By Mark Macias
Many small businesses outsource their social media to PR or digital marketing agencies. Unfortunately, many of these business owners find out later that they don’t own the content that they paid for.
It’s a horrible situation for any business to experience. You pay for something but get nothing in return when it’s over. Unfortunately, I’ve seen it all too many times with restaurants, bars and entrepreneurs who didn’t do their homework.
Last year, our healthcare client asked me a question about her social media content. When I went to her company’s Facebook page and clicked on their posts, I noticed all of their content was forwarded to the social media agency – not the website of my client. This is extremely bad for her SEO and beneficial to the social media agency. In simple terms, Google was giving the social media agency the credit for the content – not the client who was paying for it.
Most people wouldn’t have bothered to look at the landing page, but I had seen this trick in the past with other social media agencies. Several years ago, we ran the PR for a wine bar in the East Village. The owner paid a social media agency to create her content and create her different social media pages. Unfortunately, when she canceled her agreement, the agency refused to give her access to the content that they had created. She had apparently signed away her rights to the content.
Social Media Agencies- Tricks Some Play on Clients
It’s so important to make sure you own the content that the social media or digital marketing agency is creating for you. These are minor details that can impact any business. Earlier this year, we started running social media for a law firm. I quickly told the law partner, make sure you own the social media pages they created for your firm. He emailed that firm and sure enough, his law firm didn’t have ownership or admin privileges.
These are some of the little secrets some unethnical digital agencies will do. Don’t fall for it. Do your homework. Make sure you own the content and always have the right to take ownership of the Facebook, instagram, Twitter accounts.
The VLOG above gives you more insight on how to protect your business.
Macias PR was named the 2015 and 2016 top PR Firm of the Year – USA by Finance Monthly. The founder – Mark Macias – is a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. He is also a PR contributor with CNBC, providing media analysis, insight and crisis advice on timely business topics.