This blog may seem a little counter intuitive. After all, we’re a digital marketing agency. We help companies of all sizes, from the single-person design shop to the national brand, find and connect with their customers online.
Social media, particularly Instagram, is one of the most valuable platforms because it’s where customers discover and get excited about brands. More than a third of shoppers report that they’ve found and followed new brands because they encountered them on social media, either independently or because an influencer brought the brand to their attention.
Yet we’re going to tell you what we really believe: if you want great results from your social media presence, you really need to be doing it yourself.
The Advantages of DIY Social Media
Why is it important to do your own social media? The first answer is authenticity. Doing your own social media means your customer gets your brand messaging directly from you, without anyone else’s filters or framing. No one can be you better than you can.
Another advantage of doing your own social media is immediacy. If something magical happens in your workshop or you can’t wait to let your customers see the latest design, connection’s only a quick post away. Even the best agency is going to need a little time to understand your thoughts, create the appropriate messaging for you, and post it.
Finally, managing your own social media makes it easier to be aware of and responsive to your customers’ efforts to communicate with you. Again, handling this yourself means your customers will get better responses faster, which is critical in building strong relationships.
But I Am Really Not Great at Creative Stuff – Now What?
We do manage Instagram and other social media sites for our clients who don’t have the creative talent in house to do it themselves. That being said, we still view our role as supportive. For social media marketing to truly work, you need to be involved. Deciding what type of content to post, when to post it, and handling interactions with your followers still requires your input. Ideally, photos and video are taken in-house to create a distinct brand identity all your own.
The real value an agency can bring to you regarding your social media marketing is providing an objective analysis of your customer behavior data, including understanding how much of your social media interaction translates into website traffic or in-store business, and developing an advertising strategy to take your presence to the next level. Going through this process, including developing a customer journey map, will help you better understand your customers and what type of content and offers they get most excited about.
You’re the rock star. The agency’s role is to make you shine that much brighter.
Need help making your social media presence more authentically yours? Give us a call. We’re here to help. We provide set-up, oversight, and coaching to help you realize the best possible results from your social media marketing.
