Social Agendas, Aaron Branch
Alumnus Aaron Branch has used the London South Bank University Graduate Entrepreneur Scheme to help grow his business, Social AgendasAn alumnus of LSBU’s School of Arts and Creative Industries, Aaron Branch was awarded a place on the Graduate Entrepreneur Scheme for 2017/18. With his background as a semi-professional basketball player, Aaron seamlessly transferred the skills that made him a successful athlete to become an entrepreneur.
Time to take advantage of the support on offer
“I decided to take part in the Graduate Entrepreneur Scheme because, after two years of trading with Social Agendas, I recognised that there was support available to me which I had not taken advantage of,” explains Aaron. “I had a friend who I graduated with, and he opened his agency with LSBU’s help. He opened my eyes to the great support on the scheme.”
People on your side
Aaron says that the highlights so far have been the support he has received from both his mentors and the people running the programme. “Having started my business on my own I found it very rare that anyone other than a client, prospect or employee would take such a keen interest in my own and the company’s success. It feels great to have individuals there who are objectively looking at your business and how they can assist in its growth.
“Alongside this, the office facilities in Central London mean that I no longer have to run around the city like a headless chicken from client meeting to client meeting. It also means that hosting my clients and meetings is now much more feasible,” he says. “The events that are put on and various speakers I have been able to insert into my own network have also been really useful. I’m a keen believer in self-development and learning from individuals who have had great success is a key reason I have been able to achieve what I have with Social Agendas to date.”
Delivering cost-effective lead generation
Social Agendas was formed in January 2015 as an advertising agency focused on lead generation through social media adverts. In order to achieve cost-effective and highly qualified leads for their clients, Social Agendas delivers marketing strategy and development, Facebook advertising campaigns, landing page strategy and development, media production, email marketing and messenger marketing.
“I set the company up in order to serve businesses who had not yet leveraged the power of social media selling,” explains Aaron. “My dissertation when leaving university was around why artists no longer need major labels to build and monetise their music careers through social media. I uncovered many social media advertising strategies that could all be applied to any business. I soon learnt that there was a lot more to running an ad agency than just delivering campaigns. This is what led me to seek out mentors and individuals already operating in the space to help me get to where I am today. As a result, I have also recently developed an Hyper Accelerated Consultant Training programme through which I help individuals build and grow their own digital advertising businesses.”
Future goals
With Social Agendas delivering everything he hoped, what does Aaron hope to do with the business going forward? “I would like to continue to work with amazing clients on meaningful projects. We have helped generate millions in revenue from the leads that we have generated and, for me, the true fulfilment comes in the form of serving businesses with expertise and knowledge that they never had previously had around social media selling. I also want to continue to grow my consultant programme to help new and existing digital ads consultants hit their goals and scale their companies. Eventually I want an army of consultants who have come through my programme and are benefiting massively.”
Read more about Social Agendas on their website.