Find a Social Media Marketing Expert in Reading

The cost of Social Media Marketing depends on several factors. For example, the frequency of posts you want to put out, as well as if the visual content needs to be designed in-house or is being supplied by you. The type of content you require, i.e simple text-based posts through to videos created by a motion graphics designer can also bump up the price.

Setting up and creating successful social media paid ads can also be included. Though the price of any advertising campaigns will incur an additional fee which is charged by the platform itself (such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc). This is known as an ads budget.

Many companies also opt for social media management too. This means all social media feeds are monitored during office hours and customer queries are dealt with promptly on your behalf.

Content Creation
Social media marketing agencies, or freelancers, plan and create content to go out across all your social media platforms, usually several weeks in advance. The content will factor in your business as a whole to highlight your products and services, as well as any promotions you may be running. There will also be an emphasis on engagement to boost customer interactions through carefully selected content, all of which will be approved by you before it is scheduled. Social media content includes the text and any links as well as images or video. All of which needs to be optimised correctly to suit each platform.

Paid Ads
Paid advertising is a way of reaching a large number of people on social media, and can be used to boost engagement, clicks to your website or followers on your page. Paid ads run across multiple platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google Ads. A social media marketing agency will not only plan and launch your paid ad, but they will monitor the budget as well as the results to ensure success.

Feed Management
It is becoming more convenient than ever for customers to Tweet or message a company on Facebook rather than call their customer service line. As a result, your social media inboxes could be getting full without you realising it. An optional service provided by social media marketing agencies is feed management. This involves answering customer queries and resolving any issues or adding in bookings, depending on the nature of your business. If you own a large business then this can also include crisis management to minimise any disruption to your company or its reputation.

Social Media Marketing for small businesses
If you own a small business, then a standard social media marketing package will cover all the basics. This involves planning which days and times messages need to go out, and creating the written and visual aspects to best promote your products and services.

Social media marketing for small businesses can also include implementing SEO across all of your social media content. This will ensure your content is correctly optimised to be picked up by search engines and other social media users.

At least once a month the agency will feed back the statistics of how your posts have performed, and create a plan of action going forward.

With smaller budgets, a social media marketing agency will likely manage several client accounts at once, rather than having a dedicated team or staff member to curate each brand.

Social Media Marketing for larger businesses
If your business is a large corporation, then a comprehensive social media marketing package may be more suitable. A higher budget will allow for enhanced image and video content going out across your social media feeds, and more attention to detail will be given across all aspects.

As well as planning, designing and scheduling your social media content, the agency will set up paid ads to pull in high levels of traffic to your website. There will be greater room for keyword research, using a range of software and analytical tools to ensure your content gains significant engagement.

Feed management will ensure customers are promptly responded to, and chatbots can be implemented to answer customer queries outside of office hours.

An added benefit of comprehensive social media management is that the agency will dedicate more time and energy into getting to know your brand to best understand your audience.

• Facebook - Over 2.6 billion people use Facebook every month, making it the most popular social media platform. Here you can create a dedicated page for your business or even a virtual storefront. Facebook management will involve creating and scheduling posts, interacting with customers and setting up paid campaigns through Facebook Ads.

• Twitter - Twitter uses short and sharp messaging to deliver posts or paid campaigns. Social media marketing agencies focus on the use of hashtags that are appropriate to your business and any relevant trending topics to boost engagement. Twitter also benefits from having high profile accounts who may interact with your Tweet through likes and retweets which can skyrocket your brand’s awareness. Content can include text, polls, images, gifs and videos.

• Instagram - Instagram is a visual based platform and is the perfect place to market your products or services. A social media marketing agency will take time to carefully curate your feed so it fits your brand aesthetic. Instagram is the best place to show before and after shots which can be a very powerful marketing tool across a large variety of industries. Regular posting of engaging content is needed to boost Instagram followers which will be one of the agency’s main responsibilities.

• LinkedIn - Rather than solely focusing on followers and engagements, LinkedIn is a platform for networking and industry insights. Posting content on LinkedIn relating to your business requires a professional touch. As well as writing company updates, a marketing agency may write blog posts or business reports to share with your clients. The tone of your content will be adapted to fit a more corporate audience rather than sales as your other marketing would typically be. As a professional company themselves, a social media marketing agency will ensure the content is adapted to fit your LinkedIn audience.

Absolutely! One of the advantages of a social media marketing agency is that they are able to provide services to their clients regardless of their location. However, if you own a local business that is a niche to your area, then that might be a reason to look nearby rather than further afield so that they best understand your brand vision.

Social media marketing does not belong to trade associations like other industries in the UK. However, things to look out for are any marketing accreditations as well as being GDPR compliant. If the agency lists their clients on their website, then having a look at the kind of work they produce can be a huge indication of the quality and traction they are likely to bring to your business.