Why do I need a social media company?
As a social media company, a question that we come across all the time is
“Why do I need a social media company when I can post myself?”
It’s a valid question!
Many business owners don’t understand how much goes into social media. Before I studied digital marketing or had a position here at OSM, I never fully understood the amount of work that goes along with doing social media the right way.
There is so much more going on than simply posting to Facebook and Instagram once every couple of weeks. There are algorithms, statistics and data going into almost every single post. To properly run a social media platform takes time, focus and research.
Every large or small business that is up and running needs to be on social media.
Why?
You may think your business isn’t on social media, but you’re probably wrong. People are looking to Facebook, Instagram, Google, and LinkedIn to learn more about your business from other customers’ previous experiences and to get a better insight into what your business does. If you want your social media presence monitored and controlled so that you can share what your business prides itself on and succeeds at then yes, you need to be on social media.
If you are a business owner, and unsure about social media, let me explain to you why you need a social media company (or at least a professional) running your platforms.
Being a business owner takes a lot of work. You are balancing customers, employees, marketing, accounting and much more. A business owner can’t be expected to know everything, especially everything about social media. There is too much to learn. So much that people are going to school to receive doctorates in digital marketing because aspects of social media are so intricate.
When asking yourself “Why do I need a social media company when I can post myself?” think about how many other duties would come before that. Will you honestly commit to collecting content for weeks at a time? Not just about your business, but fun, engaging pictures about what’s happening in and around your business. Then using that content to make monthly plans. Scheduling content and acting as a strategist. Looking at past posts and seeing what has worked and what hasn’t, then altering the future content to fit those plans. These are all necessary steps to form a cohesive, effective content strategy.
From there you must understand your market, who you are targeting in your posts, and what type of posts will be engaging with the market you are targeting. Posting at least 5 times a week, preferably different content to each social platform, responding and reaching out to those who are commenting and liking your content. Constantly monitoring all of your posts and advertising efforts to make sure that you are responding to all of your customers in a timely manner.
It doesn’t end there. To be successful you must think of growing your social platforms. Growing engagement, reach, impressions are all things to be considered. Creating a budget to run ads. This takes time and research understanding how much you should be spending and how to properly run an ad is a job by itself. Luckily, we have a few professionals who know how to do that here at OSM.
Creating “lookalike” audiences targeting who your business is wanting to reach on social media and from there planning what your ad should look like and be presented is way too much to think and plan as a business owner. Not to mention the time commitment.
Having a social media company to take these things off your plate and giving control of your page to those with expertise in digital marketing not only will save you time and stress but allow your business to grow and profit from the proper use of social media.
Ian Altman shares a great story focusing on “The Evolution of Social Media,”
A really long time ago, a junior employee approached the CEO of a company and said “There’s this new technology that people are starting to use. My friends and I all use it, and I think that as a company we should allow our customers to use the new technology to communicate with us.” The CEO dismissed the young employee and his crazy notion that customers expected someone to answer them using that silly device called a telephone. The CEO was probably thinking, “Why do we need telephones? Our customers come into our office or store if they need something.” A similar discussion certainly happened decades later around email, after all why support customers with email when they can just call. Though technologies have changed over the years, essentially telephone and email were the channels to communicate with customer then, just like Facebook and Twitter are the channels today.
When your business is active on social media, relationships with your audience will grow. How? If your audience has a question or concern regarding the company they can rely on those pages for support. When your business page has consistent content being shared that is fun and engaging, your page will begin to have a strong persona which helps to create and sustain relationships with those who follow your page. From there your customers become loyal to your company. When they are looking for service in your industry, there is no question when it comes to who they are going to choose. Your company is the first pick, and when others ask recommendations about your industry you can guess what business will be recommended.
You always have the option to handle your own social media pages. In fact, managing the pages yourself is better than ignoring them altogether. However, if you truly want your presence to grow and to use social media effectively, your pages will perform better in the hands of someone who knows the platforms in and out. Handing over your social media accounts to a business may seem scary, unnecessary and potentially expensive. But it doesn’t have to be.
If this is your first time reading or hearing about Optimize Social Media, we are a Minnesotan (okay, there are some Wisconsinites and Iowans too) run company with services for single or multi-location businesses. We are a dedicated social media marketing company that brings your company specialized and updated content to reach and build your reputation online.
If you are interested in what we do. Check out our website or give us a call at 855–676–1212.
Optimize Social Media provides social media & reputation solutions that evolve with our clients. As social media experts we manage Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yelp, YouTube and Instagram accounts for our clients on a daily basis. We help the modern business owner implement a specialized social media strategy so that they can make more money in real life. Enjoy our blog.
