What to Expect From a Social Media Marketing Consultant
DIY Sprocket Solutions
Outsourcing the social media marketing for your business can be a great idea. When you’re busy actually running a company, it’s hard to maintain an effective social media marketing campaign. You’re shorting your business in a lot of ways by not maximizing your online marketing efforts. It makes sense to find a consultant or company that can take the social media management off your hands. The problem people have is knowing exactly what they should expect from a social media marketing manager.
Different consultants and companies offer different things, but there are a few basics that you should expect to be a part of your marketing plan.
Online Cleanup
Anyone handling your social media marketing should be taking a look at what existing accounts you may already have created. There may be duplicate accounts to consider or accounts that are not real and don’t represent your business. This cleanup should include updating or deleting these accounts, deactivating accounts that aren’t necessary, and responding to or taking inventory of places where comments and reviews have been left.
Creation of New Accounts
Any platform that your business should be marketing to needs to have an account. If you have existing accounts, social media managers should take these over and clean them up for you. If new accounts need to be created, this is something they should be taking care of as well. The job of a social media marketer is to effectively market your business across applicable networks. You should expect to discuss what networks you want your business to be present on and what networks you expect a social media manager to maintain for you. Marketers may have a certain number of networks that they will maintain for a certain price. For instance, you may discuss the price for three different platforms, and decide that it’s best for your company to have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Your social media manager will then go and create these accounts on your behalf.
Maintenance and Posting
You can expect a good social media manager to keep your accounts up to date with your latest business information. If your basic information, like a phone number, hours or address changes –you should be sure to let them know so that they can update this as necessary. They should also be posting updates on a regular basis. Daily would be most ideal. If your expectation is for them to respond to comments or reviews on your behalf, this should be communicated as well.
It can be difficult to navigate the social media marketing world when you don’t know exactly what to expect. Letting someone take over, who knows what they’re doing, is not a bad idea. You should be sure that the basics are being covered. Marketing consultants can do much more for your business. These extra services may come at an extra price, depending on the person that you hire. If you’re looking for someone to create ad campaigns, write and send out newsletters, create content for your website, or maintain extra accounts –you’ll have to discuss those extra needs as they come up.
What is your take on the bare essentials that a marketing consultant should offer? Do you think that cleanup, creation, and maintenance is enough? What has your experience been in the past? Comment below!
Breanne Bannon
Breanne is a Content Writer, Social Media Marketeer, and Sales Associate for Sprocket Websites.
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