Steve Pearson on the Future of Social Media Management

(Newswire.net — July 2, 2015) Salem, UT –Social media is a way of life for many, which makes it a great marketing tool for businesses. Although many were early adopters to social media marketing, some companies are just getting started. Utah-based Friendemic has been helping businesses make sense of social media for the last four and half years, which practically makes them veterans in the industry.

Friendemic offers both software and services to help businesses manage their online reputation and social media account. The most powerful way to sell has always been through word of mouth. By marketing through online channels, Friendemic allows companies to be better positioned when that word of mouth manifests online.

“We have a number of different software modules” said Steve Pearson, CEO of Friendemic. “We monitor online comments about your business, particularly on the major online review sites as well as social networks. We also provide detailed reporting analytics, so you’re able to see what’s happening on your social media channels and really be able to calculate the value of the work and effort you or others are putting into those marketing channels in a way that is difficult for many businesses.” If you’re a “do-it-yourself-er,” Friendemic can help you too.  ”We also have a number of workflow management tools so if you are running your own social media marketing in-house, you can do so in a more efficient and trackable manner.”

Friendemic offers tools and services that many of their competitors don’t. Pearson said, “We like to see ourselves as hi-tech, we’re going to provide you the tools to do it efficiently as well. But we’re going to work together very closely with you to get it done. All we do is social media.”

Having an expert walk the client through the processes on what needs to happen has great value for any business. Many businesses still haven’t figured out how social media works and it continues to evolve on a daily basis. For example, Facebook now provides more data than any other form of marketing through pay-per-click. It has become a very effective, provable marketing tool. Any company would be able to see their return on investment using this marketing tool.

For clients who might be skeptical at first, Pearson shared that it’s fun to show them everything they have achieved over time. Last year Pearson went back to 2014 and added up all the work that had been done for all of their clients. Their clients cumulatively got multiple times more impressions than a Super Bowl advertisement. Cars were sold on Twitter and consumers were being advertised and marketed to with meaningful results. With Friendemic, clients got much more than they expect.

As Pearson helps businesses understand the value of their investment, he also sees the value of his investment in his 30+ employees. Most of them are based in Salt Lake City where they take care of all of their service and fulfillment.

When it comes to hiring, Pearson believes a company is  greatly influenced by each member of their team. While interviewing, he not only looks at their skill but at their background to see if that person has something to teach others in the company. Pearson doesn’t penalize someone who has taken the chance on a start-up company, worked hard on it for a couple of years, and then folded. He actually looks favorably at those individuals. It’s not every day you  find those who are willing to take a chance and are eager to  improve the company culture.

Company culture is foundational for Friendemic. Pearson stated, “I would say it’s a basic piece of what we do. We’re in social media, and part of social media is being social. In order to do a good job at it, we believe that we need to be having fun. It’s about having conversations, real engagements and interactions with customers and potential customers of our clients. Essential to that is our employees feeling engaged. We can’t have people who are just sitting back at a computer checking off a list without any sort of energy or enthusiasm. We feel having that excitement is really critical to what we do.”

Pearson continued, “We do a lot of things to keep that going. We have little competitions and games. We do Friday lunches every week together. We actually have an all company huddle twice a week with the whole company and we share success stories. You can do a lot of things to affect culture, but really culture comes from your people.”

Pearson joined Friendemic two years ago after starting his career with a large national consulting firm in Silicon Valley. He progressed his way into smaller and smaller companies because he preferred being involved in the details where he could really shape strategy and become engaged in the operations. Being able to know all of the employees and creating a tight community within a company was always appealing to Pearson.

Pearson spends a lot of his time encouraging and developing excitement, energy, and passion among his own team. He said that the best way to keep it going is by bringing in new business. When new clients are brought in, Pearson helps create an enthusiastic atmosphere so his team enjoys building that trust and showing the client that Friendemic is a valuable asset to their public and online reputations. Bringing new deals to the table helps that constant flow of energy.

Creating a mindset is also important at Friendemic. Pearson used to think that as long as you had a task to work on and it gets done, that was a description of your success. There’s so much more to being successful than checking things off a list; like being aware of the team, aware of what they’re working towards, and knowing how to help them achieve those goals. This is how success is measured.