How do you know your social media company has the wrong strategy for your business? It is not always easy for a business not used to social media to determine if their social media agency has the right stuff to help their business.
In some cases, it is easier to look for what a social media company does not do compared to what they do. Below are seven tell-tale signs you need to pay attention to with your agency.
7 Items Your Social Media Company Should Not Do
1. Non-existent social media strategy– If your social media marketing campaign seems haphazard then that could be a sign your agency has no clue what the strategy is for your business.
They might be doing all of the right things like posting on a regular basis and adding new followers, but no pattern exists.
The best companies work with you to create a strategy that fits your specific needs. Otherwise, what is the point of having them create all that content and invest your money on social media?
Without a plan, you cannot determine your goals and the end game for your social media marketing.
2. Shotgun approach– This is an outgrowth of not having a plan. A few years ago when social media was in its infancy, it was popular for businesses to hire an agency to get them listed on as many social networks as possible.
Heck! 5-7 years ago that seemed like a good strategy for us. However, as our understanding of social media progressed, so did our ability to focus in on the right social networks for clients.
For example, Instagram’s core audience is 18-29 year olds. Conversely, LinkedIn’s core audience has an average age over 30.
Therefore, it makes sense if you want to reach a more mature audience you go to LinkedIn, and connect a younger audience to your Instagram account.
However, when you look closer at age demographics you could also use photo and video sharing site SnapChat for college students. Currently, 77% of college students now use SnapChat on a daily basis.
By understanding the numbers, you can determine which social networks are a good fit for your business. It saves a lot of time trying to be everywhere to everyone on social media.
3. Pay for followers- The next one is a big no-no! It is NOT okay to go on a site like Fiverr and pay someone $5 for 1,000 likes or follows. Many accounts have been banned by the social networks, because buying followers violates social networks terms of service.
If your social media agency does this without your knowledge, they can potentially do more harm than good to your social media marketing efforts.
To clarify, it is okay to pay for social ads to encourage users to go to your Facebook page or follow you on Twitter. Just do not pay directly for new followers or fans.
4. Me-Me Approach– A good rule of thumb for social media is that only 20% or less of your content should be about yourself. Any more than that, and you will probably be ignored by your connections.
That is because, social media is about being “social.” If you cannot interact and share other people’s content, then they have little incentive to share yours.
Furthermore, once you share other people’s content you need to provide content of your own that is extremely valuable to prospective customers.
You simply cannot do this without thinking about others first. Zig Ziglar said it best when he stated, “You can have everything you want in life, as long as you help enough other people get what they want.”
5. TMI Sharing– The flip side of not sharing other people’s content is sharing too much information.
While it is great that many businesses take to heart the lesson they need to share other businesses content, overdoing can be just as dangerous. That is because, when you share too often you dilute the value of the information you put out there.
It must be a balancing act.
6. On the clock– The next item is that you need to know how much time your social media company spends on your account. Hopefully this is spelled out in the contract you signed with them.
While you might not need to physically clock their activity, you need to ensure they are spending enough time on your account every month to engage with your network on social media and create valuable content.
7. Un-sociable- Does your social media company not respond to messages on Facebook or Twitter? Are they ignoring complaints on Yelp or Google Local? This could be one of the biggest warning signs that you are in trouble.
If your agency works on your entire campaign, there should be some riders about how often they check your accounts. It might not be possible or financially feasible to have someone checking the account every hour, but it is possible to have someone doing a quick 10 minute check every day.
Final Thoughts
Hiring someone to help with your social media campaign can be very helpful if you are not sure what to do yourself.
It is also the reason why you need to make sure you hire the right company for the job. Otherwise, it could negatively impact your business. If you are still not sure about your social media company, feel free to comment below about how we can help.
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