What is a social media marketing agency?
A social media marketing agency is a company that develops and runs social media marketing campaigns for its clients. This could include social media ads, organic content marketing, giveaways, UGC, influencer campaigns, and community engagement.
What does a social media marketing agency do?
Social media agencies usually do a whole variety of things for your business.
Social media strategy
First and foremost, a good social media agency would help create and execute a comprehensive digital strategy that would include all the right social media platforms and the social media marketing strategies that your business would need to follow.
Some agencies would also manage your social media accounts, create and schedule content for your social media posts and engage with your audience.
Community management
One of the most powerful things you could do on any social media network is to build an engagement audience. That should be a goal for all of your social media efforts. This is done by engaging with your potential customers on every social platform, answering questions, replying to comments, and chatting with users on Facebook Messenger. Digital agencies that do social media often do this.
A part of this is what's called reputation management (or brand management). It's done through social listening and can help keep the pulse on customer sentiment about the brand and customer satisfaction. it could also help diagnose problems early enough and mitigate damage to the reputation of the brand.
Influencer marketing
Another critical aspect of social strategy is working with influencers. Influencer marketing agencies as well as advertising agencies may do this as well. It involves reaching out to influencers, running campaigns, giveaways, and some public relations. The secret is finding influencers whose audience demographics match those of your target customers. YouTube and TikTok agencies do this really well.
Social media advertising
Performance marketing (or paid social) is an integral part of social media. A lot of eCommerce brands have grown their business through Facebook advertising. Any social media agency should also have experience in setting up brand awareness campaigns and generating leads and conversions for your company.
Are social media marketing agencies worth it?
The answer is yes, but it depends on your business objectives. A lot of business owners expect the agency to miraculously generate leads and sales but sometimes the challenge is in the other parts of the marketing mix.
It could be that company's site doesn't convert well enough and they should hire a conversion optimization expert to handle that first. It could be that they are not getting enough organic traffic and they really need to hire an SEO agency to get that search engine optimization going.
Social media agencies may also have experience with one or more of those things so you really need to diagnose your problem first and then get the right solution for it.
What to expect from a great social media marketing company?
Attention to detail
Social media work takes a lot of attention to detail. A good company has to really proofread all content and double check every design before it's published on the various social media channels. Each social media platform should have its own style guide, content calendar, and size requirements for social media posts.
Content writing & graphic design
Social media experts should be able to create the perfect content for every social media post and create engaging designs. This could sometimes involve video production
Creativity
It's not enough to create nice looking social media posts. They need to be creative, they need to stand out to really attract potential clients.
Expertise with multiple platforms
A good social media agency should be an expert in the specific social media platforms that your business is using. They should also be able to run social media advertising campaigns when necessary and successfully execute the social media strategy on every channel. They have to grow your social media presence on every channel.
8 questions to ask your social media agency before you hire them
- Do you have experience in the specific social media channels that we use?
- How many clients do you have? Do you manage campaigns for clients in our niche / industry?
- What type of social media marketing campaigns would you recommend for the business?
- What is your process for managing social campaigns?
- Are you a traditional Facebook ads agency or do you focus on other channels too?
- How many people do you have on your team?
- Who will I be in touch with?
- How often do you communicate with your clients?
- What other services do you offer besides your social media services?