Social media marketing – yes, we all know that it’s crucially important in the digital age. Whether you own a small business, whether you’re an artist, the director of a large company, or you’re an entrepreneur, you know that if your social media presence is poor, it will come back to reflect directly on your business and brand. What’s worse, you’ll miss out on opportunities to bring in new fans, leads or customers. Sigh!
But I get it – sometimes a stellar social media presence and strategy is not an option, usually for at least one of these four reasons:
- It can be overwhelming
- You don’t have the time
- You don’t know how
- You just don’t have the inclination
Which is why outsourcing to a Social Media Manager (usually as a freelancer or part of an agency) can be the best option to take away all that pain, and you can concentrate on running and growing your business.
Below I’ll outline the main benefits of social media marketing to business, and then outline why outsourcing this huge task to a Social Media Manager could be the fairy godmother to your business “Cinderella”.
Let’s get to it!
The 3 Core Benefits of Social Media:
Brand Awareness
- Establish your brand online; create an online ‘footprint’
- Grow your followers/fan base, and increase reach and engagement
- Position your business as an ‘authority’ online; be the “go-to” business in your industry/area
- Drive traffic to your website, blog or funnel
Community
- Grow an engaged, loyal online fanbase who participate in the conversation
- Customer support. Retain and develop long term relationships
- Market research & feedback. Gauge sentiment and find new opportunities
- Increase sign ups to your newsletter / database
Direct response (particularly related to Facebook advertising)
- Promote your products/services, current promotions to a “warm” audience
- Call to action (CTA) to visit your store, buy your product/service, contact your business
- Generate qualified leads for your business
- Drive warm traffic to your checkout pages or CTA pages/ads
Phew! Seems like a pretty good idea to pay some more attention to what’s happening on your company pages.
So why hire a Social Media Manager / Facebook Ads specialist? How can they bring in these results? Why not just hire an in-house “Marketing Coordinator”?
By being just that – a Specialist
A Social Media Manager specializes in social media (and possibly other digital marketing techniques that go hand-in-hand with social media strategy – like funnels and email marketing). They should have the training, experience and skills behind them in order to deliver on your agreement/contract in the most effective and efficient way possible.
They do the hard yards for you
They will save you and your business so much time, because they’re doing the bulk of the creating, curating, scheduling and posting of content for you (or your in-house full-time employees who might be doing it otherwise). Not to mention all the other behind-the-scenes work like research, strategy, reporting, engagement… and keeping up with new social media marketing skills, updates and trends – so that no one else has to!!
They will know the best ways to reach your target market online and increase brand awareness for your business. They will also know how to track results, understand metrics and adjust strategy to make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck.
Freelance = Flexibility
Outsourcing to freelance Social Media Manager (usually on a monthly retainer basis, rather than an hourly rate) will result in a more flexible working relationship. What’s more, it should ultimately save you money, because you don’t have to hire a full-time employee (and provide them with employee benefits).
Competitive edge
You don’t need to be a big corporate or have a massive budget to have some decent marketing strategies in place! Hiring a Social Media Manager will help you stand out from your competition online. What’s more, there are still so many businesses out there that don’t utilize social media as they should. So make your mark in your industry!
Facebook Ads
Who doesn’t balk at the idea of learning the ins and outs of Ads Manager?? Let alone the best practice strategies for creating effective advertising campaigns. Facebook Ads are another beast all unto their own, so a Social Media Manager should have proficient skills in combining the best organic and advertising strategies to bring in results for their clients.
Content Creation
One of the biggest question’s businesses face when looking at their social media is: What do I post? A Social Media Manager will take care of this for you. They will take into consideration your brand, call-to-actions, promotions, existing content like imagery, blogs, website content, products, services and everything in between to showcase your business online. Depending on the agreement/contract, a Social Media Manager may also write blog posts, take new photos or edit videos so that there is a good variety of content to place on your social media channels.
Imagine if all of this could be taken off your hands?
At the end of the day, a good Social Media Manager will add value to a business (and ultimately help to increase leads or customers). It’s also important to note that social media is not a short-term fix – it takes time to grow an engage following, build warm audiences and get an online funnel (which consists of organic social and Facebook advertising) working like clockwork. But the long-term benefits of hiring a Social Media Manager will help to set up your business for the digital age… and beyond!
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Hi I’m Chelsea, the founder of Queen of Swords Media. I specialize in social media management and Facebook Advertising. Although based in Auckland, New Zealand, my services are available to clients around the world.
Ready to chat further about how I can help? You can contact me via my website here, or go straight to booking a (free) 30-minute call here.