 Story time ... 12 years ago, I remember a client telling me “Well my nephew just graduated college and he’s playing on Facebook all the time, so I think we’re just going to use him. He said he’d do it for free.” I asked if his degree was in marketing. The answer was no. I refrained from rolling my eyes, knowing they would be back. And they were. With a hot mess on their hands. The lesson for today is … cheap social media isn’t cheap. It will end up costing more as you clean up the mess and get aligned with a proven strategy. Undoing the damage is very costly and it takes time to rebuild your brand and meet your goals. I’ve never met a client who didn’t feel like they were spending too much on social media at first. They get on Facebook and Instagram every evening and at lunch to play around – how hard can it be to actually post??? So, let’s start there. It’s VERY EASY to click/tap the “post” button … it’s everything that leads up to it that’s the hard part. Here’s what you get with an experienced social media manager … Understanding Your Audience Did you know that most of the time, even your own employees don’t understand your audience? I’m talking about TRULY understanding what moves your audience and makes them take action on social media. Yes, you might have tactics inside your store or business, but those tactics don’t always work on social media. Did you know that most of the time, even Facebook is totally off base when they give advice? It’s true! For 7 years now, I’ve ignored their “best practices” when it comes to how to post the “best” images on Facebook. Because I knew it didn’t work. Now they’ve finally decided that their best practices weren’t working and are going to stop penalizing boosted posts and ads that don’t follow their best practices. Understanding your audience means taking the time to review analytics, set up tests, monitor engagement, and keep an eye on goal completion. Experienced social media managers collect this information over time, watch the similarities and differences between industries and audiences, and tailor their strategies accordingly. Understanding How to Balance Branding and Your Bottom-line Inexperienced social media managers (or your nephew who just graduated from college) will push for page likes and post likes/comments/shares. Their strategy seems sound in that they’re focusing on your brand and “voice” on social media, but usually they’re only monitoring key metrics from the social platform insights. You don’t want to ignore these goals and metrics, but you’re going to be in trouble if they’re the ONLY goals/metrics you focus on. At the end of the day, which would you rather have?
(Take your time deciding.) An experienced social media manager is going to balance the two. They can help you with branding and storytelling but will also direct your messaging toward your goals of sales and lead conversions. You can build your brand AND get sales at the same time. Understanding Your Budget If you followed all of the “best practices” out there, you’d spend a year’s worth of your budget in 1 month. You can’t do everything, so you need an experienced social media manager to help direct you to the platforms and strategies that will help you make the most for your money. Hint: sometimes the recommendations can feel really boring after you've been reading about the latest new thing, If your social media manager is telling you not to jump yet, you need to trust them. Which brings me to my next point … Knowing What’s a Fad and When to Jump In I’ve got my eye on all new social platforms coming up and often times recommend that my clients grab their social handle to make sure they have it ready when the time comes. However, I don’t use my client’s budget dollars to create a content strategy and new content around a brand-new platform just because the “cool kids” are doing it. I only make a move when it’s profitable for my client – and that timing is different for each client. I have meetings all the time with potential clients where they talk about someone coming in and shouting about how they need to be on [fill in the blank] platform because “everyone’s doing it.” They jump on the bandwagon and proceed to lose money. An experienced social media manager will put an end to that real quick! Knowing When to Pivot This is the best thing about social media and digital marketing. You can quickly make changes. Experienced social media managers see “the writing on the wall” much faster than most others. We know what tweaks to make to boost engagement and site traffic and we know when to scrap an idea all together. Those new to digital marketing, will stumble and cause delays when it’s time to pivot. An experienced manager will already have a new strategy in place before you even know there’s an issue. Start with Experience, Finish with Success I’ve worked in the world of digital marketing before it was called digital marketing. In 2001, I started with email campaigns and kept moving to newer and newer online/digital media platforms. Now we work with email, website sites, landing pages, social media, Google ads, and more. When you work with That Digital Rush, we start with a strategy and then create a content calendar and social media posting calendar. We create a guide tailored to your business and industry to meet your goals via digital marketing. We send monthly results via email on the 1st of the month and if you have ads running, we will send you results weekly or monthly (your choice).
We are experienced and yes, you do have to pay for that experience. But that’s why you’re going to see results. Contact us today if you’d like to learn more.
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AuthorFirst, I'm the mother of three crazy, sassy, sarcastic, hilarious children. Second, I work in the world of social media, email, digital marketing. Third, I'll probably try to tell you what to do. Archives
August 2023
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