While we may all feel proficient in social media, the process of maintaining a personal page is much different from a business one. A business account requires far more attention to a variety of pertinent details. Analytics information becomes crucial, yet is only the beginning. It also requires the curation of fresh, engaging content on an almost constant basis. Additionally, an effective agency must understand how social media encounters influence or are influenced by external factors. Put simply, most business owners can’t commit the dedication it requires while also running other facets of their business. It takes a dedicated team, one that knows how to engage audiences and utilize the tools of each network. As such, there are a few factors to consider when searching for a professional social media agency.
1. The Challenge of Content Curation for Businesses
Content curation is the most important aspect of social media marketing, and it takes a team of professionals. Artists draft graphics that attract the attention of users who are scanning entire pages of content. While scrolling through your Facebook news feed, how many posts and images do you see? Which ones catch your attention? How can your business do that? These are the questions that the top social media agencies must answer. It takes exceptional work to draw an audience, and your firm of choice should offer an extensive portfolio of previous success.
Once visuals have visitors hooked, it takes engaging content to keep them. And while written content may compose the bulk of social media content, it’s rarely optimized for a professional audience. Posts that are relevant, interesting and free of grammatical errors are crucial for businesses. Making this happen takes experience. The social media agency you choose will become the voice of your business. They need to sound both professional and interesting, but must also understand your company’s culture, products, practices and leaders.
Consistent exposure of your business to social media is vital. Therefore, reliability is of the utmost importance. After all, attention spans are cut short on the Internet. While one viral post may attract significant page interest, it takes an ongoing commitment to keep potential customers interested. The best social media agencies don’t just post engaging content, they do so regularly and reliably.
2. An Increasingly Diverse Digital Landscape
Social media reaches a broad, diverse audience. This presents a unique and significant challenge; online messages must reach across cultural barriers. This is true not only because of the broadening digital landscape, but also as worldwide immigration accelerates. A professional marketing firm must understand how to reach across cultural barriers, yet also remain sensitive enough not to offend any subgroups. This takes experience and a fundamental understanding of human communication. In other words, it takes a social media specialist.
In addition to a broad audience, social media marketers must also understand the culture of the local area served. Essentially, they must understand broad communication while also specializing in the locale. For example, a restaurant in St. Louis wouldn’t want to refer to their milkshakes as “cabinets”, but one in Rhode Island might. It’s important for top social media agencies to understand these nuances and know when to use them for a specific, versus broad, audience.
3. When it Comes Time to Pay for Social Media Posts
Unlike a personal account, effective business social media accounts are not always free. Posts can be easily promoted as ads, but not all of them should be. The best social media agencies know when to pay for promotion and when to rely on the venue’s conventional tools. They even know how to target very specific demographics when necessary and can estimate how many views an ad will garner. They should have a specific strategy that can be customized for your business.
Whether a free post or ad is being used to promote on social media, it is important to measure the efficacy of all efforts. Therefore, an understanding of analytics tools is vital. Analytics tools collect data and essentially make that information easier for us to read. Most sites include these, but some will provide limited or no information to non-paying members. Either way, they tend to be rather basic. As for comprehensive tools, Google Analytics is arguably the industry standard.
4. Effective Communication
Arguably chief among social media concerns is the efficacy of communication. Obviously, this is important when coordinating between your business and the marketing firm. However, they will, to an extent, also act as an intermediary. Social media allows customers and the public to communicate with your business and each other in real time. This can be good or bad for your online efforts, so it’s important to know what’s going on and have a plan to respond accordingly. Whether you would prefer the marketing firm your business to handle these concerns is up to you, but a strategy must be put into place to ensure that your preferred firm can act accordingly.
Ultimately, managing an effective social media presence is a job for a social media agency team. Business owners have too many responsibilities to effectively manage their digital outreach. It takes a group specializing in every aspect of social media to expand your online marketing efforts. If you’re not sure where to start, visit 99dollarsocial!
