Have you ever walked into a store to inquire about a deal that you came across in a magazine, or heard on TV only to come across eager salespeople that have no idea what deal you’re talking about? This unfortunately happens a lot not only in big franchises but I would guess the majority of small businesses and franchisees. Now with social media and digital marketing  as a whole growing to be a dominate portion of ad dollars a lot of businesses are turning to outside agencies to spread their brand in all online channels. Which is not a bad thing especially if you do have an in house “digital quarterback,” they can’t possible do all of it on their own. Now that isn’t the issue, it’s really just the lack of communication internally which is the biggest fail of why sales teams aren’t informed of marketing deals in traditional and digital ads. But, that’s an entirely different topic all together.

The biggest mistake I see businesses make is getting gungho that they finally have a solid digital marketing strategy and have incorporated social media into the mix successfully, but treat it as though it’s on pilot drive and fail to revisit their digital storefront exposure. This is how companies can really appear to be, well…. dumb. For example if your agency is managing your social community, and they’re posting and advertising contests to get fans engaged, but internally no one in your company knows what’s going on. How does that make the business look?

Social Media has allowed us to get information out to the masses in seconds. This makes it even more important for companies to have that internal communication. So many businesses treat digital as a separate thing that’s just kind of out there, (especially the car business).  Really if you follow this rule of the thumb: If it’s on the internet chances are someone saw it! So if you do have that “digital quarterback” in house or at least an internal liaison for your outside relationships be sure the strategy is thought out first and all communication has been spread through out the company before posting it first!

Have you come across this before?

Ciao~

Your Diva @taneshawhite