Social Media Marketing Companies

How can you trust social media marketing companies?

 

Most entrepreneurs have a problem dealing with social media marketing companies or firms that offer help with SEO because entrepreneurs believe that the only thing it will accomplish is increasing their advertising costs. In fact, most businesses fail to recognize the potential revenue increases from a successfully implemented social media marketing plan.  Being a small business, after all,  it is important that you do learn to balance your expenses and focus your expenses on the most relevant items of your business.  This is where the double edge sword of understanding the benefit of social media marketing companies comes in.  How can you expect to create and implement a successful social media marketing plan if you don’t invest in some sort of social media marketing education?

Social Media Marketing Companies Have Much to Offer

Everyone understands that their is great value in having a social media marketing campaign and that social media popularity is exploding, but people don’t exactly understand what the means or what it entails.  This is why working with professional social media marketing companies is such a plus.

The first value that social media marketing companies bring to small businesses is their ability to educate you on the possibilities of a social media marketing plan.  After all, you don’t know what you don’t know.  What is the best medium in which to speak to an audience?  What is the top reason social media marketing campaigns fail and how do you avoid it?  How can you target a specific demographic?  What is the difference between a Facebook marketing plan and a Twitter marketing plan?  How does Google+ fit in with your search rankings?

Most small business see social media marketing as a way to promote themselves and their brand and fail to recognize that this is how campaigns fail.  Working with a professional, experienced social media marketing company will assist you in creating a proven plan that will help you increase your brand and bring in more revenue.

The second most valuable part of working with social media marketing companies is what type of implementation tools do they have?  How can you turn your social media marketing plan into action?  It’s great to have the big picture idea of what your plan can do for your business, but how can you post videos, articles, photos, etc… on multiple social media sites quickly and efficiently without having to hire a team of marketers?  You can have the greatest plan in the world, but if you can’t engage with your fans and followers quickly, simply, and efficiently, then your social media marketing plan will fail.  Social media platforms exist that will allow you to effectively roll out a plan in an efficient and inexpensive manner.

Can You Trust Social Media Marketing Companies?

If you’re still wondering whether you can trust social media marketing companies to help you, then you definitely must think about how you will perform without their assistance. If you have recognized that your social media marketing campaign is stuck in its current state, then possibly it’s time to become better familiar with what social media marketing is and what social media marketing companies have to offer you and for your business.

There are two main types of social media marketing companies that you can choose:

  1. A done-for-you company– This type of company will develop a social networking marketing plan for you and implement the plan as an independent contractor would do.  The main benefit of using a done-for-you company is that it requires very little time and effort from you.  Though there are costs for hiring these types of companies, generally, when considering the costs of an employee, training and managing the person,  and the taxes and benefits included of hiring an employee, outsourcing this service to social media marketing companies will be less expensive than hiring an employee.
  2. An education / consulting company– A consulting company will provide you with teaching tutorials on how to do it yourself, consult you through the trainings, and provide you with a social media marketing platform that will allow you to implement your plan quickly and efficiently.  While the costs will be much less than hiring social media marketing companies, there will be more demand on your staff as your staff will need to turn the plan into action.

So which option, the done-for-you approach or the consulting company, is the best alternative?  It depends.  If money is tight and you believe you have the internal resources to successfully implement your plan, then option 2 is the best.  If you don’t want to hire, train, manage, and pay a social media marketer internally, then outsourcing may be your best answer.

When you start searching for social media marketing companies, you need to be careful on how you determine which option and company is the best fit for your organization. There are a lot of bogus companies who don’t really know what they’re doing or practice what they preach.  Research these companies.  Do they have testimonials?  Do they have a video page?  Do they even have a Facebook Fan Page?  Choose sensibly.

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net