What to Look for in A Local Social Media Company

Social media has never been more expansive, easily accessible, and widely used than it is today. This makes it easier than ever (on paper, at least) to reach your current audience as well as find new customers. Many will attempt to utilize these platforms but often end up being unable to unlock these platforms’ true potential. Social media is crucial to any business, but it can take a lot of time and effort. Partnering with a local social media company means you’re able to spread that message across all marketing channels with ease.

Social media marketing is a skill that not everyone has, and is best driven by a team of professionals rather than one individual. When there are team members who can focus on the aspects like content calendars, gurus who can focus on graphics, and experts for everything in-between, it allows each aspect to be the highest quality possible and receive appropriate attention.

Searching for a marketing team to undertake the perfect social media campaign can be difficult, but there are some key things to look for and key things to avoid in a local social media company.

We have compiled a list of components and attributes you want in a social media company and things you should avoid when looking for one, to help you better navigate this decision.

What You Want:

• Range of experience
• Client-first Relationship
• A tailored plan
• Results

What You Should Avoid:

• Companies too large to care
• High costs (without returns)
• A “one-size-fits-all” approach
• Mixed Results

What you Want

Range Of Experience

When attempting to find a great local social media company, it is crucial to find one that has the experience and reviews to match. Experience is essential to understanding the constantly changing world of social media, and comprehending how to navigate it effectively. Evidence is an example of an excellent way to judge overall experience. When companies have lots of previous clients, in combination with testimonies from most, it becomes evident the company has produced a quality product for the companies who employed them.

Another reliable way to evaluate the experience and understand how it translates into quality is to see the range of clients that the local marketing agency has worked with.

When companies can adjust from large companies like Walmart to local mom-and-pop companies, it proves they have the experience and knowledge in the social media game and can provide a beneficial campaign for a company of any size.

Not only should you look for a range of experience in the company as a whole, but also in the employees that you are working with. Finding a local marketing company that has a range of professionals that vary in age and experience can prove beneficial. Having several languages spoken fluently at the company helps too. 

This range can help ensure that no matter what target audiences you are searching for there is someone there who understands it. In addition, the age difference can be crucial in understanding the different social media platforms. A social media marketing agency that has a range of ages employed can better understand most platforms as they have people with experience for each.

Client-First Relationships

First impressions can mean everything, and most outstanding marketing firms know that. When you first meet a local social media firm and the professionals within, they should greet you the same whether you’re a small business start-up or a Fortune 500 company. They should treat you with respect and have your best intentions at hand. A good marketing firm will take the time to understand you no matter what size business you are in, which is key to helping you achieve your goals.

One of the ways digital marketing service companies can stand out is by having a client-first approach. This is typically best achieved by smaller firms, but can sometimes be achieved by larger ones as well. Knowing all the employees who help you personally, can not only allow you to have more of a hands-on approach but also lets you gauge the quality of the work they are producing.

A Plan Tailored to You

It’s important to remember that at the end of the day, the company that you run or work for is unique.

And that’s what makes it great.

This should not only be understood and remembered by you, but also by the company you chose to run your digital marketing strategy.

The firm should be able to leverage its expertise, tailoring it to the needs and uniqueness of you and your company. 

Whether it’s tailoring avenues like email marketing strategy, social media ads, or website design, the digital marketing agency should be knowledgeable and willing to help in every aspect that your marketing campaign needs.

The willingness and ability to do so is often found in smaller, local social media companies that are truly able to focus on you and your business.

You should find a local social media marketing agency that not only understands your needs but is able to fulfill them.

The whole process should be extremely transparent with as little or as much communication as you want. The marketing agency is there because you hired them, so it should always feel like you’re in control and understand every step of the way.

Results

When looking for a great social media marketing agency, there are few better ways to visualize their value than the results they achieve. Based on this, it is important to find a company that is willing to share past campaign outcomes to prove they have a tried and true method. Companies who are reluctant to share information like this may be doing so for privacy reasons (in which case, get that NDA signed and see if they can get approval from their clients), but a reliable company will have evidence readily available to prove that they know what they are doing, and they do it well.

Another way to look at these digital content marketing agencies is how you found them. Does the agency have a good website, and do they do a good job marketing themselves overall? Is it from a trusted referral? If you can confidently answer yes to these questions, then you have a great candidate for a marketing agency. If there is little evidence of the agency existing on the internet and they have not worked with many reputable companies, it may be time to look elsewhere. 

Results can provide vital insights into how well a marketing agency performs and what they specialize in. However, good results should never be the sole aspect looked at in a digital media marketing firm. Even though they are important to your business as a whole, results have to be weighed in with your overall feeling of the company and how much you feel the marketing agency will be able to accomplish your goals.

What you Should try to Avoid 

Companies too large to give you the time of day

It may seem easiest to employ a rather large company with an endless number of employees. This can appear to be the best option, but for multiple reasons, larger companies should often be avoided. Large companies may provide online marketing services for double or triple the amount of companies that a smaller digital marketing agency does. Simply put, this means less time with you and less time understanding your company and its wants and needs.

An additional complication with local social media companies that are too large is the fact that they might move headquarters. This is something that you may not really think could harm you in the near future, but when you start with a company that is less than twenty minutes away, and then they move to somewhere an hour or two away, communication and the hands-on experience that is critical to success begins to disappear. These companies start to no longer become “local” which can severely impact your relationship with them.

High Costs

Expenses can make or break a business, so hiring a local social media company that can accomplish your goals without breaking the bank can make a huge impact on the success of your business. Whether your main expenses come from things like web design, Facebook ads, lead generation, or all of the above, you should search for a local social media company that combines all of those, and more, at a price that works for you. 

Potential customers can be hard to come by, which often creates a need for you to purchase products or services with the promise of lead generation. These pay-per-lead services can be extremely expensive and require subscription plans which can hinder your bottom line in the years to come. At the same time, it is important that you look at and understand the plans that firms are offering you. These plans must be thoroughly understood to ensure that the end product produced will cash in for more than is being paid. Ask about expected ROI, ROAS, and timelines. Ask for testimonials, case studies, and references. Quality costs money, and so you want to make sure your hard-earned revenues are being put to the best channels possibles. 

Finding a local social media company that will provide you a good price for services like social media advertising can be critical to your overall business success. Social media advertising can be very expensive, and when not utilized correctly, it can be like throwing your money straight into the garbage. For this reason and others, it’s usually best to let a local marketing agency handle all of this for a cost that won’t break the bank.

A One-Size-Fits-All Approach

One-size-fits-all can be helpful in some scenarios (like when I’m looking for a new cap but still don’t know my head size for some reason) but this isn’t the case for your marketing plan.

Having a one-size-fits-all approach will limit the amount of individuality you and your company really has, which makes it harder to stand out from the crowd and keep ahead of your competition. When looking for a local social media company, you should search for one that has a unique approach to all companies and does not apply the same plan to every client.

Social media plans may all appear similar from a distance, but in reality, they vary a lot based on the type of businesses being served. Important factors need to change in order to best tailor a plan that would suit your business and its aspirations. Ensure that your future company is creating a different plan that will aid in setting your business apart from the rest.

Individualized plans per company could not be more important to overall success. That’s why it is necessary to find a local marketing team that will work with you in designing the plan that best suits you and your company. The marketing plan that is developed should be no less unique than you and your company are.

Mixed Results

A simple Google search will often do the trick here. When you look up local social media companies, how flattering is their internet presence?

Search engine optimization is imperative to digital marketing, and if and when you search the company’s name, they do not come up as a top result, then it might be a sign to look elsewhere for a digital marketing agency. If a company cannot market itself properly, then odds are, they cannot market you properly either.

Another great way to uncover results is by looking at previous client testimonials. Locating these reviews and seeing these companies’ comments provides helpful insight into whether these companies are happy with the results and if they felt they got what they paid for.

Conclusion

Digital marketing services, especially in the social media realm can make or break your business when finding new potential customers and keeping your current ones. Therefore having the perfect team can make all the difference, increasing brand recognition, sales, and much more.

This guide creates an outline for some important aspects of what to and what not to look for when searching for a local social media company. If you are in search, we invite you to take a look at all of our services here, and hope we will be in your consideration as you search for the company that is right for you.