In this article we’ll be looking at what makes a top social media agency and the different areas which outlines the good and the bad of any particular social media agency.
Transparency
Every social media needs to be transparent. A company and customer relationship needs to work both ways. The customer needs to be able to trust the company, trust that they will deliver what they set out to do from the beginning to achieve. In the industry of search, there are many companies out there using unethical practices in order to gain better rankings in Google. The beauty of social media is that it’s based around conversations and very open engagement activities, it’s quite hard to hide what they’re doing. If your social media company isn’t actually doing anything, you’ll most likely (if you check your social activity) be able to visually see and notice the difference!
Tools and Systems
A good social media agency will have their own in-house bespoke tools to work through your campaign. Either that or they will be using up to date industry standard tools such as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite which can do the same job but just not built as specific to a social media agency’s client needs. If a social media agency is only using spreadsheets to complete their client’s campaign then there could be difficulties down the line. It’s not to say using spreadsheets are bad as they do have their uses, but company shouldn’t have to rely on it to complete your social media strategy. If you have a system and process in place, then planning and executing a strategy should be fairly straight forward. Here at Essential we have our own in house developers who are constantly building new systems to fit the needs of our customers.
Great Communication
There’s nothing worse than paying for services where you’re unaware of what work is being carried out and then to find out you can’t get in touch with them on the phone, via email and even, believe it or not, through social media! Communication is key. In order for a social media campaign to work effectively both sides need to be able to communicate on a frequent basis. One day you may have planned a piece of content to go out across your social media platforms, to then find out that it’s actually quite a dated piece of content, you therefore need to get in touch to tell your agency ‘wait, we need to replace a piece of content for a new, more up to date version!’ So your social media agency must be easy to get hold of, otherwise it’s a pointless campaign where you’ll just end up being a frustrated client.
Be More Proactive and Less Reactive
Your social media agency needs to be proactive. There are constant changes within the industry therefore your agency needs to show they’re aware of these ongoing changes. Your social media agency shouldn’t be waiting for the next bad thing to happen, you should be preventing it. Being proactive or reactive though can give off sparks of great new ideas, but try avoiding mistakes before they happen! It’s not to say that being reactive is bad, as everybody is human and everyone makes mistakes. Without being reactive you wouldn’t learn as most people learn after they’ve done something wrong. It’s about altering the stance to be prepared.
Fresh Ideas
Social media agencies need to be on top of the game. The online world is a competitive one, it revolves around the people who can shout the loudest, people who are trying to be heard and people who are non existent on social media. As a client you expect to see fresh new developments from your agency to know that they are doing everything they can in order to be the best at what they do. Coming up with fresh ideas is key to online success, because they’re so many people talking at once on social media and most of the time about the same things. You as a client need to be able to stand out from the crowd. Your agency needs to be on the forefront of suggesting creative ideas.
Credible
Has the company got history of delivering brilliantly? If not, then there is a risk involved but more a case of you making an informed business decision. If you’re on the fence and not too sure whether to sign up with a company, ask to see some testimonials that might then change your mind. Also, see how they’re getting on with their own social media. Don’t be fooled though, comparing large quantity of followers and likes shouldn’t be your first action to take in checking whether a social media agency is credible, as there are ways in which people can gain followers in such unethical ways. What you do want to be on the look out for is their engagement, their post frequency and their type of posts. By looking at this you can see yourself if you’ve got a decent social media campaign themselves.
