This week we launched a new live Q&A series where we interview experts live and take questions from around the world of professional services. We kicked things of with Alex Low, an expert in professional services media and how to win on social for firms in your space. Joining him was, Passle's Eugene McCormick and the Q&A was facilitated by Sam Page. The trio discussed Social Media in professional services.

The full video can be viewed below but here is a quick summary of a few of the themes discussed.

What is the best way for professional service marketers to implement a social media initiative?

Alex says "Start small, prove, iterate, feedback and build from there". It can be tough to implement a company-wide change, so often it is better to start with a pilot group and prove the value first with these people.  Alex also talked about the importance of having "Leaders lead by example" as a marketeer it will make your job easier if the programme you are pushing is being championed by managing partners! Alex also highlighted that you are not going to get everyone to do it, and that this is okay. 

Help the fee earners to see the WHY Alex talked about highlighting the "What in it for me?" . Part of this is shifting how the initiative is pushed internally and being clever with what you position things - don't call it 'social media training' call it what it is 'Business Development'. Highlight that we are not doing this to give Kim Kardashian a run for her money in terms of 'likes' on twitter, we are doing this to win new business and ultimately drive revenue.

What makes a good piece of content?

Content needs to be "Concise, to the point and eye-catching" added Eugene. A simple thing like including an image with your content can increase viewer engagement and satisfaction. Eugene also highlights that content doesn't always have to be in the written format - podcasts and videos are becoming more popular as people realise these can be created from smartphone or zoom call recording. Infact, sometimes when these are produced to studio-quality they can seem less authentic.

Ask the Audience. Alex suggested that a good starting point is to talk to clients and find out what they want. You can also 'measure relentlessly' the content you have live to get a feel for what is resonating with audiences. Ultimately you have to "test, try and see what works and what doesn't," says Alex

How can you measure success?

Alex explained "To measure success you first need to know what you are trying to achieve. What is the end goal?"  Ultimately the end goal may be to increase revenue and there are number of sophisticated marketing tools out there that can track and link marketing output to ROI. If you are able to do this great. If this is not possible, Sam talked about a few simple alternatives. "Sometimes its good to keep things simple and look at things like 'Are the firms that we sell to interacting with our content on LinkedIn?' . This is a manual process and pretty easy to do.

To wrap up Alex and Eugene were asked to give One Thing they wanted people to take away from the chat.

Alex ended with "Do things differently, Be brave and don't be afraid to try some radical things. Test, Try, Iterate"

Eugene "Give it a go, and get some feedback from your peers"