“Selecting An Agency for Social Marketing”
From SHIFT’s newsroom:
SHIFT Communications announced today it received recognition in a September 30, 2009, Forrester Research report called “Selecting An Agency For Social Marketing.”
Written by Forrester Research Analyst Sean Corcoran, the report examines “the basic steps interactive marketers should follow for picking the right agency in this new space.”
Key passage from the report:
“Agencies can bring added scale and expertise. Social media is a commitment, and it requires manpower to interact with thousands of fans, tweets, comments, and more.”
“Rather than leaving it to the interns, agencies can help provide added scale from people with expertise in the space. SHIFT Communications, a PR agency that has developed a specialty in social media, has made a point to train many of its people in social media so its clients can trust it to interact with their customers and audience across several touchpoints.”
“Agencies like SHIFT understand the implications of the conversations online and how to manage them, especially if they go negative.”
Due to Forrester’s understandably strict guidelines for report citations, I need to leave it at that. But for the record, we are very grateful for the kind words.



Todd – you know you always get my vote (and I’m a customer). I think that’s probably almost as good as Forrester telling you that you guys are a smart “social marketing” agency.
Best,
Aaron | @aaronstrout
Todd, I think one the important aspects here that often gets overlooked, is that you can only become adept and capable at doing something by doing it. Training your people and then having them implement and implement with results obviously was not lost on Forrester. Nice job.
Todd,
Congrats on the recognition! I’m also really glad you’re going to be getting back to posting. Thanks for all the great content this year and have a great holiday!
It is also important, if an organization opts to hire a social marketing agency, to hire one that has experience in that field. For instance, if an agency has experience working with small businesses with less than 50 employees, they will fail at a business with over 10,000 employees.
Many congratulations on this recognition! It’s just another reason to celebrate this holiday season! Hope the new year brings you many more reasons!
Well deserved, Todd. Congratulations!
The hardest thing about hiring another agency to handle your social media is that they have to understand your culture before they can effectively interact.
This a great article with real and true insights. Congratulations on the recognition of the Forrester Research Report