Your Advertising Agency and Social Media. Oh, And Your Business Development Program.

I am updating this older relatively well-read blog post about the how-to make it happen for an advertising agency social media program. Updating is a good blog strategy to help Google love you.

Does Advertising Agency Social Media Work Anymore (As In Drive Incoming Leads)?

Start here: “Which Social Media Strategy Is Best For Advertising Agency New Business?” I am not going to bullshit you. There is no perfect social media platform for advertising agency new business. Why? Cause ya know… the devil is in the details, and your details might just be different than the agency down the road.

2024.

I originally wrote this very viewed advertising agency social media blog post back in 2014. Yikes. Time for an update, right? Like I said… Updating old blog posts that once had decent activity is critical to bumping them back up on Google searches. There is an art to this.

When I wrote this back in the good old days, blog posts by ad agencies had not yet exploded, Twitter posts had not yet exploded, Instagram was not yet a smash, TikTok had not been invented, and on. Here are some of those “we are now bombarded” stats.

Depending on who you listen to, you’ve got like 4,000 competitive agencies and freelancers.
How many blog posts are there today? Here is just one directional figure: there are “like” over 2 million blog posts daily – out of 1.7 billion websites. You think your ad agency can stand out?
From Claude: Assuming 85% of the 229 million daily active users on X, that’s around 195 million real users tweeting daily.
It’s estimated that around 200 million businesses across the world use Instagram each month. Around 90% of Instagram’s users follow at least one business account on the platform.
There seem to a billion LinkedIn posts a day.
I have over 6,000 “advertising people” connections, yet when I post on LinkedIn, I get maybe 80 individual post views. Pay per play, baby. It’s not so organic these days.

Do you get the idea here? You are kinda fucked if you think that your blogs, tweets, etc are gonna get noticed. You are competing with other, probably really good at SEO agencies.

The best I can do is share my personal experiences. First, here are my social media objectives.

Primary objective #1: Make being unignorable a serious objective. Passivity does not work.
Primary objective #2: Get qualified leads. In my case, my current target market includes small to medium-sized advertising, design and PR agencies that need some help, some spark, some insightful thinking and an action-oriented plan to help them build a more effective business development plan. These agencies have been located across the world.
Be efficient: Test. Pay attention to each social media’s analytics and do more of what is working. Figure out why some platforms are not working. Do not try to be everything on every platform. Keep it simple stupid.
Be productive: Blog / post / tweet / Insta / newsletter often. Plus really use LinkedIn’s tools. Pay them. It is now pay to play.
Use Artificial intelligence. ChatGPT, Claunde, etc., can help you create future client personas, deliver ideas about what your prospects need to hear from you, and even help you start writing your social media plan and even the stuff itself.

OK… here is my take on advertising agency social media.

Mas… Und Mas… 2024.

If you pay attention to one point…………. If you write me-to stuff, stop it. Same-old stuff is same-old. Unfortunately, I see this happening every day at too many agencies. Plus like really old thinking. Your future clants want valuable insights.

A tool for you: The only way you can figure this out is to look at your competitor’s blog posts / tweets, etc. And use tools like Ubersuggset.

Yes, inbound stuff still works. But you better work it. Do not count on it. Add powerful outbound, ala account based marketing that stands out.

To get past the barrage of messaging do the following.

Have a smart ad agency positioning. Sounds easy, right? If so, then, why do most agencies wallow in sameness? Please read this.
Be everywhere a potential client might look for you. You must be found if they are looking at an agency like yours.
Have a website that stands out. You will only get 8 seconds. Most agency websites are a bit lame. Me-too, too. Read these posts on how to build the best advertising agency websites.
Have a robust Account-Based Marketing program. Target your targets with brilliant outbound.
!!!!!! – Make business development a core client of your agency. 24/7.

Social Media Tools

Maybe: Twitter – OK X

~~Twitter~~ X is easy to use. All my blog posts go up automatically. I re-Tweet easily to help bulk up my content and to make friends. From time to time I use Twitter’s advertising tools to grow my Follower list. Things to keep in mind: Pay attention to what your audience wants (this is true for all social media, you know this – look at your competition), Tweet a few times a day, re-tweet, use the @ to let others know that you are alive (a nice simple new business tool), use hashtags, use one or more Twitter analytics tools…. the list is growing every day.

Pinterest – Um Why not?

I used Pinterest for my advertising agency directory. It got me some attention; Google liked it. I probably should have kept it up and used an assistant in the Philippines to help me out. This might be an interesting platform for you when you target a specific category. Pets, anyone?

Facebook

Sure it’s huge. So, I asked Claude what to do…

Here’s how to use Facebook for B2B marketing in a concise way:

Create a Business Page and optimize it with relevant info, visuals, and calls-to-action.

Join and be active in relevant Facebook Groups related to your industry/niche. Provide value, not just promotion.

Use Facebook Ads with precise targeting options to reach your B2B audience with content, offers, and lead gen campaigns.

Share educational content, case studies, and thought leadership posts to build authority and trust.

Go Live or use Facebook Stories to showcase expertise, product demos, or behind-the-scenes looks.

Run Facebook Events and invite prospects for webinars, workshops or networking opportunities.

Use Facebook Analytics to measure engagement, optimize your content and advertising strategies.

The key is to focus on providing value, building relationships, positioning your brand as an expert, and leveraging Facebook’s powerful targeting and advertising capabilities for B2B lead generation.

OK, one more one more point. Test targeted advertising on Facebook. It is a low-cost test.

Instagram

Not sure it works as a cial B2B site. But this gigantic platform could be for you if you use it to showcase agency culture or want to own a product or service category via thought –leadership. Imagine that you are an agency that wants a parakeet account. Then Instagram the hell out of parakeet photos. I bet the marketing assistant for the I Love Parakeets Brand bird food is trolling “parakeets” on Instagram. He will see you and track you down. Voila, your parakeet account.

Ok, Ok, LinkedIn – 7 How Too’s

This is the king of the B2B social media strategy universe.

You know it but I am baffled every day that more advertising agencies have not figured out how to squeeze every last drop of power out of this business tool. I really dug in when I published my books on agency pitching and agency management. LinkedIn is a backbone social media tool. I have a lot of posts on using LinkedIn. Here are the top 6 how toos to use LinkedIn’s paid premium services….

Here are 7 ways an advertising agency can use LinkedIn for business development:

Optimize your agency’s LinkedIn Company Page with a compelling overview, services offered, case studies, and examples of your work. Use this as a digital storefront.
Encourage employees, especially client-facing staff, to be active on LinkedIn – sharing insights, commenting on industry discussions, and building their personal brands. This raises the agency’s visibility.
Use LinkedIn’s advertising tools to run campaigns promoting your agency’s services, targeting specific demographics, industries, job roles, and companies you want to pursue.
Join and participate in relevant LinkedIn Groups where your prospective clients are. Provide value through advice and thought leadership rather than overtly selling.
Leverage LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator to identify and connect with specific decision-makers at companies that fit your ideal client profile. Use personalized outreach.
You can publish to the universe of LinkedIn users and also be highly targeted
Read and comment often on your prospect’s posts.

There are more reasons. Just do it.

OK, one more. (Yes, more OK) – Neil Patel has over 600,00 LinkedIn Followers. You know him right? He built his advertising agency using social media.

TikTok

People use TikTok as a search engine. I’ll keep this simple. Try it.

Today’s thinking: The casual, personal nature of TikTok may not align well with the professional, serious context that B2B companies often operate in. so, get ahead of it. Be an early adopter type.

Even more thinking – go here and read this deep blog post: How to Build A Winning Advertising Agency Business Development Program.

Wattch the video on how to be Unignorable.

Last thought.

Social media is way demanding. In addition to basing your choice of platform on your business objectives and target markets, make sure that you select platforms that you can feed weekly (even daily, it works). There is nothing worse than an empty blog post ad agency section or a LinkedIn page.

OK, there is worse. I have seen lots of ad agencies that include out of date all types of social media on their website. Wha?!

Visit My Mega Blog Post Archive – It Will Be Instructive

I’ve written over 600 blog posts on how you can grow your advertising agency. Head over here to see the complete list.