Social media is everywhere these days.
You can’t hide from it or ignore it any longer. It’s become ingrained in our news, shopping practices, and ways we keep in touch with family and friends. And you’re okay with that, but when it comes to utilizing it for your business – it’s a totally different subject.
You probably don’t even know where to start. Or you have been working REALLY hard at it for a while now, but haven’t seen any results. In fact, you’re probably still calling malarky on the whole she-bizz.
You aren’t alone. Many business owners are struggling with social media, and there’s lots of different avenues to take. You can enroll in a course, hire your sister’s son (who must know what social media is), get a friend to help, or try to educate and incorporate it yourself. But none of this seems to help.
For the majority of people, trying to do social media themselves will land them in the midst of frustration and anxiety because they don’t know how to balance learning and implementing social media while running their businesses.
That’s a LOT to do!
That’s why social media agencies are your best option. And I don’t just say that because I own one, I say it because it’s true.
I grew up in family-owned businesses, my family is still mostly comprised of entrepreneurs, and most of my friends own businesses, too. I’m hip to what owners are dealing with everyday, and I know how heavy social has become for the majority of them.
But if you’re still struggling to believe that an agency is your best bet, here’s 3 of my biggest reasons why you should hire a social media agency.
1. Get Your Focus Back
Let’s be honest – how much work are you getting done these days? Are you able to get online to promote something without getting distracted by alllllll the buttons and pictures and links and things you could click on? Are you able to focus on the most important aspects of your business – producing more products or perfecting your service?
If you say no, you aren’t alone. Hey – even for marketers online everyday, social distraction is a REAL thing. But the difference is that our distraction plays into what we’re doing everyday, whereas yours is keeping you from bettering your business, managing a staff, keeping your accountant accountable or spending down time with your family and friends.
You shouldn’t be concerning yourself with having to learn and implement social media – it’s not your specialty. Your gift to this world is something different and to be successful at it, you should be giving whatever that is, your total focus.
I joke with my clients and prospects over the fact that I have a job because business owners have their own job – if they could do everything, how would I be able to help?
But the bottom line is, social media is my specialty, while theirs is managing a company, creating a product, or finessing their service. They hire me because they want to restore their focus to doing what they do best.
2. Social media is a necessity
In 2012, you could have gotten away with bypassing social media, but you definitely can’t now.
Even if you have a brick & mortar business that’s been successful for decades, you’re starting to notice that your competition – who is utilizing social marketing – is getting a bigger piece of the pie. Or maybe you’re just realizing that your business is becoming stagnant, you aren’t growing.
That’s because EVERYONE is online now. Not just the cool kids, not just the youngsters – everyone. The largest growing demographic online is currently those ages 45+, and those people have money to spend!
If you aren’t online and actively involved in social media marketing then you are losing out on MAJOR business growing activities.
And furthermore, I’ve predicted this before – if you don’t get involved in the social media game in 2015 then you will be on the fast track to becoming obsolete.
I don’t say that to scare you, but I do say that to scare you. Social media covers all aspects of marketing these days – email marketing, content creation (blogging, videos, photos, etc), and social marketing, and you must, you must, YOU MUST play if you want to maximize your business’s growth.
3. Consistency is key
Social media is a bigger job than you thought.
Not only do you need to stay on top of social network updates, trends, tools and strategies – you have to implement them.
That means culminating a list of excellent resources to add value to your fans and followers, create visual content to entice and entertain them (photos, quotes, videos, etc), figure out the best days and time to reach the most people, locate where your beloved audience is hanging out, continually spread the seed of your message across all social platforms and in many places across the web, stay on top of your brand mentions, write blogs to establish credibility and present yourself as a thought leader, and, and, and.. see where I’m going with this??
AND we haven’t even touched on the MOST important part of social – engaging, creating interaction, and developing relationships!!
ALL of these things and many I don’t even mention require that you are able to CONSISTENTLY do them – ALL of them. That takes major commitment and that requires your constant attention.
It means that no matter what is happening in your life – you need to show up, consistently . Doesn’t matter if you’re sick, or on vacation or having a baby – social media success is about momentum and credibility, and not showing up consistently means your audience won’t either.
That is why you’ll see brands with a large audience that doesn’t have much engagement – they’re posting schedule is all over the place. They don’t reply to folks who engage. And they’re only sharing promotional content. They aren’t training their fans and followers to show up because they aren’t.
This should be the MOST compelling reason for you to hire a social media agency out of all of them.
Marketers work when we’re sick, when babies are being born (seriously know someone who didn’t let up), when hazardous weather occurs, when they don’t want to and when we don’t feel like it. We are professionals who are paid to do a job, and if we’re doing it correctly – consistency will standout in everything we do.
Look – some business owners are willing and able to take on social media on their own and they’re doing a great job, BUT that is the major minority.
In my own business, I’ve realized that the more I can outsource, the faster I will grow my business – why? Because then I get to focus on doing what I’m best at!