You’ve had your social media marketing agency for a while. But now, it needs a little power boost. Check out our tips for experienced social media managers who want to energize their agencies.
Recently I published a detailed guide on How to Start a Social Media Marketing Agency: Step by Step. Many readers tweeted, and one resounding question was: What if I already started my agency but it’s not really getting attention?
Starting a social media agency is just the beginning. The posts, tweets, and ideas are what will keep it powering forward. In fact, knowing how to energize your social media agency is key to your ongoing success.
In this article, I’m offering tips for experienced social media managers who want to skyrocket growth for their social agencies.
Table of Contents
Collaborations
Promotions
Sharing content
Client wish list
Instagram contests
Media partners
Trends
Extras
Why Do You Need to Energize Your Agency?
There’s a lot of pressure on social media agencies.
Many of our clients at my Contentworks Agency found us through our social media channels so, it’s essential you’re firing on all cylinders.
Plus, you need to demonstrate creativity, showcase your own great social media ideas, and prove your ability to get good engagement.
And the challenges don’t end there.
Reasons to dig deeper into growing your social media agency
Here’s why now is the time to energize your agency:
Over 70% percent of US small businesses shut down in March due to the pandemic. Though many were high street businesses, it shows that the pressure is on. Further, 31% of small businesses stopped updating their Facebook pages at this time. Knowing your key target audience sectors and how they are faring is important.
Only 30% of businesses will survive their 10th year in business. (The most recent data shows that of the small businesses that opened in March 2007, 33% made it to March 2017.)
Brands are seeing an engagement rate of just 0.09% on Facebook. Compare this to the old engagement rate of 20%+ just 10 years ago, and you can see why it’s essential to energize your channels.
But enough with the gloom, with “online” being the ultimate 2020 “must-have,” there’s never been a better time for marketing agencies to re-energize and get noticed.
The marketing budget of most brands increased following COVID-19. In June 2020, respondents’ firms planned to spend 12.6%. of their total budgets on marketing, the figure was only 8.1% back in February 2011. That’s money they could be spending with your agency if you get noticed, of course!
So, now we know why we need to energize our social media agencies, how do we do it?
Here are my top tips.
1. Collaborate With Businesses and Charities
2020 has been a tough year for everyone, so helping other businesses or lending support to charities can only be a good thing. Why not team up to offer your new clients a discount at a local restaurant or help a charity promote their campaign?
In a study by Horizon Media, 81% of millennials expect companies to make a public commitment to good corporate citizenship. By getting involved, you are helping a good cause and boosting your agency appeal.
Example
Australian social marketing agency The Social Deck helped launch a campaign on behalf of Aboriginal organization Nunkuwarrin Yunti of South Australia, whose younger members are prone to taking up smoking.
“By targeting communication specifically to the segmented audience, messages that particularly resonate with that group can be used to the greatest effect to produce change,” The Social Deck wrote. “Thus, in our research, we were able to focus on smoking behaviours for young Aboriginal people.”
The agency showed off its skills while it made a difference. In fact, its pro bono work is a large part of their marketing. (Kudos, guys!)
Take-away for experienced social media managers
As with retail sales, charities and nonprofits tend to see their highest volume of donations during the holiday season.
On average, about 30% of charitable donations are made during December. Gear up to help a community or charity this December for a feel-good factor that will benefit everyone.
2. Promote Your Social Media Handles at Events
Experienced agency directors often attend events or even speak at them. By including your Twitter or Instagram handle in discussions, you will invite followers and spark discussion.
Example
I like to end discussions with an invite to tweet me your thoughts or join the conversation. If you’re taking part in an event, be sure to follow its official social media channels and mention them in your own tweets.
Also, remember to thank organizers and sponsors for inviting you. Doing so will get you additional brand mentions and energize your social media agency presence.
Take-away for experienced social media managers
Utilize TikTok for short event promos or speaker spots. The platform’s fun effects and viral nature can help your social media marketing agency get noticed.
3. Share Your Content to the Most Popular Groups on LinkedIn
There are 706+ million people on LinkedIn, and many of these are top tier decision-makers from your target consumer segments.
By sharing high-level thought leadership articles from Linkedin or industry news from your blog into key Linkedin groups, you are accessing the exact people you want to reach.
Example
Simply hit share at the foot of your Linkedin article:
Click on the dropdown to select your audience and choose group members:
Select a group and post. Then be sure to interact with any comments, questions, or ideas that the group members put forward.
Take-away for experienced social media managers
Not every Linkedin post needs a CTA. Sharing photos, polls, ideas, and videos on Linkedin produces great engagement, helps you to connect with industry leaders, and maintains a strong brand presence.
4. Make a Client Wish List and Target Those Clients
As social media marketers, we are used to telling people to “follow us on social media.”
But what about if you follow them?
Make a client wish list (around 10 works well) and follow their channels on social media from your agency.
Start responding and interacting on their posts and tweets.
Add their directors on your Linkedin and engage in conversation about their strategy.
I know, it sounds stalker-ish—but it’s not if you don’t spam them or straight up ask for business.
Instead, aim to understand their sector, get your brand in front of them and make strong connections. By being proactive, you are showing tenacity and the ability to fully utilize social media for acquisition.
Take-away for experienced social media managers
Include your wish list clients in articles with matching social media tags, and their social media managers will be super-happy!
5. Launch an Instagram Photo Contest
As well as boosting brand awareness for your social media marketing agency, Instagram photo contests are a great way to get more engagement and energize your social media channels.
Plus, material coming from users has the added bonus of being more relatable and engaging than your own content (true story). Because you don’t have a physical product (like Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes), you will need to be creative.
You could team up with a local store to offer a prize and decide on a theme that will be popular. Hint: food, pets, Halloween, and winter are all popular on Instagram right now.
Tag us in your best #halloweenathome costume pics to win dinner for two at…
Is your pet a #wintersuperstar? Tag us in your best winter pet pics to win pet accessories worth $100 from …
Example
Remember to use hashtags like #photocontest so your initiative is searchable. Check out this great contest from theruglady_au. Notice how all the contests run by this page feature their beautiful rugs.
Take-away for experienced social media managers
Pick a theme that’s trending to capture more engagement. You can check what’s trending using Twitter, Google Trends, Quora, or Reddit.
6. Become a Media Partner
Aligning your social media agency with something bigger is a great way to elevate your profile. A media partner doesn’t pay money to sponsor an event. Instead, they will support it by writing articles, press releases, tweeting, and promoting.
In return, your logo and links will be on the event site (great for SEO) and you will be mentioned in online media.
And the advantages don’t end there.
Industry leaders and decision-makers will be exposed to your brand, opening up new business opportunities. Search for leading events in your agency’s niche- in our case finance and fintech.
Take-away for experienced social media managers
Be prepared to put in the time and effort to reap the rewards on this one.
Maximize your media partnership with plenty of social media, live event tweeting, and even online giveaways. Follow up with some social media mentions to thank organizers, speakers, and sponsors.
7. Piggyback on What’s Trending
We briefly touched on this, but now let’s dig into trends and how they can energize your social media agency.
Between challenges, trending hashtags and the latest meme, there’s a big opportunity to grab some limelight and show off your brand’s personality.
Example
Let’s look at The Dolly Parton Challenge as an example. The Dolly Parton challenge was a series of four-panel images parodying how people present themselves on the social media platforms LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Tinder. It was started by American singer Dolly Parton on January 21, 2020.
And here are some incredible brand responses from Haribo:
From Subway and BK, of course (Burger King is always fastest on trends):
And hilariously Monterey Bay Aquarium on Twitter:
Of course, your social media agency doesn’t need to involve itself in every trend or meme.
Example of what not to do
I prefer to stick to trends that can showcase creativity without being political or even accidentally offensive. It’s a timely reminder to understand a trend before you use it. We all remember the domestic abuse hashtag “Why I stayed” and the unfortunate response from DiGiorno Pizza:
To the company’s credit, it apologized immediately:
Take-away for experienced social media managers
You need to be continuously monitoring trends and ready to move fast if you want to utilize one. You can see that at the time of writing, we are already seeing Halloween trending on Twitter with 355K tweets on the topic.
More Tips for Energizing Your Social Media
I asked my Linkedin connections for their best tips on energizing their social media:
Here’s what they said:
Marie-Helene at Moondust Agency suggests organizing an account takeover for a special day or a weekend. This would be awesome for Instagram and really draws attention to your brand. Remember to hype up the takeover in advance and line up some fun for the day. Follow up by reciprocating a return takeover!
Andriy Kravets, Digital Marketer | Data Analyst | Conversion & Retention says we should go with video posts. “Go live, get behind the scenes, and meet the employees. Doing this allows followers to distinguish you from the rest of the crowd and make them want to come back again and again.”
Ana Untila, Marketing Project Manager at NAGA says, “Stop looking for viral and start by getting the message right and consistent.” This is such an important message and one that social media agencies need to focus on. If you’re in a slump, then it’s time to restrategize your messaging.
What’s your best tip for energizing your social media? Reach out on Twitter. I’m @charli_says.
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