When Should You Hire a Social Media Agency?

We know, you’ve heard it, social media is important when it comes to marketing your business. But you’ve got it covered, right? The decision to hire a social media agency to support your brand’s social media marketing strategy is not a small one. But it can be an incredibly impactful one. More than just snappy captions and cute pics, social media is a powerful marketing tool that can carry your brand’s story to new audiences and new heights. And – when managed in a strategic, goal-focused and data-measured way – it can do it at a relative value when compared to many other traditional forms of advertising or direct marketing.  

First, a Look at Why Social Media is Important

All told, there are an estimated 302 million social media users in the U.S. alone and that number is continuing to grow. According to a 2021 survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of social software maker Sprout Social:

• 55% of consumers say they learn about new brands on social media
• 68% of consumers appreciate the opportunity social provides to interact with brands and companies
• 78% of consumers are more willing to buy from a brand and 77% will choose a brand over a competitor after a positive experience with the brand on social media
• 91% of executives say they will increase social media marketing budgets over the next three years

Social media represents a simply massive consumer audience, and it also provides unique opportunities to target content and to engage in meaningful interactions that other forms of marketing, even digital marketing, simply can’t replicate. Social media can also provide other broader benefits like boosting your search engine rankings, supporting your website traffic, generating leads and driving sales. Whoever your target audience, there’s a good chance that there’s a social channel that can connect with them. There’s also a good chance that your competition is capitalizing on it, even if you aren’t.

How do you know when it’s time to hire a social media agency?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to that question, but there are a number of signs to look for as you consider whether it may be time for your brand to enlist some agency support on social media.

#1 – You don’t have a social media strategy in place.
A smart social media strategy is the foundation for success in social media marketing and a road map to guide all of your social media efforts. It’s a critical key in connecting your social media presence to real business results. A strong social media strategy will establish specific goals and objectives for your brand’s social media presence, then match those with the right channels, content, format, frequency and more to achieve those goals.

If you don’t currently have a social media strategy in place, then the time you spend in creating and posting content on social media may be wasted if it doesn’t consistently and cohesively support the specific business goals that you are trying to achieve. A strategic plan backed by real business knowledge that adapts and grows with you can not only keep your social media efforts on track day-to-day but can also make sure that they are truly supporting your business goals, not just taking up time and (digital) space.

#2 – You are struggling to devote the time to social media that it needs to be successful.
Anyone who has worked with or around social media knows that it takes time. A lot of time. For a lot of reasons. Maybe you and your team are struggling to prioritize enough time to give social media the attention that it needs to succeed. Or maybe you are prioritizing it at the expense of other things that need to be done.

Maybe coming up with new content ideas, not to mention implementing them, is just eating up your valuable time or becoming a brain drain. Or you stop and start, making big strides on social when you are able to focus on it and then falling off when other needs arise.

Creating and producing strong, impactful social media content takes time. Getting it out on platform to your best advantage takes time too, and it takes consistency. In fact, consistency in pushing out content is in many ways more important than frequency in gaining the favor of those almighty algorithms. All that to say, it’s no surprise if social media gets you to feeling stretched thin with all the other things that you have to do in a day. That’s when entrusting your social media presence to an agency can make a big difference.

#3 – You aren’t really sure if or how well your social media efforts are working.
So, you’re putting out lots of social media content and getting back lots of numbers and metrics in return. You may look at that sea of information and wonder. Is it good? Is it bad? If it seems bad, how do I change it? With all the time and effort that goes into producing a social media presence, it’s imperative that you know what return you’re getting on all that investment, but those answers may not always be clear.

Truly understanding your social media results is critical if you want to leverage them into real business returns. All of those metrics need not only consistent tracking but also analysis, interpretation and translation into actions that will get you the results that you want. And the truth is, understanding and leveraging that kind of data can be a full-time job. Assuming you’ve already got one of those, that’s where a social media agency comes in.

#4 – You aren’t confident in your knowledge or skills on social media.
Have you had time to work on your Reels-making skills? Ready to take on TikTok? Joined in on Clubhouse? Maybe you’re just not sure which platforms are even the best fit for your brand and your story. Even if you are an everyday social media user in your personal life, that doesn’t mean that translating social media into a business tool will come naturally or easily. That’s even more true as you take on paid media opportunities and all the strategy, testing, metrics and analysis that comes with them.

What’s more, social media is a constantly changing landscape. There are always new platforms, new tools and new trends. And of course, there are new algorithm updates, privacy updates and platform changes that can transform the rules of the game. Keeping up with latest can be critical in maximizing your exposure on social media, but it can also be time consuming to stay ahead of the curve and make the most of timely opportunities.

#5 – You’re ready to take it to the next level.
Maybe you’ve established a foundation for your brand on social media, and things have been going pretty well. And then you sort of hit a wall. Your audience growth slows or stops, engagement on your content is low or you just don’t feel like your story is getting out there the way you want it to and you’re not sure what the next move should be. Enlisting the support of a social media agency can be a great way to take your brand’s social media presence to the next level and make the leap from just pushing out content to creating awareness, engagement and community – and ultimately translating that to your bottom line.

What Can a Social Media Agency Do for Me?

If the five signs above sound a lot like you, then it may be time to consider hiring a social media agency for the support you and your brand need to succeed. There are a lot of potential benefits when you find the right agency fit for you, but some of the most common that we hear from clients are:

There’s already a system in place. Quality and consistency are keys in producing social media content, and as an agency, we’ve already got an established workflow and process in place to manage that cycle, ensure appropriate reviews and approvals and report on results. That’s at least one system that you don’t have to build or manage on your own.

Agencies have a breadth of experience that can be leveraged to your advantage. As an agency, we’ve run content and paid media campaigns for a range of clients, campaigns and objectives. That means we’re not starting from scratch when it comes to strategy or testing, but rather already have a base of knowledge and expertise to draw on to dial in your brand’s social media presence.

It’s our job to keep up with the latest so you don’t have to. As mentioned earlier, keeping up with all the releases, changes and trends in social media can be a full-time job. And in an agency, it literally is. Staying immersed in social media and on the leading edge is what our team does.

There’s accountability to metrics and results. When you decide to hire a social media agency, you’ll be working together to establish a specific set of goals and objectives you want to achieve as well as agreeing on the metrics that will be used to track that performance. Regular tracking and performance monitoring provides a high degree of accountability to those goals you have established.

Agencies can take creative to the next level. Coming up with content ideas can be challenging on its own, not to mention producing and bringing them to life. As a creative social media agency, we’ve got creativity to spare as well as a team of creative professionals with the skills to create truly thumb-stopping content.

Is it time for you to consider what a social media agency could do for your brand?
Connect with the Clementine team today!