Should an agency manage your social media?

Marketing covers many fields. So one person has to manage far too many things at once. Handing part of the work to professionals dedicated to it is therefore a relief and a benefit. Looking after social media, for instance, which many companies still underrate.

Why use social media?

Social media represents a large and often unused platform for reaching prospective customers. More importantly, for building a relationship with them. There are currently around 2.5 million Slovaks on Facebook and a million on Instagram. Imagine being able to reach all of them and, above all, build a relationship with them. For your brand that is great potential. A long-standing example of good communication is the McDonald's brand. Alongside advertising its products it builds a relationship with customers — through their behaviour and the questions arising from it. So it does not merely offer its products but asks for feedback on them and responds to comments as they come.

But if you cannot move well enough in this world, or have no room for it, do not hesitate to approach an agency. After all, it has people who make their living from social media, who work on it fully every day and have enough practice at it.

What to expect from an agency

1. First of all, arrange a meeting in person with the agency and prepare for it well. You should clarify, and explain to the agency, where your brand stands at the moment and where it wants to stand. What its long-term and short-term plans are. You will set KPIs, the metrics you would like to reach by a certain point. We explain them below.
2. Together with the agency you will define your brand's target groups and the personas your ad content will aim at.
3. You will of course also agree what budget is available and how far the agency can stretch its creativity.
4. You will discuss which social media you want to appear on and to what extent. How active you want to be on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube, and possibly TikTok and similar platforms, and why.
5. The agency will then draw up a strategy and a plan of ideas for a longer period.
6. If you agree on it, it will set about specific proposals for posts on your social networks.
7. After publishing and after an agreed period, you will assess together what you achieved and how far you met or missed the KPIs. And what your next KPIs will be.

The agency knows the form, the client knows the company

Throughout, you turn over the proposed posts and content the agency prepares and give feedback on them. Naturally, a good agency does not meet your requirements 100% without thinking or holding an opinion. A good agency's job is to argue for its view and its output. Where that output is sound and well thought through, it is the agency's job to explain to you where its potential success, reach and results lie. But nor is it a relationship of an arguing agency and a silent client.

A good client argues the reasons behind their feedback. After all, the agency knows the technique, but the client knows the company. The ideal agency–client relationship is one where both sides can justify their approach and then agree on a shared solution, a symbiosis of expertise and the company's own thinking.

When working with an agency, remember that your shared goal is the good of the brand. It is not a contest of ideas but, above all, moving forward.

The most basic terms when setting goals

KPI

Key performance indicator. You define it for a set period, and it follows from the brand's current state and its limits.

Within it we care above all about:

Follower count

How many people currently follow you and where you would like to get to. And whether, and why, this number is an important measure.

Reach

The reach of the page or of particular posts. How many people saw your page and your posts — this figure is often driven above all by paid reach, that is, how much money you invested in supporting the post. Which is why we distinguish organic and paid reach.

Engagement

How many people responded to your posts (clicked them, liked them, commented, shared them and so on).

Reach and engagement are both important metrics

So neither should be underrated, and the content should balance them sensibly. Reach brings your brand to people's attention. Engagement, though, builds a relationship with the client. Which matters more to you? These terms therefore have to be defined with the agency too, and the content — along with ad targeting and the formats used (video, suited to reach, versus static, suited to engagement) — aimed at those metrics.

Do not forget your audience

Social media is a significant advertising channel. But what is more significant about it is fast, free feedback from customers. Watch their comments, reactions and messages. Thanks to this valuable measure you can improve your brand and find out how to bring it closer to people. What is more, you can adapt the content to it very easily and cleverly.

It is a treasure for the company and for the agency too, which through feedback can learn a great deal about how its fans and target group behave, and can adapt the next round of content or whole campaigns accordingly, and hold attention better still.

Do not be afraid to approach an agency. Find out how it can help, what it can offer — and it is entirely up to you whether you decide to work with it.