Yes, I’m 2 weeks late on this. See the full article here.
January 31, 2012 – 7:11pm
BY COLLEEN COSGROVE BUSINESS REPORTERJumping on the social media bandwagon is good for business, but managing the message and tracking its influence is a time-consuming endeavour that can quickly get brushed aside.
Two 20-something Halifax entrepreneurs have come up with an all-encompassing solution that they say will help entrepreneurs stay focused on their business and not their Twitter feed.
Dalhousie graduates Chris Kolmatycki and Mark Hobbs launch Boost today, an offshoot of the full-service marketing agency, Denote Communications, Kolmatycki founded in 2009.
“We learned from talking to (Denote Communications’) advertisers that a lot of them didn’t have all of the tools they needed,” Hobbs said Monday. “They wanted to be involved in social media and they wanted to have an active, online presence, but they didn’t hav the time to manage their marketing properly.”
The Denote team saw a common thread among business owners and decided to put their expertise to work; a year later, the one-stop online business solution tool — Boost — was introduced to Halifax.
For a monthly fee, Boost will manage email marketing promotions, branding, advertising and promotions, website design and maintenance, e-commerce solutions and social media management.
If a business or entrepreneur highlights Facebook as their first foray into the online world, for example, a dedicated account manager will create the account and sit down with the business owner to hash out strategy for the next 30 days and a fresh plan for the 30 days following, and so on. And if a business owner wants to sell their wares online, a team of photographers, copywriters and web developers will handle the details and, voila, the products are soon available for purchase with a click of a button.
“Our goal is to keep Boost as an all-in-one product that is very simple,” Hobbs said. “So we offer every marketing tool needed to successfully run your business online, plus the technical expertise to do it.”
The sky is the limit when it comes to what Denote Communications can handle, but Hobbs said the company likes to start small. Once the user’s target market is identified and the best medium for their message is agreed upon, then its time to talk about Boost.
The company uses hard data and a show-not-tell approach to entice customers to think again about the power of social media and an online presence.
An integrated dashboard of metrics to show clients the power of a single Tweet, for example, and educates users about the methodology behind it a given marketing campaign.
“We want to make entrepreneurship accessible. It’s a sad reality, but it is a reality that so many businesses these days fail,” Hobbs said. “The Internet has brought so much potential and reach to advertising and promotions, and we provide that guide.”
The title says it all. Pretty excited that The Chronicle Herald saw what we were trying to do in the Halifax business community and provide measurable results in two things that not many marketers do (online marketing and social media). I’ve placed the article here with my own emphasis and links added in places but you can click the link at the top to see it at is original home. Mark did the actual interview and Ms. Cosgrove really captured what we were trying to do for businesses. Great all around!