If you’re a small-to-medium-sized business, you probably already know that social media is critical to your marketing strategy. But there are dozens of social media channels, and managing all those accounts takes time, consistency, and expertise.
So rather than juggling digital marketing with everything else you have on your plate, it may be worth considering hiring a social media management company. With a social media marketing agency, you can put your socials on autopilot and let seasoned marketing professionals build your audience (read: customer base).
But outsourcing marketing is a significant investment, and it’s critical that you understand how social media management works. So before you jump into a partnership with a social media management company, do your research so you know exactly what to expect.
In this article, we’ll deep dive into everything you need to know about social media management so you can choose the right agency for your brand.
What is a social media management company?
A social media management company is a business that provides online marketing and social media services to its clients. Social media management companies typically work with small-to-medium-sized firms that don’t have the capacity for an internal marketing team.
Social media agencies typically employ a number of marketing professionals who specialize in various areas of social media marketing, including:
- Social media strategy (Instagram, Facebook, etc.)
- Social account management
- Pay-per-click marketing (PPC)
- Copywriting and content writing
- Photography and graphic design
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy
- ECommerce marketing services
Each social media management company has its own roster of services. They’ll work with you to develop a social media strategy that aligns with your business’s needs and budget. Now, let’s look a little bit more closely at the ins and outs of social media management.
What does a social media management agency do?
Social media management companies offer a cohesive, highly strategic approach to social media marketing. Here are a few common ways that social media marketing agencies help their clients grow their businesses:
- Develop a comprehensive social media strategy
Ten years ago, social media was widely considered a way for people to connect with friends and family. But in 2022, it’s a critical component of your overall marketing strategy. So you need more than just a Facebook account—you need a strategy.
A social media marketing company will work with you to fine-tune your social media efforts. They’ll help you build a comprehensive strategy that boosts engagement on various social channels, drives traffic to your website, and, ultimately, improves conversion.
- Create content for social media channels
In the early days of the internet, Bill Gates wrote a now-famous essay entitled “Content is King.” He predicted that content would become a valuable commodity on the internet—and it turned out to be an apt prediction.
A core function of social media marketing agencies is creating engaging content that compels users to learn more about their brand. That means building social feeds that consistently feature shareable, informative, brand-defining content. This content could be in the form of the following:
- Pictures
- Videos and Lives
- Stories
- Text-based posts
- Infographics
- Polls and Quizzes
- Blog posts, newsletters, or articles
It would take quite a lot of time, money, and effort to produce this content yourself. But social media marketers have a network of talented professionals that can create eye-catching content quickly and efficiently.
- Run social media ad campaigns
Have you noticed more ads creeping into your social media feed recently? Social media ad revenue is projected to hit a staggering $252.6 billion in 2026. So needless to say, now is the time to enlist the help of a marketing team for your social media ad campaigns.
Social media users spend an average of about two and a half hours on social media each day in 2022. And with more than 4 billion users on social media globally, you’d be crazy not to nurture your social media leads.
But all that time on social media does a number on users’ attention spans, so enlisting the help of a marketing team to create clever, eye-catching, high-conversion ads is a worthwhile investment.
- Drive organic traffic with SEO
While not strictly in the social media domain, any content strategist worth their salt should be helping you drive traffic to your website using SEO. Search engine optimization is a way to maximize the number of users who find your website through search engines such as Google.
Your social media management company will develop a content strategy around the keywords users typically use to find businesses like yours. Then, they’ll create content for your website and social channels based on those keywords.
In addition to driving traffic to your site, consistent publication of SEO-optimized blog posts and articles will help establish you as a brand authority. Plus, it offers another way to keep your social channels active with engaging content.
- Analyze metrics to hone strategy
Your social media team will keep its finger on the pulse of your social strategy by constantly analyzing your metrics and finding ways to improve.
This data offers powerful insight into how well your social media strategy works so you can find areas for improvement. Here are some of the metrics by which your social team can analyze your account:
Reach
Reach measures how many users have seen your content. Your team will monitor your account’s overall reach and check the reach of individual posts to see what’s performing well.
Impressions
Each time a person views your content counts as one impression. You can get multiple impressions from a single user if, for example, they watch a video more than once.
Audience growth
Your audience growth rate refers to how many new followers your account acquires in a set period in relation to your overall follower count. A new account will typically have a high growth rate, even if it has a low follower count.
Engagement
Engagement measures user interaction. Likes, shares, and reactions are key indicators that your account is generating high-quality, engaging content.
Video views
All major social media platforms are now heavily prioritizing videos over images and text-based posts, so keeping track of video views is an important metric for social media teams to stay on top of.
Click-through rate
Your click-through rate, or CTR, refers to how often users follow the links posted in your channels. Whether a blog post or a link to your landing page, your CTR is an excellent indicator that you’re getting a good ROI on your social strategy.
Conversion rate
The crown jewel of all social media metrics is your conversion rate. Your conversion rate measures how often your account begins the process of a conversion, such as a download or a sale.
How much does social media management cost?
One fantastic thing about social media management is that there’s a solution for every budget. If you’re just getting started, you can manage your accounts for free until you have the revenue to turn things over to professionals.
If you just need a little help growing your account, there are plenty of amazing freelancers who specialize in social media management. Freelancers charge between $25 and $100 per hour for social media management services.
But a social media agency is well worth the investment if you’re looking to drastically overhaul your social media efforts. A social media management company typically charges between $750 and $1,100 for its social media management services.
These companies have in-house teams of experts who can advise on current trends, offer technical expertise, and implement an omnichannel marketing strategy for all of your accounts over multiple campaigns.
Social Media Platforms
Now that you have a better understanding of what social media companies do, let’s look at the differences and similarities between the different social media platforms. Each social channel is unique and serves a different purpose for its audiences. Therefore, your social media company will take a different marketing approach for each platform.
Facebook Management
Facebook serves a slightly older demographic than some of its newer competitors. Nevertheless, it’s critical to stay active on Facebook and cultivate a following. Your social media team will create a business account for you, run Facebook ads, post regular updates and promotional content, and interact with your customers on your behalf.
They’ll also use targeted advertising to reach potential customers who are most likely to be interested in your products or services. Facebook management is a core function of any social media strategy, and your marketing agency will ensure you’re getting a great ROI on your investment.
Twitter Management
Twitter lends itself well to individual interactions with customers, whether addressing a concern or fostering positive communication. Because it’s common to post multiple times per day on Twitter, it’s also great for developing your brand voice.
Some brand accounts are known for playful interactions, humorous memes, and friendly banter with competitors. Your social media agency will help you cultivate a Twitter following and promote your business on the platform.
Instagram Management
In 2022, every business seems to have a super sleek, highly active Instagram account. Instagram is an excellent tool for sharing photos, posting Stories, and interacting with customers in comments and DMs. So Instagram management is a valuable investment for your business.
Features such as Live and Reels make it an awesome option for generating user engagement, and a diverse array of content creators and influencers can help your brand reach more customers. In addition, Instagram ads are an especially powerful way to connect with new customers.
Overall, Instagram is highly versatile, and your social media company will work with you to build a comprehensive strategy so you can get the most out of your account.
LinkedIn Management
LinkedIn is primarily used for professional networking. So if you’re in the B2B space, you should absolutely invest in LinkedIn management. It may also be worth considering LinkedIn ads to help you grow your footprint.
LinkedIn is a wonderful platform for storytelling, and your social media team will use it to give users a glimpse under the hood of your company to showcase your values, define your brand voice, and show off what sets you apart from your competitors. In addition to building relationships and rapport with other brands, LinkedIn is a great tool for recruitment.
YouTube Management
YouTube is a fantastic platform for longer videos, of course, and YouTube Shorts now offer a way for companies to leverage short, TikTok-style videos to reach more users. While creating YouTube content takes considerable time and money, a social media company can help you develop eye-catching videos that showcase your products and services.
So it’s worth considering investing in YouTube management to help you create content and use it to enhance your overall marketing strategy. Your social media agency will also help you develop YouTube ads, which are a powerful marketing tool for businesses of all stripes.
TikTok Management
While TikTok is relatively new to the game, it’s quickly become a powerhouse in the digital marketing world. TikTok offers high-friction, high-engagement, highly-targeted video content for individuals and brands. What’s more, TikTok ads are often almost indistinguishable from user-generated content.
TikTok management is a big job, but a social media management company will keep up with the ever-changing trends on TikTok and enlist their creative teams to develop a marketing strategy suited to your brand. They’ll also help you partner with influencers and content creators to help you build rapport with audiences.
Final Thoughts
Whether launching a new business or looking to grow your existing customer base, a social media management company can help you grow brand awareness and establish yourself as a trusted figure in your industry. With a team of social media experts and creative professionals behind you, the sky’s the limit.
Wedgewood Marketing is a Charlotte-based digital marketing agency specializing in social media marketing, social media advertising, and PPC advertising. You can start growing your business using your customer’s favorite social media channels today. To get started, schedule a free audit, and our team will connect you with actionable insights to help you boost your digital footprint and improve your bottom line.
