The 411 On All Things Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is becoming increasingly important for companies of all sizes to get eyes on their business and send traffic to their websites. Social media advertising tends to have a much higher return on investment than traditional advertising channels, meaning that for budget-conscious companies social media marketing is a cost-saving way to increase revenue.

Thinking of hiring a social media manager to handle all of your social media needs? Here’s the 411 on all things social media marketing.

What Does A Social Media Marketer Do?

A lot of people think that social media marketing is as simple as taking a photo of a product and posting it to Instagram. While that is certainly an aspect of social media marketing, a social media marketer’s daily schedule is generally much more involved than just snapping a few photos. Here are just some of the day-to-day tasks that might take up a social media marketer’s work week:

• Organize and coordinate a content calendar for all social media channels

• Craft social media content in applications like Canva or Adobe Creative Suite

• Monitor social media channels and engage with commenters

• Prepare and launch ad sets

• Read up on the latest trends, hashtags and challenges

• Analyze post data on metrics like engagement and click-through-rate

• Coordinate with graphic designers, copywriters and video production houses to support content when needed

• Stay up-to-date on new and emerging features and social media platforms (such as Snapchat and TikTok)

As you can see, social media marketing is equal parts technical know-how, creativity and data analytics. A social media marketer can save you time and make your business more competitive.

What Is A Common Issue With Social Media Marketing Plans?

When it comes to social media marketing plans, it’s important to create content that is engaging and aligned with your company’s other marketing goals. At the same time, there needs to be a healthy mixture of content that engages customers or clients organically, and content that drives users to make a purchase or phone call.

A major issue that often comes up in the world of social media marketing is personalization and differentiation. Each social media account you have has different requirements and strengths when it comes to content. They also have different audiences and user demographics. This means that creating a social media marketing plan isn’t as simple as sharing the same post across multiple channels. As a social media marketer, you need to play to the strengths of each of the major platforms you may be on, including:

• Facebook

• Instagram

• Twitter

• LinkedIn

• Snapchat

• TikTok

• YouTube

A seasoned social media manager will know which platforms will and won’t work for your business. Not all platforms will be your bread and butter and that’s totally fine … you can spend time and effort on the ones that do!

While video-based content can perform well on each of these platforms, keep in mind that you’ll need to juggle a variety of dimensions, lengths and aesthetics in order to create successful content. As such, a common issue with social media marketing plans is not having a truly personalized plan for each and every channel and audience you serve. A savvy social media marketer will know how to cater content to audiences from a wide array of platforms.

What Is A Digital Marketing Agency And How Can They Help?

If your head is spinning thinking about how staying relevant on multiple social media channels could quadruple your workload, you may be wondering how to call for reinforcements. Thankfully, digital marketing agencies have risen to the occasion and are here to help.

Digital marketing agencies are teams of experts and creatives who are ready to help you design and execute a successful social media marketing plan. Depending on the size of your budget and your goals, these sorts of partnerships could mean outsourcing all of your social media marketing to an agency, just relying on an agency to handle paid ads or utilizing an agency’s expertise for a new channel your team isn’t familiar with. You’ll be able to discuss with the digital marketing agency what approach will work best for your company before committing to anything.

How To Choose A Digital Marketing Agency?

Ultimately, choosing a digital marketing agency is a personal decision. However, there are some things to keep in mind as you weigh the pros and cons of different options. For starters, it can be helpful if the digital marketing agency has expertise or a client roster in a similar space as your business.

While a great agency will be able to serve any type of company, in a world as personal as social media, having some benchmarks about a certain audience can be helpful. For example, if you run a plumbing business and your marketing agency has specialized in work with symphonies and concert halls, what’s worked for previous clients may not be a great fit for you.

Of course, length of project, budget and certain specializations (like a professional certification from Facebook) may also be important to you in your search for the right agency. Talk to the rest of your marketing team to see what holes need to be filled, and come up with a wish list of wants and needs. This can help guide your search and ultimately result in a successful social media marketing partnership for you and your business. Once you’ve made your list, contact a few social media marketing agencies to see how they can help.