have to be on this and you have to be on that. The truth is don't.
And this going to link in nicely with the next part. What is your plan? Whenever anybody
comes up to me and they want some social media services let me tell you what I ask them.
They'll go through the usually thing, okay we've tried this we've tried that. It's not
working. And I would ask 2 questions. Maybe 3 questions. Number 1 is, what is your marketing
plan? To which they will say either we don't have one or they'll say we have one, but it's
not really a plan as such. Okay. The second thing I'll ask is. What is your content marketing
plan? To which most of the times they'll say what's that. Or say no we don't have one.
Why am I saying this. Number one. The marketing plan. The marketing plan is your foundation.
What I mean by that is it's well, Khemeia believe that it's things to do with your turnover.
What do you want to be turning over, over the next there years? Where do you want to
operating geographically? Okay. In the Uk is it locally in Yorkshire. Is it city specific?
Is it Europe. Is it international. What is it? What kind on industry do you what to be
working with or where do you want to be going? Are you wanting to target certain niche industry.
Or are you going for this industry over here. This industry over here. Where are you trying
to go? Okay. Marketing has to intrinsically linked to your finances. If your not doing
it with a financial aim i.e make money or a profit. You are just wasting time. You are
messing about. I was going to say something. But I better not say that. You will be messing
around on Facebook. Okay. Your marketing has to bring back a return, a return on investment.
ROI. and it's not a return on influence. Which a lot of these social media gurus are say
now. That's just cliche. That's just a cop out. Because they don't know how to make money
online. That's not why your doing this. You are not on social media as a business. You
are not on social media just because you want- just for the fun of it. Because you've got
nothing else better to do. Your running a business. Your trying to make money are you?
Or have you found another way to pay bills, that I don't know about. Okay so what's you
turnover. And you'll be surprised. I've been in meetings, consultancy meetings with companies.
And I'll ask these basic questions. And they all think they know the answers. But one person.
I'll say what's your turnover for the next three years? And you'll be surprised how often
this happens. Where one person will go. Well in three years we want to be turning over
3 million. And then one of the partners will go woah woah woah what re you talking about.
3 million that's too much. And they disagree already. I'll say where do you want to be
operating geographically. One person will say well we just want to be operating in Yorkshire.
And someone else will go woah hang on a second. I thought we were supposed to be going to
Europe. And they have an argument right in front of me. If those basic things are not
in place if there're not agreed upon. How is your marketing goings even. Work. 'Cause
you confused as a company. How can you clearly communicate to your customers. If you confused
yourselves. It's not going to work. Think of it like building a house. When your building
a house do you start with the windows or do you start with the foundation? And I'm praying
you say you start with the foundation. Okay. You start with the foundation. That's what
your marketing plan is. It's the foundation of everything. Do not even bother going on
Facebook. Don't even bother going on twitter or doing anything else until, you've got that
foundation in place. Second of all the content plan. The strength of your social media is
determined by the strength of your content. Content drives social media. You may have
heard this phrase. Content is king. And where hear a lot of social media agencies still
saying this. And it's incorrect. Well sorry. It's not that it's incorrect it's incomplete.
Content is not king. Compelling content is king. There's a Hugh difference. Anybody can
make content. Just because you make content doesn't automatically make it good content.
Just like everything else. There is good content, there is bad content. Band content FYI does
not get shared. It does not get retweeted. It's does not get liked. It's does get engagement.
But good content, compelling content, awesome content get shared, gets liked, get engagement,
spreads and generates you new business. That the difference okay. So you need a marketing
content plan. Now the state of social media in Leeds. Now if you've engaged with a social
media agency in Leeds, Yorkshire, where ever it is where you are. Okay. Have, are they
going to wrap that social media thing and base it upon a solid marketing plan and a
content plan. Why is that important Haroon. I still don't get it. Okay. Picture this.
Monday morning. Your going to work, you fire up your computer or whatever. And you log
on to Facebook. There's a thing that says update status. Is there not. What are you
going to put in there? You need content. Right? You need something to out in that status bar.
It's content. Well, I don't know what to say then. What do I say? Exactly that's content.
And I do talks all over the UK and I say it this way. And it kinda just clicks. You can
hear the penny drop. You need content guys. Is it videos. It is podcasts. Is is blog post.
Is it ebooks. Is it a show. Like what your watching right now. This is content what your
watching right now. And this show by the way, Haroon's hangout, by the way in case you didn't
know I've been privileged to know that this show has been featured internationally. Okay.
That's insane. I'm a bradford born lad. Bradford born and raised. And I was featured on CBC
radio. International radio, that national radio in Canada. Okay. Out of everybody they
could have picked. They could have picked anyone from Canada. A social media expert
in the US, or Europe whatever. But they chose a lad from bradford. That is funny. That's
insane. But it's because I've got that solid marketing plan. I have a content plan and
a strategy and I'm consistent with what I do. Okay. And you can have the say thing as
well. So when your trying to engage with someone. It's really important that you ask them. Are
you fought. Are you going to help me with my marketing plan. Can you do that? Or can
you work with someone to get that marketing plan sorted. Ask them about content. Cause
if they say their gonna tweet for you for example. Ask them what are you gonna tweet?
I wanna know. Dot. Be sharing other peoples content. Okay. You can share other peoples
content, yes do it. And we do that. But the real leads, the really good leads and the
really strong leads are gonna come from your own content. Your own content will bring you
more business more leads. More inquiries that what you want. So ask them. How are you going
to do that for me. Right. This is not just a problem that is linked with Leeds and Yorkshire.
Okay this is national and international. Okay. And I don't mean to say this, that we're the
only good social media agency in Leeds or Yorkshire. Okay. There are other good ones.
There are good social media agencies around. But you have to pick the ones that think a
certain way. Like I said they have to be proactive at the beginning remember. They have to be
proactive. They have to be forward thinking. They have to base it around a marketing plan
and a content plan. If those things are not being talked about. Run for the hills. There
are not for you. I'm not saying this to bad mouth anybody. And I'm not mentioning any
names. But our whole thing at Khemeia is that we want you guys to succeed. We want your
business to generate lead and sales online. We want you to succeed. Okay. That our only
heart. That's our hearts desire. If you wanna put it that way. Okay. So when your engaging
with a social media company whoever it is, where ever they are. Ask them. Do you keep
up to date? Demonstrate to me that you keep up to date with the latest social media trends
or digital marketing techniques. Number 2. How can we sort the marketing plan out? Can
you help me with that. Or do we outsource that to somebody else. Do you have a good
network of other companies that you can call upon to help me with his. And who's gonna
sort the content. I mean content plan, content strategy. Who's gonna create the content because
videos don't just appear. They need to be shot, edited, optimized and released. Okay.
Social media agencies should do much more than posting for you. Let me give you a little
tip. Buffer app. If you Google buffer app. All one word that's a schedule thing for you.
You can use hootsuite. You can use TweetDeck. All these are scheduling bits of software.
You can do that for free yourself man. Seriously. Why are you paying a social media agency to
do that for you. You can do yourself. Why are you wasting your money for. It doesn't
make sense to us at Khemeia. What they should be able to help you with is, how to create
that content. What is going to be that compelling content. What do I really- how am I gonna
solve me customers problems and needs. That is the difference marker. That is the kind
of agency you want. And this is the thing now. Hopefully with this in mind when you
talk to any social media agency you'll be able to pick the good ones and the bad ones.
Okay. Everyone has their own way of doing it. And it might not exactly be the way we
do it. But there should be those kind of this running through their process at least. Okay
I'm gonna leave it there today guys. I hope that you found it useful. As always feel free
to comment on the blog or the YouTube videos. And check out the show notes as well. They'll
be some more information over their at Khemeiaconsulting.com. And yeah, if you need anymore help with any
of this. If you need us to go into more depth or anything. comment. As always guys if your
a social media agency and you don't like what I've said. Don't shout too loud we might know
that it's you that's causing the problem for a lot of people. Cool. Well as you know Haroon's
Hangout, every Wednesday 10am GMT. Where we make digital marketing simple, straightforward
and fun. And next week Wednesday. Is a special show because I'll be welcoming my good friend
Mr. John Haydon back in the show. Where we will be talking about the brain science behind
content marketing. Very appropriate as we've just talked about that today. They'll be a
special link below. Where you can click and find out more about that. And you can watch
us live, I think it might be at 8pm GMT. Because of the time difference. Do check that out.
It's gonna be a great show. Have you got anything to say. Till then. Take care sports fans.