5 Ways a Social Media Management Agency Can Help Your Business

Our friends over at BELIEVE Social posted an article About 5 Ways a Professional Social Media Agency can help your business. You should really just go read the article here, but we have liberally copied and pasted their 5 main points with some of their text and our thoughts here:
 

1. Provide quality content posts that are related to the given niche. - It seems like a simple enough idea: post content that is related to the business’s niche; the fact is many social media managers don’t dig deep enough and would rather post “something” just to get something up rather than go for depth and quality.

TSM thoughts:
How true is this? Often when you outsource your social media posting, you are dealing with people who think they know what works, or they want to try to go "viral," but frequently they have little understanding about what makes the content useful or how to relate it to the business/purpose of the client.

2. Interact with followers/fans. - It’s a simple concept: if someone asks a question on your page, they would probably like to see an answer.  If they comment on something you post, they would surely appreciate some feedback in most cases.

TSM thoughts:
There are a lot of cheap social media "managers" who just post content that anyone could do, and fail to make any effort to engage the audience or provide returns to the client. I really think a lot of times their goal is to just be as cheap as possible and hope the client doesn't care and doesn't know why they are paying for service. 

3. Engage industry “influencers.” - This one is something that is sorely missed in most cases in the social media world.

Total Social Management (TSM) thoughts:
Ha! Are you talking to an "agency" called "$XX Social" or something similar? They won't even know what this MEANS. Do you know what it means? Talk to a firm or social media manager who "gets it." If their sales pitch is "I do social media, and I charge this much"- They probably know less (and care much less) about your company's social media needs. 

4. Connect with other businesses in the local market or niche. – When it comes to social media, being social is the key and a common misconception is that there is some sort of competition going on with others in your niche or local area.  Whether another business is in your same niche or a different one but in the same local area, it is always a good idea to connect, share information, and create a relationship that could lead to more awareness for your own business.  Completely shutting out a business because you view them as “competition” unnecessarily closes the door to the benefits that can be reaped from forming positive relationships via social media.

TSM thoughts: Another thing about "getting it"- To "do social" you have to BE social. I can't tell you how many clients or social media providers have completely avoided great networking opportunities because they were afraid that actually interacting with other people on social media would somehow hurt their own business but help their competitors. In many cases, the "competitors" could have helped their business, but they were too short-sighted and ignorant to see the big picture. If you don't know what you are doing, hire someone who does. Any decent social media agency is going to want to do all they can to help your business and retain you as a long term client. They are going to assume you hired them to take advantage of their expertise. if you just want someone to post to your accounts without delivering any tangible social media results, use your interns. 

5. Create and share with Google Plus communities based on your business’s area of expertise or local area. -
TSM thoughts:
More on networking and an overlooked opportunity. Google Plus social media management can pay dividends. There are a lot of strong communities there, often focused around a specific industry or geographic area. There is a lot of opportunity to network where industry friends and local clients congregate. There are also particular quirks and advantages to using "Circles" on this platform that provide a unique marketing opportunity.

In closing, this is really a list of 5 Considerations that should be applied to TWO Questions:

1. SHOULD you use an outside social media marketing agency to manage your social media engagement?

2. Is the social media firm you are using or considering using up to par? 

Do they provide service beyond simply posting or re-using social media memes and content? Do they post relevant content and interact with your audience and industry leaders? Do they look for platforms and spaces that can be taken advantage of and exploited for your specific niche? Would you rather pay someone 100 bucks because he's cheap, and you know you need to "do something" on social media? Or would you rather have a social media manager who charges a fair rate for his time and work but consistently delivers quality?