1. Peter Levitan & Co. The New Business of Advertising.peter@peterlevitan.com | 1.541.419.2309 | www.peterlevitan.com11,247th Blog Post On Advertising Agency Social MediaThere are over 177,000,000 results for the search phrase advertising agency socialmedia on Google. There are now whole industries based on social media advice. So, inthe interest of piling on Im about to add one more blog post on social media andadvertising.But, before I start, lets make sure we agree on what social media is. Here is a concisedefinition from Dictionary.com that includes the critical object of increasing sales.Web sites and other online means of communication that are used by large groups ofpeople to share information and to develop social and professional contacts: manybusinesses are utilizing social media to generate sales.Just in case you are still wavering about how much effort to put into social mediaHere are 17 reasons that ad agencies should use social media as a new businesstool.1. When managed systematically, the strategic use of social media will driveinbound attention for your agency.2. Social media will support your agency positioning and drive awareness of yourthought-leadership.3. Social media is relatively easy to create and manage. If your mother can do it,you can do it too.4. Social media is easier to update than your agency website.5. There are lots of platforms to choose from: Twitter, blogs, Pinterest, Facebook,LinkedIn, G+, YouTube, Tumblr, Wikipedia and SlideShare. Each has uniquestrategic benefits and workload -- choose carefully. More are coming.6. You will have a corporate LinkedIn page as another agency marketing platform.All of your employees will link to it.7. You will use social platforms for direct marketing. For example, you will usetwitters @ to directly contact client prospects.8. All social platforms, like your blog and Twitter, will be seamlessly linked togetherfor efficiency and traffic generation.9. Social Media is integral to the agency SEO program. After only one month, myPinterest advertising agency website directory is appearing on the first page ofGoogle results.10. You will learn to use social media analytics to continuously improve yourprograms.11. You will stay up to date with the evolving state of mobile social media.

2. Peter Levitan & Co. The New Business of Advertising.peter@peterlevitan.com | 1.541.419.2309 | www.peterlevitan.com212. Your strategic use of social media will help you look like an expert to your clients.You will walk the talk.13. Do social right and you will generate positive case histories based on yourexpertise. Im building a case right now for my Pinterest strategy (visit myadvertising agency directory www.pinterest.com/peterlevitan.14. You will use social to do agency and client research. Twitter remains anuntapped resource for following news on perspective clients.15. You will use social media to better understand a potential clients online audienceand brand perception.16. Your social media expertise will make you will look smarter in pitches.17. You will undoubtedly use your social media expertise to create award-winningprograms like Projectors Facebook work for Intel.All is not rosy. Here are 7 reasons not to use social media.1. Agency senior management does not really get it - at all.2. Your agency is not capable of making an adequate time and intellectualcommitment to marketing via social media.3. You dont have one or more people dedicated to owning the social program andits on-going success.4. You will be inconsistent. You really dont want to be the agency with 4-month-oldTweets.5. You wont make the effort to integrate your social media program into you agencymarketing plan.6. You think that all you have to do is a little bit of social media and youll quickly getlots of incoming calls from prospective clients.7. You dont have a distinctive agency positioning, message or voice to promote.Me-too messaging wont make a dent in this space.8. You wont stand out. Just take a look at how few advertising or digital agencyblogs are on Ad Ages Power 150 list of influential blogs.So, what is my bottom line?Ive used social media since the 1990s to grow companies (online newspapers) andwebsite traffic (over 20 million users for my SmarterChild Instant Messaging bot.However, like any effective new business tool, the use of social media must be strategic,linked to an expertise-based content strategy, be targeted and needs at least weeklyoversight.Contact me.I know Ive written a lot to chew on. Leverage this experience. Lets talk and get going onbuilding a strategic, manageable social media program for your agency.