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Social Media Agency Blends Content, Creative and Analytics For The Win

Nowhere more than in the world of digital marketing does the creative mind and the analytical brain meet and meld. In Episode 2 of the How Digital Marketing Works® podcast, Adam Wallace, Founder & CEO of the specialized digital agency Spherical, which focuses on design, content, social media, and search engine optimization (SEO) for the hospitality industry, talks about the importance of finding the  sweet spot between creative and analytics.

Adam got his start at the Roger Smith Hotel, honing his creative and dynamic approach to social media and the digital marketing world with a minuscule budget. He eventually created a brand eConsultancy named “the most social media savvy hotel in New York — if not the world–” a pretty impressive feat for his first real digital marketing project.

His strategy for creating buzz about the Roger Smith was to get top 50 marketers engaged and interested in his product (the hotel) via Twitter, then make them part of his pitch. Through positive guest experiences or hosting events at the hotel and posting about it, Adam leveraged these thought leaders to create a story about the hotel, and bookings followed. Adam explains that the focus was on people, relationships and storytelling versus traditional “digital marketing,” and it made all the difference.

Combining his own creative background with an analytical approach to his digital marketing efforts was a big part of his success, explains Adam, and he puts that same combination to work in the agency borne of his Roger Smith beginnings. He emphasizes the importance of creatives thinking analytically, and analysts thinking creatively for effective digital marketing and has worked hard to ensure that everyone working at Spherical can see both sides of that coin. Utilizing SEO and SEM judiciously as part of performance analysis was an integral part of Adam’s marketing successes early on, and it’s part of every facet of his agency’s process today.

By keeping an open office atmosphere, and doing his personal best to learn something about every channel, Adam works to ensure that the different specialized areas and channels in his agency are communicating and working together effectively. Adam says that learning to embrace the role of a “generalist” — knowing something about everything in the digital sphere, but with a constant willingness to learn more from those who specialize in one particular channel of the industry, and to listen to their input.

Listen to Episode 2 of the How Digital Marketing Works® podcast for more about leveraging the power of social media without a big budget, creatively handling analytical challenges, and vice versa.