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2020 has been an interesting year so far, and when it comes to digital marketing, social media is still one of the most powerful platforms you can leverage for your business during these tough times.. It provides an easily accessible mechanism for immediacy, engagement, and fast, agile strategy shifts. But it can also be fraught with risk: just consider the many (many!) social fails just in 2019 from major brands including Burger King, Snapchat, Chase, Ruffles, and more. Keeping your community on-message while building awareness, generating leads, and converting followers can be tough, and missteps can be costly in terms of reputation and lost opportunity. An experienced social media marketing agency can help you navigate this terrain successfully and harness the power of connection.

What Should I Look for in a Social Media Agency?

When picking a social marketing agency to help you make the most of your brand's social presence, following are some key attributes to assess:

1. Their Content. Content is king. A marketing must (that you have probably heard before), content marketing is key to engaging customers and providing what they seek. When an all-star social media agency writes content for their clients, you will find each post provides users with value and answers — not a hard sell. In this case, you are the customer. Look to see that potential agencies disseminate thought leadership. Also consider this: does the agency have a blog or portfolio to answer your questions and validate their quality of work? Are they active on their agency social media accounts? Do they feature case studies or testimonials from clients showcasing their work? This helps you determine whether they have the knowledge and experience you need to elevate your brand’s social status. It also tells you whether they “practice what they preach,” so to speak.

2. Your Objectives. An experienced agency focuses far less on selling their social media services than they do on learning about your company’s unique objectives, challenges, and pain points. Instead of generic strategies, the social media team will analyze and deliver targeted solutions that will help you achieve your specific goals. Find an agency that has a process by which to learn your business as well as the means and experience to put plans into action.

3. Plan for Measurement. How will the agency measure the efficacy of their efforts? First, they should help you clearly identify key performance indicators (KPIs), or goals, and tell you how, and how often, they will measure and report on them. This includes everything from social media growth and reach to lead conversion. A good social media agency will guide you throughout the reporting process to help you understand the metrics being reported on and how they directly correlated to the bottom line. Also be sure to ask what they plan to do if a given strategy or campaign does not yield results. How will they course-correct?

4. Industry/Sector Experience. A social media team should have relevant experience so they can hit the ground running, but also can pivot if the strategy is providing insufficient results. Often target audience, tactics, and results will be industry-specific, and expert insight can help shorten or eliminate the learning curve, while accelerating results.

5. Logistics. You need an agency that will be communicative — on your terms and at your convenience. Are they easy to contact? Do you have a specific point of contact (e.g., a dedicated account manager) who is deeply familiar with your brand? How frequently do they call you? (If the answer is “never,” look elsewhere. Your agency should make the effort to schedule a call at least twice per quarter.) Even during your search process, how long did it take to respond to you? Were they timely? Accessible? How they treat you before you engaged them is highly indicative of how they will treat you after.

To make sure that you get the answers you need, conduct online research: read reviews and ratings. Look at case studies, blogs, webinars, podcasts, etc. Contact agencies; ask for references. Talk to them, and ask them your most burning questions.

A bit of due diligence on the front end will save you untold time and aggravation in the long-term. Strong social media marketing services can help put your brand on the map. Trust only the best agency to get you there.

In your quest for the right social marketing agency, we invite you to put THAT Agency to the test. Give us a call at 561-832-6262 today to learn about our services, and be sure to download our free marketing agency selection scorecard:

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Editor's Note: This post was originally published in June 2017 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.