What’s Better For Your Brand: A Social Media Manager? Or an Agency?

The world of inbound marketing is immense, full of pit-falls, too-good-to-be-true offers and some golden keys that open your brand to a rewarding new level of exposure. One truism persists: without inbound marketing, you’re just another face in the crowd. Hiring an agency is the most logical and profitable decision to maximize your brand exposure and sales potential. But what should you expect from an inbound marketing agency?

• An inbound marketing agency should work with you and for you – with your unique priorities and for your specific needs. An agency who is not interested in you as an individual, or who wants to sell you a pre-packaged marketing plan will not maximize your brands profitability and will leave you feeling more frustrated in the end.
• Choose an agency with a big toolbox – e-mail marketing, blogging, automation, SEO, social media, and content marketing. The more resources an agency has the more they can do for you.

But What About Hiring One Social Media Manager?

As you are researching inbound marketing agencies, you may run across “social media managers” or “professional blogging services” who offer just that one service. These services should be examined closely to ensure you are getting what your brand needs the most. How can you tell if you would benefit more from a social media manager than by hiring an agency? Consider these factors:

• If you don’t mind devoting your own hours to brand-building, e-mail marketing, and blogging
• If your brand and web-presence are already well established
• If you have only one social media accounts attached to your business
• If you think leveraging social media alone is a sound marketing strategy

Why is it Better to Hire An Agency?

There are many options for effective social media management. When you hire an agency, they will likely have a software program that can instantly collate all your social media accounts and provide real-time analytics such as clicks, post reach, and engagement levels. What the software can’t do is tell you how to translate all that data into actionable and profitable results. An effective social media team will do three things: analyze, translate and implement. Accurate analysis of social media engagement, translation of data into meaningful strategy, and direct implementation throughout all your accounts.

Oh, and one more thing: social media is about YOUR persona, your brand and giving your followers compelling reasons to make your company a part of their social lives. Your marketing agency, should focus on who you are as an individual and as a company as well as how to engage on a more personal and fulfilling level with potential customers.

What’s the Next Step After Social Media?

Remember, social media is just one part of a smart marketing strategy. If you decide to hire a full-time social media manager, they will focus on that one thing without the ability to broaden your marketing perspective. When you hire an agency, however, you have already brought a social media manager on board, and so much more. You may want to start by organizing your social accounts with one of their full-time social media managers (or by working with a dedicated team on social media). After you start to see measurable results like better engagement, more followers, more organic leads and (ultimately) more customers, you will probably want to expand your inbound marketing to include SEO, blogging, and e-mail marketing.

Hiring an agency or opting for the services of a full-time social media manager is an emotional investment as well as a financial one. Why not go for the inbound marketing agencies that will provide a social media team to work directly with you from day one? When you are happy with your social media strategy, you already have an agency who is trustworthy, hard working, familiar with your personality and priorities, and ready to take your brand to the next level!