You can throw a rock these days and hit six people who claim to be “social media experts” in one shot. My recommendation is that next time, throw the rock harder and help eliminate some of the flotsam that is choking the industry. (rimshot)
Seriously though, beyond just taking their word for it there are a few key things that I offer as standard services that you can use to validate a social media manager in a few quick steps without having to listen to them uhm and haw about “ROI”.
Qualify Your Social Media “Expert”
1 – Examine their experience in the industry. Hopefully you are not their first client.
2 – Ask to see examples of the kinds of content they’ve created to make sure it fits your voice.
3 – Ask how their services will impact your business; if they promise sales and the stars above overnight, RUN.
4 – Make sure you will be the owner of the content they are creating, this means they’re writing unique content for you, using royalty free or validly purchased stock images not stolen clip-art from the web, and are willing to provide copies of all generated content.
5 – Make sure they provide services beyond just Facebook and understand how elements of social media, search engines, and your website need to all work in harmony.
Even considering those factors, and even if you find a fairly qualified, experienced social media manager who provides good content and is responsive to your requests while creating a strong voice for your brand…there’s still a few things I can almost guarantee you that they are not doing.
Engaging Your Audience
You can post the cutest kitten pictures and most delicious bacon photos in the world, get a thousand likes, and a hundred comments, and it won’t matter one bit if there’s no engagement.
Your social media manager should be interacting with fans any time they can; this means liking and replying to all comments from your audience – especially the less than nice ones. Hopefully they are monitoring your page heavily as well to keep spam and the flood of expletives from trolls out of your marketing.
Nurturing Your Community
Posting is great. Social media has created a platform where anyone with something to say can blast it out to the world to reach thousands of people in seconds. That doesn’t really do much for your local community or your local businesses visibility either.
What does? Interacting with other local businesses and news sources, being active in conversations and a source of assistance to the social media community at large.
Supporting Your Partners
One way my services excel, whether it be in web development or social media services, is that I get to know you and your business. It would be easy to push buttons, throw up a template and call it good – you just wanted a website after all, right? – but I do more than that. By spending the extra time to gain more insight into who you are and how your company works I am able to strategically work with other partners and like-minded companies to create a natural synergy of support.
You may be surprised to get ‘thank yous’ from the business partners you’ve mentioned to me; while I would love to help them with their own social media needs too, I’m more than glad to like, comment, and share their posts as a way to serve you better as well – even if they are not my clients directly!
Anybody Can Do It!
If you’re just looking for someone to manage your Facebook page by posting inspirational photos and quotes that’s fine – there are plenty of entry level social media mavens more than willing to help you out – that may be the extent of the services you need. But if you’re looking for more, wanting to build the face of your brand in a powerful way that not only increases the awareness of your business but also builds equity in your branding PICKWICK is here to help!
I’m not your dad’s consultancy and I don’t provide the same stale services that are so commonly found throughout the net. I am driven to help the people I serve because I know how strongly they feel about what they do; putting a spotlight on that passion is one of the things I love most about what I do as well.
Category: social media marketing
Struggling With Social Media?
Today’s business world is non-stop. You’ve got a million and one details to keep track of just to keep the invoices going out and the money coming in. You want to be running your business, not worried about watching updates. Thankfully you don’t have to be plugged in 24 hours a day to get results from your social media marketing when you hire PICKWICK!
In addition to exceptional web development we also provide social media management custom suited to your needs!
We do things a little differently than a lot of social media management companies. First, we listen to what you want, make suggestions to get the best results, and then get to work. We never up-sell and we always show the metrics for our work so you can see where your dollars are going.
Some of the services that are part of the social media options we provide include:
Custom graphics for banners
Custom graphics and content for special events
Reputation management
Fan engagement nurturing
Local engagement interaction
Social Media Activity Analysis
Not ready for someone else to take the reigns but still need help?
We can also provide social media consultation and training to help you take control all on your own!
No matter what your need we have the skills to capture your unique voice and speak to your audience as if you were making the posts yourself – even your own mother won’t know it’s us cranking out that killer content. Get in touch today to see what we can do to get your social media snapping!