In order to answer this question, one must first distinguish between having a Social Media account and running a brand’s Social Media Marketing strategy. Having an account on Social Media is free, however, building a strategy and running that account successfully with a plan is what Social Media Marketing is all about and that is not free.
Contrary to the common misconception Social Media Marketing takes a lot of hard work, careful studying and planning and constant iterating to succeed. Thus, for Social Media Marketing to be executed in perfection you need to hire professionals, and these will cost you.
Having said that, let us have a look at the professionals you will need to hire to help you define and execute your brand’s Social Media Marketing plan.
Building a Social Media Marketing Strategy
The first thing that an agency does is appointing a team of professionals to study your brand, your competitors and to even study the industry your brand is in. Then, with your goals in mind, the agency will map out a thorough Social Media Marketing Strategy. This will include the major channels and media your brand will use and a detailed list of all the steps that need to be taken so that your brand’s goals and ambitions come true.
Content Creation and Development of Social Media optimised assets
Once the Strategy is planned out, teams of copywriters and creatives take over to guarantee that inspirational ideas turn into actions and assets that your brand will utilise. Copywriters give your brand a voice and photo-editors, graphic designers, video editors create appealing visuals and videos to help your brand stand out online.
Executing the Social Media Marketing Strategy
Once the digital assets are optimised to their full potential and are ready to be used, Social Media Managers take over and they begin organising and arranging the publishing of the content at the optimal time for each medium. Social Media Managers are always aware of what is happening on the Social Media landscape and they are on their toes, ready to engage with your brand’s audience, to reply to questions and comments and to guarantee that your brand’s presence is never unattended.
There is even a team for monitoring, collecting and studying the data of your Social Media presence. Studying the analytics plays an integral part in the entire process of creating and running a successful Social Media Marketing strategy. This helps readjust the focus of the strategy, if need be, and it guarantees that it will adapt to the needs of your brand and to the goals you have set.
Do keep in mind that when you hire an agency, these professional services are considered to be in the standard costs and they do not include the cost of running Ad Campaigns. In that case you should allow extra budget to be allocated for running the Ad Campaigns.
Conclusion
Creating a social media account for your brand and running it professionally are two different things. The former is free, the latter is not. Professionals take all parameters into consideration and create the perfect Social Media Marketing strategy for your brand to guarantee its long term success.
