Here are 17 reasons that ad agencies should use social media as a new business tool and 7 reasons they shouldn't.

1. Peter Levitan & Co. The New Business of Advertising.
peter@peterlevitan.com | 1.541.419.2309 | www.peterlevitan.com
1
1,247th Blog Post On Advertising Agency Social Media
There are over 177,000,000 results for the search phrase “advertising agency social
media” on Google. There are now whole industries based on social media advice. So, in
the interest of piling on… Iʼm about to add one more blog post on social media and
advertising.
But, before I start, lets make sure we agree on what social media is. Here is a concise
definition 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 of
people to share information and to develop social and professional contacts: many
businesses are utilizing social media to generate sales.
Just in case you are still wavering about how much effort to put into social media…
Here are 17 reasons that ad agencies should use social media as a new business
tool.
1. When managed systematically, the strategic use of social media will drive
inbound attention for your agency.
2. Social media will support your agency positioning and drive awareness of your
thought-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 unique
strategic 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 use
twitterʼs “@” to directly contact client prospects.
8. All social platforms, like your blog and Twitter, will be seamlessly linked together
for efficiency and traffic generation.
9. Social Media is integral to the agency SEO program. After only one month, my
Pinterest advertising agency website directory is appearing on the first page of
Google results.
10. You will learn to use social media analytics to continuously improve your
programs.
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.com
2
12. 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 your
expertise. Iʼm building a case right now for my Pinterest strategy (visit my
advertising agency directory www.pinterest.com/peterlevitan.
14. You will use social to do agency and client research. Twitter remains an
untapped resource for following news on perspective clients.
15. You will use social media to better understand a potential clientʼs online audience
and 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-winning
programs like Projectorʼs 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 intellectual
commitment to marketing via social media.
3. You donʼt have one or more people dedicated to owning the social program and
its on-going success.
4. You will be inconsistent. You really donʼt want to be the agency with 4-month-old
Tweets.
5. You wonʼt make the effort to integrate your social media program into you agency
marketing plan.
6. You think that all you have to do is a little bit of social media and youʼll quickly get
lots of incoming calls from prospective clients.
7. You don't have a distinctive agency positioning, message or voice to promote.
Me-too messaging wonʼt make a dent in this space.
8. You wonʼt stand out. Just take a look at how few advertising or digital agency
blogs are on Ad Ageʼs Power 150 list of influential blogs.
So, what is my bottom line?
Iʼve used social media since the 1990ʼs to grow companies (online newspapers) and
website 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 weekly
oversight.
Contact me.
I know Iʼve written a lot to chew on. Leverage this experience. Letʼs talk and get going on
building a strategic, manageable social media program for your agency.