3 Projects a Social Media Agency Can Do Better Than You

You know that scene from “Taken” when Liam Neeson’s character first gets the call from his daughter’s kidnappers? You know the one when Neeson delivers the speech that includes the lines, “what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career…”

Well, that’s how you should think of social media agencies. There are some marketing projects you can take a DIY approach to, and there are some things that require a very particular set of skills. The latter should be handled by professionals, people who have acquired the skills over a long career. These are the projects you should hire an agency to handle and below you’ll find a few examples of projects like this from the world of social media.

Project 1: Social Media Advertising

Because you shouldn’t bring a knife to a gunfight.

If you pay for the premium service, LinkedIn Learning you can follow the Become a Social Media Advertising Specialist link and go through over 12 hours of coursework to get yourself up to speed on social media advertising. That’s how long it takes to just cover all of the things a good social media agency does.

When it comes to social media marketing, most people wouldn’t know their ads from their elbow.

Maybe you’re a social media advertising whiz and you don’t need this kind of service. But if you’re like most people, you know social media advertising when you see it, but you probably couldn’t make a successful, cost-effective social media advertising campaign to save your life. When it comes to social media marketing, most people wouldn’t know their ads from their elbow. That’s why most people should hire an agency for social media advertising.

Project 2: Influencer Marketing

Because It’s Not What You Know It’s Who You Know

We all know there was a bit of an influencer bubble a few years back. Big brands were paying big money to big stars to post endorsements on their social media. Eventually, the market is catching on to the fact that these influencers are only famous for being famous and these celebs are losing some of their luster.

Still, that doesn’t mean influencer marketing is worthless. In fact, quite the opposite, influencer marketing is the key to how many businesses reach their markets. The trick is they’re not going after mega-influencers. Instead, they’re doing deals with smaller influencers and even micro-influencers (aka, regular people with strong social media presences). These influencers have much more niche audiences than the Kardashian-esque influencers. They’re not famous, but they’re often well-known, and respected, in their fields.

An agency that works with influencers on behalf of a number of different clients will almost always be able to get an influencer to post for less

That’s why hiring a social media agency to run your influencer marketing program pays off. These agencies have staff members and even whole teams of people devoted to tracking and building relationships with influencers. And, perhaps most importantly, they have established relationships that you can leverage to negotiate a good deal. An agency that works with influencers on behalf of a number of different clients will almost always be able to get an influencer to post for less than what an individual company would pay the same influencer. Plus, a good agency can offer sound advice on how to maximize your influencer marketing efforts for the best return on investment.

Project 3: Community Management

Because Ain’t Nobody Got Time For All That

Having a community of followers sounds great when you picture it. You start to think of hordes of adoring fans, cheering your brand on and screaming for your latest releases, like the Beatles landing at JFK Airport. What could go wrong?

That’s a great fantasy but, in reality, most of the time, when a community forms around a brand, trolls quickly join in. Just check the comments for even the most benign product’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. and you’ll often find ridiculous criticisms, offensive screeds, and spammy hucksters trying to hijack conversations. At this point, the smartest companies know to expect this kind of stuff. And, the smartest companies know that too much of this stuff pushes real fans and customers away. That’s one of the reasons why the smartest companies use agencies to manage their communities.

A great community manager can spark conversations and keep your prospects and customers engaged and coming back.

On top of moderating conversations, good community managers know how to foster positive relationships with the brand. While employees are naturally inclined to talk about the company all the time, a good social media agency team doing community management for a company knows that the key is not to make the conversation all about the brands. A great community manager can spark conversations and keep your prospects and customers engaged and coming back.

All of this moderating and management happens on your community’s schedule, though, not yours. Having an employee on call to manage a community, especially when the community is small and spread out in several different locations, can be inefficient and often ineffective. But an agency that offers social media community management can provide you with just-in-time service that will have your community growing and your company looking great on social platforms.

Parting Words

Now, of course, you could go it alone and take on these projects in-house. Feel free to either hire and pay new employees or devote your current staff’s time and energy away from their current projects towards one of the ones highlighted above. No one is stopping you from choosing that path. This brings us back to the scene from the movie “Taken” that we started with. If you choose to tackle these projects on your own, then we can only respond with the same line as the kidnapper “Good luck.”