There are many reasons why a business might choose to hire a third-party vendor or service provider to handle their social media marketing and content production needs. Maybe it’s a personnel issue (i.e. not enough employees), maybe it’s a resource-related problem (i.e. not enough money in the budget to allocate to an in-house team), or any number of other reasons.
Luckily, there has never been a better time to hire a social media agency. The industry has experienced a massive level of growth over the past few years, due to the stunning increase in social media usage (particularly among older demographics – who were once hesitant to embrace the technology).
The social landscape is always evolving, always on the move, and very dynamic in general. This is why it makes sense for a lot of businesses to outsource their social management, publishing, and content creation needs to an experienced agency. There has never been a better time to break into the social media world, and the attention is incredibly underpriced in regard to the value that your business will attain from marketing, posting, and advertising on social.
Use the tips posted below to make sure that the agency you end up hiring is experienced, versatile, and knows what they’re doing. Because social media is a relatively new industry, there are many “agencies” that are in it purely for the money. Avoid wasting your business’s valuable time and money with our list of tips below.
Take a Look at The Agency’s Social Media Presence
Similar to choosing a web design company, one of the first things that you should do when hunting for a social media agency is to look at their own social presence. It wouldn’t make much sense to hire a design company with bad website design. Likewise, with a social media agency, why would you hire a company that doesn’t have an impressive social presence?
If you own a website or online business, you’ve undoubtedly been emailed by one of the thousand SEO companies out there, claiming to “take your website to the #1 spot in Google” for whatever industry you operate in. It’s fun to take a look at the rankings of these companies because more often than not they’re not even ranking themselves.
The same is true with regard to social media agencies. Any reputable agency will have a decent, engaged, and targeted following on their various social media platforms. They’ll also be able to use the data from their channels as well. The important part of this equation is not necessarily how many followers an agency has, but more about the quality of their content, in addition to the engagement levels their content generates. Social media posts with a high like count but low engagement aren’t necessarily good for business. They might help with your vanity, but they won’t drive business results.
Look For An Agency With Experience in Your Industry
It’s fairly common for social media agencies to specialize in a particular industry, sub-industry, or niche. It’s important to choose an agency that has experience growing brands on social within your business’s industry/niche.
For example, there are social agencies completely dedicated to medical-related social media (e.g. doctor’s offices, plastic surgeons, etc.). If you have a D2C jewelry business, it wouldn’t make much sense to choose that type of agency. Your goal when looking for an agency to contract with should be to find one that has experience with growing brands similar to yours (but obviously avoid any conflicts of interest).
The problem if you don’t hire an agency that has experience in your particular industry is that they will essentially be learning on the go (while your business foots the bill). This is why it’s essential to choose an agency that has relevant experience, not just experience with social media in general.
Take Note Of The Contract Length
Generally speaking, it’s best to avoid getting into long-term contracts with social media agencies (at least in the beginning). Social agencies literally live and die based on results. There’s nothing subjective about growing a social media presence – it either grows or it doesn’t.
Some agencies might try to tie you into a long-term contract, but you should look for one that offers rolling contracts (e.g. on a monthly basis). That way you can ensure that their work will be results-driven (not simply padding time in a long contract that will be difficult for your business to void).
