“On Tuesday a federal judge in New York ruled that Fox Searchlight Pictures broke federal labor law and New York state minimum wage laws when it employed two production interns, Eric Glatt and Alexander Footman, on the film Black Swan, for no pay.”

Many in the marketing and advertising industry have a number of interns at any time. Many more in the Twin Cities area pay little to nothing for the work of their interns. We believe from a culture perspective, it’s truly our job both follow state and national labor regulations and also pay interns a healthy sum, (well over minimum wage.) The reason is this: We can capture and train entry-level social media and marketing employees, who come from other areas in the business world. So far, we’ve hired on every single, “intern” that has put in their 3-month commitment with us.

Like many other organizations, we worried about moving our employees to a flexible work environment. We took small steps with thought-out measurements and plans in place. First, we instituted, “Core hours.” From 10am – 3pm, we believed that offering a collaborative employee environment, (often with bagels and coffee,) allowed our team members to work together and both strategically and creatively bring SMCpros to the next level.

“My job at SMCpros is to build a Great Company in the social media industry. To do this, every day I think about ways to continuously differentiate SMCpros in the marketplace. Many companies have internship programs that provide employees with somebody to get them coffee and do data entry. At SMCpros, we have our interns work on important Company projects that provide valuable learning experiences for them as well as help us accelerate our journey of building a Great Company in the social media industry.” – SMCpros CEO, Tyler Olson

After core hours were instituted, we saw very rare instances of abuse. In fact, no warnings occurred, nor did we have to worry that someone was trying to, “game” the system. The system worked so well, we started allowing our Account Executives even more flexibility within their hours and most started, “working from home,” one day a week.

We manage to source and hire some of the best in the business. I really believe that is because we strive to actively take part in our employees’ wants, needs and aspirations, as well as creating a culture of life-long learning and accelerated growth.

Did you know that our interns are salaried, W-2 employees? We offer a robust training program and time with each member of the team to fully understand our 3D process of, “Discover, Develop, Deliver.” Most importantly, our interns never get coffee, empty the trash or clean up the messes of others around them. They are valued and trusted with our process, deliverables and client relationships. If you want to know what SMCpros will look like in 3-6 months, stop on in. We’d love to have you stop in, say hi and meet the next generation of, “pros.”

If you’re interested in employment at SMCpros, we are currently recruiting for the following roles:

• Sales Executive

• Client Services Director

• Front-End / Back-End Developer

You may apply via: http://smcpros.com/careers/. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me directly at: khindes@smcpros.com. (SMCpros is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is proud to source from the Veteran community.)

The post Our Interns Are Worth It: A Look At Why We Pay Interns and Offer Flexibility Within Our Workplace appeared first on SMCPros.

SMCpros is experiencing another year of tremendous growth and is in need of a Front End and Back End Developer to help create applications, platforms and websites for our clients.

Our Level Of Service Is Second To None. As our Developer you’ll continue a legacy of exceeding client satisfaction by leading our teams and partners to deliver extraordinary results, while staying firm to the bottom line.

This Role Is Instrumental To Our Success

In this rewarding position you’ll assist a variety of national clients with their social media presence, marketing strategy and online voice. You’ll be instrumental in showcasing the importance of measured online engagement through Facebook pages, blogs and more. Our ideal candidate has:

• 1+ years of experience as a web designer/developer
• 2+ years of project management working with others
• Experience with websites where the content is managed within a content management system; experience implementing and administering web content management systems (specifically WordPress)
• Experience designing, developing, implementing Facebook applications / Facebook Tabs
• Proficiency working with ecommerce platforms (e.g., Magento, Cart66, etc.)
• Demonstrated knowledge of and experience using web-based tools, technologies, practices, and web authoring software, HTML, and CSS to create web templates and style sheets, websites, and web features
• Experience and knowledge of web-based practices, tools, and technologies – web analytics, user experience, information architecture, usability, accessibility,  web content management systems, search marketing, online marketing and social media strategy, project management programs (e.g., Basecamp)
• Technical expertise and experience with programs such as WordPress, PHP, CSS,  HTML5, MySQL,  Server Management (SSH / Cpanel / Linux etc.), Javascript, ASP, RSS, XML,  social media APIs, jQuery,  AJAX, coding websites for functionality across mobile and other devices, accessibility, usability, and search optimization.

Are You One Of The Best?                                              

At SMCpros, we hire the best on the market. Almost all of our employees have left their own successful businesses to come create change within the marketing and advertising industry.

Who We Are…

SMCpros is the most up and coming social media consulting firm in the Twin Cities. We tripled our growth last year and we’re on goal to double again this year. We offer a truly competitive salary and excellent benefits including health insurance, generous vacation and a flexible work environment.

Apply Today:

To apply, send an email to: khindes@smcpros.com with questions, or apply via: http://smcpros.com/careers. Please include a personalized cover letter, resume and salary expectations. SMCpros is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Veterans are strongly encouraged to apply. 

The post If You’re A Developer, We Want You Here! appeared first on SMCPros.

Our Level Of Service Is Second To None. As our Client Services Director, (CSD,) you’ll continue a legacy of exceeding client satisfaction by leading our teams and partners to deliver extraordinary results, while staying firm to the bottom line.

This Role Is Instrumental To Our Success. The CSD will be responsible for all things related to client satisfaction, producing the best deliverables in the marketplace and exceeding Company margin goals. Key responsibilities include:

• Leadership: Our client services team needs a leader. Somebody who can:

-       Inspires people to be their best and lead by example

-       Leads by example

-       Builds credibility and respect

-       Creates collaboration and innovation

-       Passionate about the timely delivery of all of our work

-       Succeeds in the clutch moments

• Training: We will expect our CSD to be able to directly or indirectly provide the training our team needs to continue to be best-in-class.

• Rewarding: To succeed, our Company needs to continually build innovation and excellence. We never compromise one for the other, instead we focus on evolving each project to its best and delivering quality results. The CSD is in charge for rewarding their team members and celebrating client launches.

• Resource Forecasting: The CSD will be expected to be able to see the future demands on the service team and plan resources for those needs accordingly.

• Drive for Excellence: As a Company who has a commitment to growth and continuous improvement, the CSD will be responsible for driving the Company towards excellence in work quality, expectation management, and personal and professional growth for the client services team.

• Reasoning: To succeed in this role, our CSD will need to be able to reason through data including team hours, margin on projects, client success benchmarks, and revenue flow to help the Company make smart decisions.

• Create and Manage Global Processes: To succeed in a CSD role, you’ll need significant experience creating, implementing, and managing Company-wide processes.

• Media Planning: Our ideal candidate has extensive experience in media and campaign planning.

• Facilitate New Client Kickoffs: With new clients come new team resource requirements, process implementation requirements, integration with other Company departments, etc. The CSD will be responsible for a smooth integration of new clients into the Company.

Are You One Of The Best?

At SMCpros, we hire the best on the market. Almost all of our employees have left their own successful businesses to come create change within the marketing and advertising industry. We ask that you have 10+ years’ experience in the above bulleted points and a college degree. (Candidates with a Master’s degree are preferred.) This position may require travel, or occasional after hours meetings and prep.

Who We Are…

SMCpros is the most up and coming social media consulting firm in the Twin Cities. We tripled our growth last year and we’re on goal to double again this year. We offer a truly competitive salary and excellent benefits including health insurance, generous vacation and a flexible work environment.

Apply Today:

To apply, send an email to: khindes@smcpros.com with questions, or apply via: http://smcpros.com/careers. Please include a personalized cover letter, resume and salary expectations. SMCpros is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Veterans are strongly encouraged to apply.

The post Join the BEST Advertising & Marketing Agency In the Twin Cities appeared first on SMCPros.

Being visual without sacrificing valuable words can provide a large boost to your overall strategy. Posts on social media that include images and/or videos get the most engagement, and using visuals effectively can aid in conveying your message. This is where video content strategy, in particular, can come into play. Videos can be entertaining and informative, engaging and useful all at the same time. Mastering the balance among these can be tricky, but the numbers speak for themselves.

YouTube is the second largest search engine on the Internet, and the average viewer watches 20 hours of video per month. Your message has as opportunity to become part of those hours, and getting that message to your potential viewers effectively is most of the battle. Anyone can create a video, but creating a strategic video that makes your message stick is the most difficult part.

Whiteboard animation videos are one of the most effective video production styles to rise to the surface in recent years. What makes it so effective? It can be best explained as an authentic, exclusive medium that takes your message and injects into it the limitless possibilities of animation. Nearly any topic can be broadcast to nearly any audience, and the uniqueness of whiteboard animations makes the images stick in the mind of the viewer. So, how does one go about creating a whiteboard animation? There are companies out there that specialize in this type of media production, one of which is TruScribe.

The team at TruScribe has got video whiteboard animation down to a science, literally. They refer to the process as “Scribology”, and in their own words, the science of Scribology will, “…simplify and clearly relay your message straight into the viewer’s brain folds.” Sounds pretty cool, huh? The video below is just one example of their awesome work:

The post Online Content Strategy – Video Content appeared first on SMCPros.

When considering the demographics for your online presence, depending on the industry and the audience, including forums could be very worth your while. An example from my own bag of personal hobbies is the automotive tuning industry. Let’s say you’re a company like APR, and you produce performance parts for European cars. If your customers have questions about your products, are weighing their options between your products and another brand, or if they’re just chatting about how much they like (or don’t like) your products, there’s a good chance that some, if not all of those discussions are happening on forums.

The automotive industry is home to some of the largest forums around, and APR has made the smart decision and gotten involved on the forums that matter most to them. They’ve got their own dedicated page on Golfmk6.com, in addition to pages on other similar forums. They also have company representatives that bounce around the various forums and engage with members, answering questions, correcting falsities about their products and providing all sorts of other general information for thousands of online enthusiasts.

In this sense, the forum has evolved into yet another arm for customer service. While social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can provide a similar style of engagement and interaction, there is usually the addition of product-pushing and marketing tactics. Forums differ in that, for the most part, the only communication that goes on between company and consumer is customer service oriented. If your business relies heavily on customer service and customer engagement, and if there are active forums in your industry, having a presence on those channels could prove to be very, very valuable. Relationship building and customer interaction is crucial for any business, and no matter where the important conversations are happening, you’ll want to be a part of them!

The post Don’t Ignore The Forums appeared first on SMCPros.

While it isn’t necessary or required for an individual or agency to become AdWords certified in order to use Google AdWords, it is a nice addition to a résumé and a nice piece of accreditation to hang on the office wall. Being certified obviously doesn’t make you or your agency automatically more skilled, but it can help to bring in new clients who may have otherwise overlooked you.

In addition to bringing in new business, going through the Google certification process can also serve as a valuable teaching tool for anyone who isn’t very well-versed in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Some of the questions serve as more general knowledge, while others are tailored specifically for Google AdWords and don’t translate into other online PPC platforms, such as LinkedIn or Facebook.

All in all, we would recommend becoming Google AdWords Certified, as an individual or as a business. If you’re already experienced with advertising, the questions on the tests may be simple and the tests may not teach you anything that you don’t already know, but having the certification is worth the time and energy if it generates new business or helps you land a new job!

The post Becoming Google AdWords Certified appeared first on SMCPros.

SMCpros recently hosted our second Twitter chat, and without meaning to boast, the results were fantastic. With solid engagement and conversation for the duration of the chat, we felt that this was definitely blog worthy. The figure on the right shows the statistics from all tweets containing #SMCchats within 24 hours of the end of the chat, and below are some vital statistics and screen shots:

The Stats:

+ Impressions: 272,402

+ Participants: 10

+ Mentions: 32

+ Retweets:  2

+ Favorites:  4 

+ New Followers: 1 

The post Twitter Chat Success – Round Two appeared first on SMCPros.

Content related activities include: Day-to-day management and development of editorial content for social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Blog); Working directly with the marketing and sales team to develop an ongoing communication strategy and publishing calendar based on marketing objectives and community feedback; Engaging with stakeholders internally to identify content opportunities

Community interaction activities include: Proactively interacting with online communities across all platforms; Generating community dialogue, buzz and interaction, and conduct outreach; Answering questions and engage in conversation where necessary; Establishing online relationships with the media (PR outreach); Managing brand reputation

Monitoring activities include: Using social media monitoring tools to monitor conversations, reporting on metrics; Routing conversations to appropriate internal team for response, as necessary

Job Requirements are as follows:

• Undergraduate with a minimum of two years completed in either marketing, communications, public relations or a current MBA student with a concentration in any of these areas.

• 4+ years experience in online marketing with focus on social media

• Strong knowledge of social media monitoring tools and metrics with a passion for using them in your every day life

• Ability to manage multiple tasks in a dynamic, fast-paced environment

As a start-up that is passionate about services, products and clients, SMCpros has a unique culture. We are data-driven and expect documented results, with a flexible work schedule. We believe in over-delivering so that we maintain our professional presence in the market. Most importantly, we have fun. We passionately believe that if you are not having fun at work, you’re at the wrong company. We are an ROWE employer. If interested, please email: khindes@smcpros.com.

The post Are You A Community Manager? We’re Hiring! appeared first on SMCPros.

To summarize, a restaurant called Amy’s Baking Company in Scottsdale, Arizona was recently featured on the popular television show Kitchen Nightmares, hosted by celebrity chef, Gordon Ramsay. The theme of the show is simple; a restaurant is struggling, they phone Ramsay, who then swoops in and rescues the flailing business. Many of the restaurants claim to be “successful”, that they serve above mediocre food, that they have an ounce of respect for their staff and so on, but if any of these were true, they wouldn’t have called Mr. Ramsay in the first place, right? We’ll gloss over that for now. Needless to say, before, during and after their meltdown, Amy’s Baking Company has claimed all of these things.

During the episode, which aired on Friday, May 10^th, something extraordinary happened; for the first time in Kitchen Nightmares history, Ramsay threw in the towel, gave up and walked away. As an avid Kitchen Nightmares viewer, I’ve seen him come close to giving up on a few occasions, but Amy and Samy Bouzaglo, owners of Amy’s Baking Company, seem to have found a way to break the determined Scotsman. After the show had aired, and after many of the gruesome details about Amy’s Baking Company had been revealed, discussions on Reddit began, which linked readers to the Amy’s Baking Company Facebook page. Amy and Samy then took to Facebook on Monday evening to respond, acting as Amy’s Baking Company, to the mounting criticisms. This is what happened next:

Like I said, this might just be the worst social media disaster since the invention of Facebook. Now that we’ve seen what can go wrong, let’s focus on how to avoid such a calamity, and what to do if you find yourself in the middle of one. Here are what we believe to be the top tips from Forbes on avoiding and dealing with a social media crisis, along with a couple of our own recommendations:

Don’t reply to everyone

• The Internet is bigger than you are. For every comment that you respond you, you can expect many more responses to your reply. You won’t be able to keep up, and before you know it, you’ll be drowning, just as Amy’s Baking Company was. Instead, be selective with whom you respond to and how you respond.

Don’t insult people

• As you can see above, Amy’s Baking Company didn’t exactly do a great job at this. As a brand, you need to be able to take criticism constructively, and not personally. Responding with attacks and insults is unprofessional and only makes your brand look bad.

Don’t Lie

• Posted last night from Amy’s Baking Company, this is another prime example of what not to do on social media. If you’re going to embarrass yourself and your brand, at least take responsibility for it. People will know if you’re lying and will have even less respect for you as a result.

Be Smart About What You Say

• It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. You can defend your brand without sounding overly defensive, and in the PR world, how you say what you say is everything. Be calm, cool and collected, and you will come out looking much better than you would if you acted aggressively and defensively. 

Have A Crisis Plan In Place

• The best way to avoid a social media crisis is to have a plan in place before it starts. If you can sense tension building on your social media channels, you need have your responses ready to go and have people in place to monitor the conversation. There’s no harm in being prepared, and even if you never have to use your plan, at least you’ll be ready. 

The post Social Media Crisis Management appeared first on SMCPros.

Let’s start with something that we can all understand; money. Print advertising can be very expensive, and you can’t really be sure that your dollars are being put to good use.  Let’s say that a magazine has a maximum readership of 30,000, and it costs you $1,500 to run a half-page ad for one month. In a best-case scenario, the maximum amount of people that your $1,500 ad could reach is 30,000. Want a full-page ad? That’ll cost you $2,500, but here’s the kicker: you’ve just spent an extra grand, with little to no guarantee that your ad is ever going to reach anything close to 30,000 people. After the issue of the magazine with your ad goes on sale, can you tell how many impressions you got from your ad? Not unless you personally call all of the subscribers and ask, which would be a bit of a pain, to put it nicely.

In terms of money spent wisely, online advertising wins, hands-down. First and foremost, you set your budget, not Facebook, Google, LinkedIn or whichever site you choose to advertise with. Want to spend $10? No problem. Want to spend $3,000? Go right ahead! An important distinction between online and print advertising is that you only pay for the individual clicks that your ads get, nothing more and nothing less. If you set your budget at $3,000, but only get $500 worth of clicks, you only pay $500. If you run a print ad for $3,000 but only 50 people see it, you’re out $3,000, and you may not have turned any of those people into new customers. Online: 1, Print: 0.

Now, let’s talk about customization and track-ability; we’ll use Facebook as an example. Before my Facebook ad campaign begins, I can set my budget, my target audience and the length of my campaign. I can tailor my ad for any audience on Facebook based on pages and interests that they like, age, gender and location, right down to the zip code. What types of hobbies do the 50 people that saw your magazine ad enjoy? Your guess is as good as mine. Online: 2, Print: 0. 

We already know that after your $3,000 print ad gets published, there is no realistic way for you to track its performance. The same does not hold true for my hypothetical Facebook campaign. During my campaign, I can see how many impressions, clicks, actions and page “Likes” each of my ads have generated down to the minute, and I can continuously edit any aspect of my ads (headline, copy, image) throughout the campaign. After my campaign has ended, I can view every important statistic known to the advertising world, and base my next campaign around these statistics. Online: 3, Print: 0.

If there is one important point that I’d like you to take away from this, it’s that data drives smart advertising. Online advertising has it, and print media simply doesn’t. Your audience is on Facebook and they’re interested in you and your business – all you have to do is get in front of them. Why not do it in the most cost-effective way possible?

The post Online vs. Print Advertising, Why Print is Losing appeared first on SMCPros.