Save Your Money: Weed Out Ineffective Social Media Marketing Packages

Social media marketing is one of the most affordable and effective methods of driving traffic and building your brand, but with so many companies out there claiming to be experts, how can you tell which social media marketing packages aren’t worth your money?

There are four telltale signs that your social media marketing guru might be better at selling you their package than they will be at marketing your business:

They Don’t Prioritize Visuals

If your social media marketing partner isn’t making visuals a top priority in their package, they aren’t doing their research. Photos, infographics, and other graphic media are outperforming all other content in terms of sharability. Kissmetrics found that photos outperformed text and link posts by 53% and got a mind-blowing 104% more comments. If a social media package proposal doesn’t include a strong portfolio of original visual content, you may want to think twice about opening your checkbook.

They Make No Mention Of Timing

Whoever said timing is everything wasn’t kidding. If a social media marketing package doesn’t have a plan in place for timing release of content, that may be a red flag. In an interview with Forbes, Marketing Consultant Jay Baer emphasized the importance of finding a critical “micro-opportunity window” when a busy audience in most likely to check in and be receptive. This time may be a bracket, such as within an hour of most people leaving work, or more specific times when analytic data shows that viewership spikes briefly.

They Lack A Sound Interaction Plan

If a social media marketing package doesn’t take interaction into consideration, it’s a red flag. It means that they may be holding onto the notion that social media is a simplex communication tool like television or radio rather than embracing its full potential to spur your audience to action with interaction. AJ Kumar of Entrepreneur.com outlines the most important things you can do with social profiles to make your social media responsive to your audience. While interacting with every inquiry from followers may sound like a lot of work, these followers have taken the initiative to engage with your brand. Taking the opportunity that this presents can convert these interested visitors into lifelong fans of your product.

They Overemphasize Success On A Specific Social Platform

If a proposal uses a huge amount of success on Facebook as a primary selling point, you may want to take a closer look. While Facebook, Twitter, and the other social media giants serve the lion’s share of the audience you want to attract, you must remember that sites like MySpace and Friendster used to be on that list–what’s relevant is constantly evolving. The best social media marketing packages will have a dynamic plan of action that takes multiple social media platforms into consideration. Your plan should have diversity and choose which platforms to utilize based upon the audience that you want to reach. For example, Pinterest is a predominantly female platform and if your target audience is mostly older males, another avenue may be much more effective in attracting the kind of traffic you need. 

While this list is far from exhaustive, it is a good place to start when you are evaluating which social media marketing packages are going to give you a significant return on your investment. A great package will provide you with a visually stunning, timely, and diverse plan of action that aims to grow and maintain a relationship with your target audience. There is no reason why you have to settle for anything less than a social media strategy that is designed to make you a leader in your industry.