Social Media Management – In-house or Outsource to Agency?

If your company doesn’t have a major presence on social media, you might find your company struggling to compete against the companies that do have said presence. Why? Combined, the top social media platforms have billions of users. If you have been avoiding going in this direction for any reason, now is the time to make the change and to think about social media management.

As you enter the world of social media marketing, you will soon realize that you need to employ some form of organized social media advertising/management. This will be necessary to make sure your company accounts for all possible social media resources and uses all the tools that might be available.

To help you learn how to properly manage your social media marketing efforts, the following information will focus on defining social media management. Also, the info will focus on what social media management tools are available to help you.

 

What is Social Media Management?

Social media management is the process by which online marketers attempt to control the creation, publishing, and tracking of ads/content/results that are designed to sell merchandise or an idea. The most common social media platforms on which merchants seem to have the most success include Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and to some extent YouTube.

There are two primary ways you can manage your social media marketing campaigns. You can do it yourself or hire a dedicated in-house employee. The option would be to hire a social media marketing company to serve as an ad manager Instagram / Facebook / Twitter / etc.

What This Management Process Entails

If you are leaning towards handling your social media marketing effort in-house, you will need a little information about what that entails. By us providing you with this information, it will give a basis for making the right decision in terms of what kind of time and effort you might need to invest.

If social media marketing is new to your organization, you will want to recognize there are steps you need to take to get your marketing campaign up and running. In fact, we suggest following the following nine steps:

1. Analyze Your Existing Social Media Involvement

Before you get going, you should take some time to analyze any efforts you are already making on social media. If there are none, you can start from scratch. If you have social media content, you will need to decide if any of it will play a role in your new social media campaigns.

2. Make Sure You Know Your Target Audience

If it’s not clear yet, you need to understand exactly who your target audience is going to be. That will tell you where you can find them, and which platforms are likely to be most effective.

3. Choose Which Platforms You feel Will Best Serve Your Company’s Needs

Again, you will want to focus on platforms where your target audiences are most likely found. You will also want to consider your budget since some platforms are most costly than others.

4. Develop Your Strategy

 

Your company’s social media strategy should focus on achieving your company’s goals and creating a brand. Remember, your brand is something you should be carrying throughout everything you do on social media.

5. Develop Your Social Media Marketing Profiles

Within each social media platform you choose, you will need to create a profile. Those profiles should include headers, backgrounds, and profile pictures. You will need to make sure your profiles reflect your brand.

6. Create Ads

As you create ads, you will want to make sure they target the right audiences and provide enough information to prompt prospective customers to click forward. Here, you will need to be cognisant of click costs and make sure the call to action inspires.

7. Create Your Calendar for Release of ADs

Management of the release of ads is a vital part of the social media marketing environment. There are scheduling tools available that will let you line up your ads and other content to be released at targeted times.

8. Create Marketing Content to Connect to Ads

With your ads in place, they need to be supported by content that completes the marketing message and leads to action on the part of the customer. The content can include a website and blogs that focus on relevant information.

9. Track Progress and Interact with Social Media Followers

At all times, you want to be tracking results. You should be able to see what is working and what is not. Then, you need to position yourself to make quick changes and institute substitutes for what is not working.

The Social Media Management Tools You Might Need

Managing your social media will take time and effort. To help you save as much time as possible, here are some tools you might want to use:

• Buffer – for ad scheduling and tracking
• Hootsuite – manage content and interact with followers
• CoSchedule – Another ad and content scheduling tool

Hiring a Social Media Marketing Agency

After looking at all the steps you would need to take to get your social media marketing campaigns off and running, you might feel overwhelmed. That’s okay, you are not alone. That’s exactly why top digital marketing agencies like WebCie exist. They can take that time burden off your shoulders by providing the following services:

• Brand development
• Ad manager Instagram / Facebook / Twitter / etc.
• Content creation and publishing
• Tracking of results

Assuming you can see the real benefits of hiring a digital marketing agency, we at WebCie stand at the ready to handle your social media marketing needs.