There was a time, at the dawn of it all, when social media was easily dismissible as just another fading fad. Something that might only appeal to a few millennials who are often quick to jump on any shiny bandwagon.
However, just slightly over a decade into the whirlwind that has seen a flurry of social media platforms come and go, these strangely endearing platforms have taken over. Social media marketing is now determining how well businesses that know how to use the right platforms create brand awareness online.
The numbers speak for themselves:
- As of the fourth quarter of 2019, Facebook had 2.5 billion monthly active users. Of the surveyed users, 83% of them used Facebook. 89% of all marketers use the platform for brand marketing
- Instagram now has over a billion monthly active users. Of these users, 90% follow one business or another. It also just so happens to be the most important influencer marketing platform with 89% of marketers saying that it’s the most popular platform for their tradecraft
- With 330 million active users, Twitter is where people go to discover new things (79% of these users go there for brand and product discovery) and view ads
The list goes on and on with other big industry players such as Pinterest and LinkedIn joining in the fray with their own highly influential corners of the market. The point is – social media marketing is NOT something a business can do without today if that business wants to remain competitive.
Also Read: Social Media Automation: A How-to Guide
Why You Need to Hire a Social Media Marketing Agency Today
With billions of active users, every month and about 7 major social media platforms, any company that doesn’t carry out social media marketing for a living will find it daunting at best. Think about it – on any given day. There will be a new trend, a new hashtag, and a new way to either capture or lose the attention of your intended market. Do you know what they need?
Even if you do- do you have the time to keep up with all the new micro-trends that occur on a day to day basis?
Chances are the answer to that question is no. Logically speaking, any brand worth its salt has about a thousand other things that demand its attention and resources just to make sure that the brand stays afloat, let alone prosper.
As such, delegating “make or break” tasks such as social media marketing to professional agencies makes a lot more sense than trying to “wing it.” Here are some reasons why you should absolutely consider hiring a social media marketing agency:
- They hire experts who study all the social media platforms and know the best practices to get the most results within the allocated budget
- These professionals will get a chance to have an intimate look at your business practices with an outside, an independent perspective which will help you improve
- It saves your company a lot of time since these experts already know what they are doing
Most importantly – you get someone who will do the job right. Which is something that is crucial in the fickle social media scene where audiences are quick to call out brand mishaps and going “viral” is a double-edged sword.
What You Should Know Before Choosing a Social Media Marketing Agency
While the costs vary depending on the company hiring and the company hired, the typical cost for outsourcing social media marketing is about $200 – $350 per day. No matter how big of a brand you may be, that amount still needs to be accounted for and spent effectively. As such, you need to find the right and most effective social media marketing agency to hire.
Here is what you should know while choosing a social media marketing company to hire:
There are no “microwave” solutions
Social media marketing gains are generally designed to be long-term, and long-term gains tend to take a long time to achieve. It’s just that simple – there are no overnight successes or instant microwave solutions here. Any company that promises you this is either lying or doing something unethical and will eventually hurt your brand.
White-Hat techniques are key to long-term growth
There are companies that are fond of black-hat and highly counter-productive techniques such as buying followers instead of gaining them organically. Ask yourself: is your brand in this to get a million followers who don’t engage with your message, or is it to get actual followers who will act as brand ambassadors on their own accord and therefore get you more followers?
The former is easy to achieve and also very counter-productive. The latter takes time, but it comes with long term gains. The latter calls for white-hat techniques such as creating highly useful content, engaging with the audience on a regular basis, and growing the following organically without buying any hits. This is what you want.
Social media marketing companies that adopt SCDAM tend to succeed
SCDAM is a social media framework that stands for:
- Strategy
- Creation
- Distribution
- Activation
- Measurement
Also Read: Five Customer Service Influencers to Follow on Social Media in 2019
Coined by a social media marketer called Christopher Spenn, this acronym outlines five of the most important areas that every social media marketing company worth its salt will focus on when creating a campaign. Be sure to ask the prospective companies what kind of approach they take to their promotions and marketing strategy because this is crucial to driving long-term growth.
Finally, the proof is always in the pudding. If a company promises to get you millions of followers or likes within a certain amount of time, the simplest way to learn whether or not there are legitimate is to look at their own social media standing. Do they have millions of followers themselves? If not, how come? If so, how did they come about these followers?
Granted, a company could be good at driving traffic yet not have much traffic to show themselves. The next best thing is to try them out. The best social media marketing agencies tend to have a free trial period within which they show their prospecting clients what they can do. It’s all in the results.
