How to choose the right Social Media Marketer for your Business.

In 2016, Social Media Examiner reported that 92% of marketers believe that social media is important to their business but how do you decide on who to hire with such an important position? Social media companies that brag about being too affordable are almost always bad news. When it comes to hiring a social media company, you tend to get what you pay for. Social media should be seen as an investment, and you need to work with someone that feels just as passionate about your brand as you do. You need someone that is willing to commit to the long haul because real social media success doesn’t happen over night. There are some companies that you’ll see within a couple months rise in the social media ranks so fast that you think, “it has to be their social media marketer, I want them!” There are some companies that are that amazing; they use all the right tools and their experience to legitimately build you up. Those are the companies you should expect a custom built strategy but also expect to pay more money for their service. Then there’s the other side of the spectrum- Now when I say legitimately, I mean there are Social Media Marketing companies that you should also be aware of but not necessarily in a good way. There’s a lot of people out there that just think they can just jump on social media and become a Social media marketer right away. Yes, everyone has to start somewhere but, it takes a lot of creativity, failed attempts, practice, schooling, and a lot of research. Just because you’re on social media all the time doesn’t make you capable of all the ins and outs that come with the Social Media Marketing territory. And NO, social media marketers don’t just post. There’s a lot of social media marketers that make themselves look demanding by building up mass followers on their own pages and the business pages they handle. A new business that’s looking to hire a social media marketer needs to be aware that a lot of these marketers use apps or systems to quickly build up your following by the use fake accounts. We’ve all come across these fake accounts. They are usually run by bots or use unestablished fake profiles. What does that mean for your business? Although it may sound impressive to have 10 thousand “likes” or more on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, but your charade will be exposed the second somebody checks out your page and sees that compared to your large following nobody is liking, commenting, or sharing your content consistently. It’s better to have 1,000 followers that like, comment, and share your page than 10,000 that like or follow you once and then disappear after that first time. You not only want to hire someone that will be available to your customers 24/7 but someone that can help you accomplish realistic goals and make you more money. You want to be their top priority, not just one company out of the many that they may be handling. So, what’s the best answer to this question? When you’re looking for that right company or person to represent your Business there’s a lot of factors to think about. When narrowing down the few that you want to talk to, make sure you take note if a social media marketing company is giving you a quote right away. If they do, that’s an indicator (to me) to go elsewhere. Before discussing pricing, the SMM company or person should have first looked over your website and and your already built social media pages (if you already have a couple platforms established). They also should have summarized and got a good idea about the products or service your business will be marketing on Social Media and be able to offer you marketing and advertising insights. Also, before discussing pricing a good SMM will want to ask you what kind of goals you have in mind (it’s okay if you’re not sure but at least they’re asking). Lastly, they should be discussing the different services they can provide to you. If you have a budget they should be comparing your goals and your budget with what services and approaches they will need to use and go from there. Some company’s have too high expectations on a small budget and expect to have the same amount of traffic and followers as say, some of their competitors; it’s just not feasible. So if a SMM business jumps right in and offers a low quote that seems really affordable (without discussing these few things first) then it’s most definitely too good to be true. They’re most likely doing business in volume (i.e. trying to sign as many businesses as possible) rather than committing to your brand’s needs. The only way an agency can get away with prices that cheap is by not giving your strategy the attention it deserves. You deserve the one on one customization strategy, you deserve someone that will constantly correspond with you and consult with you on how to keep expanding. Support a local Social Media Marketer or SMM business to make corresponding even easier. There’s lots out there to choose from but at least now you know where to start. Are you ready to build your Empire on Social Media? Message me with a question today. Connectionsthatbuild.com