Choose your Online Marketing partner carefully!

Social Media Marketing is NOT a 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, job

I never cease to be amazed at how many marketeers presume to be social media ‘experts’, charging inflated fees for ‘throwing’ the occasional post onto a company Facebook page or Twitter feed.

And I say ‘throwing’ because they haven’t analysed the data with regards to when people are actually engaging with the Page - or indeed Facebook itself. To my utter astonishment one such company fails to post in the evenings or at the weekend - when the majority of Facebook users check their accounts and interact with the information in the News Feed. Do they not realise with the Facebook algorithm and the sheer quantity of information people are following that by the time the evening comes their posts will have disappeared in the days general ‘noise’?

Things to consider when choosing a social media management company:

• Do they understand your company ethos?
• Do they understand the product/service you are trying to promote?
• Are the channels chosen correct for the market place which you are targeting? e.g Facebook is great for B2C but maybe LinkedIn is better for B2B, and Google+ is an absolute must for creating ‘standalone’ searchable content.
• Are data and feedback regularly monitored to ensure the schedule for posting aligns with when your target customers are online?
• Who is going to answer queries posted out with the 9 to 5 window?
• Are the ‘feeds’ going to be monitored for ‘trolls’ 24/7?
• Are all posts ‘appropriate’ to the product/service being marketed and screened for possible anomalies - or things that could be legally ‘misconstrued’ or make claims that cannot be truly substantiated?
• How does the management company intend to create ‘original content’? Is this at an additional cost to the management fee?
• How quickly can your management company react to ‘catastrophic events’ or news stories which have a direct implication and present opportunities for your product or service?
• Will my social media management company spread the information FURTHER than the company pages... joining Groups and Communities to extend the Reach of information. Because at the end of the day, your Followers are already advocates for your business - and it is the rest of the World you have to convince!

I could go on - but fear this is just turning into a list of things Candesco DOES DO for our clients. So PLEASE - if your social media management company is NOT doing these things - then ask them why? Or talk to me! But don’t bemoan a social media marketing strategy that just isn’t giving you a significant ROI when the ‘effort’ just isn’t being put it.