In what can be a full-time job, it is important to understand the strategies and engineering that are behind developing healthy social interactions online. One of the biggest mistakes a business can make is to open all possible social media accounts and then neglect to maintain an active presence. Without engagement on social media, users are likely to become turned off by the business and move on to a more engaging competitor.
When managed correctly, social media is a powerful and effective marketing tool that should be an essential part of any business strategy. Just as you would with your other marketing initiatives, social media requires the same care and attention to see great results. For the average busy business owner, there are benefits to hiring a professional to manage social media and drive business results.
1. Experts Save You Time
You are the expert in your industry and it took you time and experience to get there. When it comes to pro social media management agencies, it is no different. With proven strategies for increasing brand awareness and engagement, the guesswork and risk of unanticipated pitfalls is taken out for you. Your time is valuable, are you willing to sacrifice another area of business for social media management? Some of the many roles social media manager takes off of your plate include keeping a watchful eye on your accounts day-to-day, personalizing your reputation, evaluating trends, creating and curating content, conducting time consuming content research, and scheduling posts in a streamline process.
2. Building Brand Recognition
Your brand is your unique fingerprint in a sea of competitors. How do you want to be presented to the world? What is “that thing” only you can offer? In knowing which platforms are ideal for your brand and then regularly posting, creating guidelines for relevant posted topics, ensuring visuals align across profiles consistently, and developing a specific voice – your personality can be reflected to connect with your audience and draw engagement. With that said, gaining traction can be a challenge many business face with social media branding when they don’t know where to start; results don’t happen on their own and it takes consistency and effort to promote social media profiles whenever possible. Do you know what your strategy will be?
3. Content Creator
The content created and adapted for social media is a vital component of marketing. Capturing pictures and video for Facebook and Instagram, writing short and effective twitter posts, creating several iterations of post copy, or making novel and buzzworthy content for a growing following; these are just some of the ways a social media manager makes impactful content appropriate for each network. When you pay for professional to manage and make content, you are paying for their graphics software, efficient social media management platforms, creativity, and excellent language proficiency.
4. Increased Traffic
People today are spending a lot of time on social networks, thus making them the perfect medium for driving traffic to your website and gaining referrals. Social media campaigns, when done effectively with a goal in mind, can be utilized to drive traffic to your website. Campaign goals could include marketing objectives such as multiplying your audience, brand awareness, expanding reach, growing engagement, or educating on your services. With analytics, managers can determine if a campaign is hitting the mark to get the most out of marketing dollars.
5. Engagement, Relationship building
Social media, for many companies, can be viewed as a giant scoreboard: you win when you get the most followers. While having numbers on your side can be powerful, there needs to be meaning to those connections. ROI increases with authentic relationships being built across your social media platforms. You could pay to get thousands of free followers, however, this wont benefit the company and usually get followers away from where business may be done (e.g. overseas). Social media managers place focus on marketing techniques to build meaningful connections; from effective #hashtags and asking questions of the audience, to connecting with industry influencers and replying to comments or mentions – there are many ways to build meaningful relationships with your audience..
Social media, now more than ever, is a necessary part of any business strategy that can facilitate meaningful connections with consumers. With changes in trends and technology, individuals with know-how and experience are key to exercising effective social media engagement and management.