How many times have you heard directors say, “we need a strong social presence”. This huge demand for a strong social presence has led to a boom in social media agencies helping businesses market themselves to their online target audience.
At a first glance, spending £300 a month of social media management may seem like an unnecessary cost. But, if you weigh it up against the cost of building your own marketing team that specialise in different areas of social media, it becomes a no brainer.
Hiring an agency to manage your social media is a wise investment and here is why.
What are social media & creative agencies, and what do they do?
I know what you are thinking. A bunch of young, ambitious, and creative people that bounce ideas of each other in a well-designed office.
Well, YOU ARE NOT WRONG!
Though there is a hell of a lot more work that goes into it than you think. Social media managers must work close with all departments and more importantly sales teams to ensure they are pushing the right messages and tone of voice to generate leads and enquiries.
Social media isn’t a 9-5 job either. If your brand is at risk or a customer has an urgent enquiry – then this needs to be responded to asap. Full time employees generally will not work around the clock, but the benefit of using an agency is that they are paid to respond, and usually go the extra mile to please a client – we certainly do!
Daily Tasks of a Social Media Manager:
- Create content to be shared (blog posts, videos, graphics and other media)
- Check industry related news
- Reply to incoming social media posts
- Research new influencers to connect with
- Publish new social media posts
- Schedule social media posts for the week/month/important dates
- Review social media analytics
- Engage with followers
- Follow up with emails, phone calls and social media conversations
Sounds easy, right?
I can assure you it’s not!
The above are just some of the tasks that social media managers the perform. The hard work comes in the form of creating strategies and plans to align with sales objectives. Your social channels should also use a tone of voice and messaging that is consistent with your brand guidelines.
Your social channels should also provide a ROI. But you first need to assess what your goals are? With this you will then need to measure results alongside specific metrics. For example, if I have a goal of brand awareness, then reach and impressions may be a metric I look at. If I have a goal of generating sales, then definitely I would like to look at the conversions of my posts and ads.
This information will need to be collated into a monthly report to prove what you are doing is working.
Is it affordable to hire an agency?
Ask yourself can I afford to not hire an agency? In the digital marketing era we live in, having an online presence is an essential to winning new and repeat business.
Agencies must prove their worth to your business. Meaning if they are not generating results, sales, and enquiries for your business, then you can quite easily get rid, and do your research before you hire another.
To sack a full-time member of staff, there are ethical and moral issues. How would you feel about sacking a member of staff with a family to support? Not great I’d imagine.
Therefore, you need to analyse your business to assess if you are in a position to hire a full-time member of staff to manage social media. I’m sure you will agree it would be a little unfair to hire somebody just to get rid of them in a few months’ time.
It is essential to highlight your goals for social media before appointing an agency. A “cheap” agency probably wont generate ££££’s in profit, but a cheap agency may be able to manage your accounts and post content for you on a weekly basis. You must assess your goals for social media and what you are wanting to achieve.
Only then should you choose an agency.
Your key questions to ask an agency before hiring them
- What experience do you have in our industry?
- How will you measure the success of our campaigns?
- Can you provide a case study of previous campaign success?
- Which social media channels will you focus on?
- What other services do you offer that could support our campaign?
- How many clients do you currently offer social media services too?
- Why do you think we need your social media services?
Conclusion
Hiring in an agency to work with is an ENORMOUS decision. It can be difficult it you are not well educated in the world of digital marketing and social media, so make sure to use the questions above before deciding. But overall, make sure you feel comfortable with who you choose. You can work with an agency on various projects, and if the working relationship is in place, then your working day will become a whole lot more enjoyable.