Is your company ready to hire a social media agency? Here’s what you should know before taking the plunge.
Guess what, social media is here to stay.
Sure, the platform that people hang out on is likely to change from year to year, but much like TV, social media will always be around (unless the aliens show up, but that’s something to worry about another day).
So, what’s a business to do?
You’ve probably had a website for a decade or more (and if not, props for creating that social currency offline!), but maybe you haven’t invested in social media quite yet.
After all, isn’t social media just a place where kids make videos on Tik Tok and people share videos about cats?
The answer, is of course, “yes” and “yes.”
But here’s where the problem comes in. If you think your 16year-old niece knows how to market online just because she has a Snapchat account, that’s going to cost you.
Think of it this way, would you hire your 8 year-old to produce TV shows just because he watches 12 hours of Pokemon every week?
Nope.
However, not every company is the right fit for hiring a social media agency or even creating their own marketing department (hi small biz, you’re doing awesome!).
So, help?!
What is a Social Media Agency, and What Do Social Media Agencies Do?
Before we dive to much into how to tell if you need a social media agency, let’s cover what you’ll typically get when hiring a social media advertising agency.
First, let’s cover the idea of that mythical “hip” social media agency. They all sit around on yoga balls, bike to work, and probably vape all day. They also somehow come up with the secret sauce for going “viral” most likely during an acid trip.
That’s not what you’ll usually get when you hire a social media agency (but you can find those, if that’s what your looking for).
Instead, most social media marketing companies use data and analytics combined with basic psychology to find your ideal customers and talk to them in the language that they prefer (I know, disappointing, right?).
A typical social media manager will do things like:
- Create marketing content that is social media friendly -finding the right image, formatting things so they don’t get dinged by algorithms, that sort of thing.
- Talk to people- yep, social is still the most important part of social media!
- Keep track of news and events in the industry and world so your brand doesn’t make any accidental snafus.
- Make sure your ads are performing at the top level- tweaking things and ensuring your funnels are functionally optimally.
- Meetings- Yep, we have them too.
- Analyze data- There’s a LOT of this.
- Keeping up to date with social media trends and algorithm changes- something changes on one social media platform or another sometimes multiple times a week!
- Communicate with other brand managers/marketing teams to ensure your brand has a cohesive marketing strategy.
- Designing new marketing campaigns and implementing them/monitoring them to ensure they go well and make changes as needed.
The Types of Social Media Management
Because there can be a lot of pieces when it comes to social media management, most social media agencies focus on a particular type of support or industry area. The strategies for a real estate agent can be quite a bit different than that for a restaurant, for example.
Many social media agencies fall into these categories:
Social Media Marketing Strategy
A social media marketing strategy agency works by examining an existing social media presence and makes recommendations through social media consulting on how you can improve your social channels. A social media consulting company may provide social media management services, but typically they work with an existing social media marketing team or social media manager to improve the ROI of your social media channels.
Heirloom Media offers this level of service. You can book a consultation with us here.
Social Media Management
A social media management company will handle the posting for your social media channels (some do specialize in specific platforms- this is handy if you want someone who is current on a particular platform’s best practices). They usually create content plans and may even design some of the content.
Internet Marketing Agency
An internet marketing agency, or digital marketing agency, looks at your entire online presence as a whole and makes improvements in all areas. The internet marketing agency will run a complete audit of your social media channels, online marketing funnels, email, and products to ensure that everything works synergistically to maximize your ROI from your online channels. Typically, a social media agency of this caliber works for short contracts, and is ideal to use during the launch of new products and services, or during a rebranding campaign.
Heirloom Media offers this level of service. You can book a consultation with us here.
Social Media Consulting and Training
This social media company will come in and train your existing social media team (or help you create one if you don’t have one yet). These social media managers focus on provide the tools you need to improve your online presence and boost visibility and profitability through social media channels. Many other social media agencies also offer this service.
Heirloom Media offers this level of service. You can book a consultation with us here.
How Can I Tell If I Need to Hire a Social Media Agency?
Now that you understand a bit more about what a social media manager does, and how they can help companies, the next step is to determine if hiring an outside social media company is right for you.
Do You Have the Right Goals?
At Heirloom Media, we’ve worked with a lot of clients, and the clients who have a clear goal are the most successful. Clients that want to build “an online presence” are often unhappy with how social media management goes.
It isn’t enough to simply grow a social media account as a business (unless your goal is 100% awareness, but unless you’re a massive company, like Coke, awareness campaigns are more expensive than they are worth). You should have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish with your social channels.
For most businesses, goals can be:
- Lead generation
- Sales
- Engagement
- Brand growth
These four goals are often the most effective when it comes to social media campaigns.
Can You Afford a Salary Social Media Manager?
Full-time employees are expensive. The average salary for a social media manager is right around $50,000 a year, plus benefits. If your company can’t afford that rate, hiring a third-party agency makes sense.
Are You Ready to Dedicate Enough Energy to Social Media?
It takes time and energy to run social media well. A social media agency can provide many of the services that you’ll need to succeed, but certain creative pieces are still required.
Many brands benefit from face time from an employee or boss from the company itself. Additional creative pieces will also be required, such as branded images and videos, landing pages, and other tech connections.
While some social media consulting companies can provide some of these pieces, a point person dedicated to the success of social media is necessary to produce the best results.
Can You Afford to Invest in Social Media?
There is a myth that social media is all about going organically viral. While that is sometimes true, most company virals are the result of careful calculations and strategic ads management that boost a company into the limelight.
These effective results are almost never free, and often can come with a sizable price tag.
When it comes to social media management and social media strategy, you often get what you pay for when it comes to hiring a social media agency.
If you’re just starting out with social media, you might have a little bit of sticker shock when it comes to the prices, but in general, you can expect to budget somewhere in the neighborhood of:
- Social Media Strategy: $10,000 to $20,000
- Social Media Consulting: $300 an hour
- Social Media Audit: $5,000 to $10,000
- Facebook Management: $1000 to $3000 per month
- Pinterest Management: $1000 to $2500 a month
- Instagram Management: $1000 to $3000 a month
- Twitter Management: $1000 to $2000 a month
Most brands don’t need to be active in more than 3 social media channels, and many social media agencies charge anywhere between $4000 and $10,000 per month for services on 2-3 channels.
Ok, I’m Ready to Hire a Social Media Agency. Now What?
If you’re ready to take the plunge and get help with social media marketing, there are some questions you should ask first.
Are You Familiar with My Industry?
As previously mentioned, although there are tactics that span industries, it’s helpful (particularly for paid ads) to have experience in an industry. If you’re a car lot, for example, you probably wouldn’t want to work with a social media agency that has only worked with fitness coaches.
You can usually find social media agencies in your industry by typing “social media agency for *industry*” into the search engine of your choice.
How Do You Measure Success?
“Success” of a campaign is a moving target. Make sure you’re on the same page as the social media agency before proceeding. If you want growth, make sure they can deliver on that. If you want ROI, make sure they have a way to deliver that piece as well.
Do You Have any Case Studies from Past Campaigns?
Most established social media agencies will have case studies from previous clients (unless they’ve signed non-disclosure agreements, which you’ll find are often necessary in legal and medical industries).
What Social Media Platforms Do You Work With?
Some social media agencies focus on all platforms, but most focus on 2-3. In fact, if you talk to a company that uses the “spray and pray” method (shooting out the same content to all platforms), they will be much less effective than someone who focuses on fewer accounts.
However, some large social media agencies do have a dedicated person for each social media platform- so look for those if you really think you need to have a presence on everything from Twitter to Tic Tok.
At Heirloom Media, we focus on Facebook and Instagram.
How Do You Come Up with Strategies?
If you’re not a higher ticket client, you won’t get the option to discuss strategy, but if you do, ask how they come up with the process. What you should be listening for is if they apply a one-size-fits-all strategy to every client, or if they take the time to find out what your company specifically needs and how they can help you reach those goals.
Be careful if a company focuses a lot on “viral” strategies or trendy marketing. Today, as ever, the most effective marketing strategy is relationship building.
What Other Services Do You Offer?
Again, as with the number of platform management, if they offer too many other services, like SEO, website design, and regular PR, it could be a red flag. Most social media agencies aren’t large enough to support all of these processes, although some are. Typically, however, these super big social media agencies are working for billion-dollar companies.
How Will Social Media Management Benefit My Company?
Obviously every business needs some form of social presence, but this question can help you determine if a social media agency is a right fit for you.
They should have an answer that will address your specific goals and needs.
How Will Information Be Reported?
Find out how social media agency plans to communicate results, needs, and progress. Many companies use social media marketing tools that are helpful, but if you’re more of an old-fashioned person, you might like other forms of communication more. Ask if in-person meetings are included in your package and how reporting will be delivered to track progress.
Yikes, I Can’t Afford Agency Prices, but I Still Want to Grow!
Yep, we hear you!
Agency pricing can be intimidating. If you’re not quite ready to take the plunge for that, here are a few alternatives:
Social Media Training
Perhaps you have someone in your office that can take on the role (maybe even that 16 year-old niece) of social media manager, but you want to make sure they are using the correct strategies.
Some social media agencies offer training for employees and social media consulting by the hour to offer help without a 12-month contract.
Heirloom Media offers this level of service. You can book a consultation with us here.
Social Media Content Plan
Maybe you just want a social media plan but want to implement it yourself. A social media content plan is much more affordable than hiring a full time social media manager, and if you have the time to do your own social media marketing and just need some help with content ideas, this may be the way to go before you’re ready to book an agency.
Heirloom Media offers this level of service. You can book a consultation with us here.
The Benefits of Hiring a Social Media Agency
If you’re not in marketing, you may struggle with the idea of paying so much for something that seems so abstract.
However, most companies would never skimp on their sales team- or else they would soon be out of business!
Social media marketing is simply another arm of sales, and just like sales, it takes talent, time, and commitment to do the right way.
Hiring a social media agency can take some significant pressure off of your existing staff and help bring your business to the next level.
If you have any questions about hiring a social media agency, or are ready to talk strategy, reach out!
We’d love to talk to you.
