While it’s clear that virtually everyone is on social media, not everyone is using it strategically. If you’re ready to use your LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter accounts as tools to achieve your goals, but you feel constrained by limited experience, time or budget, an agency may be able to help with social media management.
Whether you have an in-house social media team, or one person handling social media in addition to their “regular” job, the right agency can provide a fresh, inventive take and an outside perspective on a social media campaign idea, provide daily support, and maintain an effective communication cadence.
This three-minute read explains what to consider when engaging an agency to develop and execute a social media strategy that delivers results.
Find the right partner
Working with the right partner is critical. Interview one or more recommended agencies to find the right one and look at their track record. Hire an agency that takes the reins in your initial meeting, demonstrating commitment to getting to know your business, organization and objective.
The right agency will understand your briefing and ask thoughtful questions about your goals, key performance indicators, your tone of voice and desired outcomes or business needs. The agency team should be fully aware of and aligned with your expectations and way of working — and dedicated to your success.
Make sure they can adopt your tone and your brand voice, so your social media presentation is consistent – this should be a top priority. The agency’s posts should appear as though you wrote them, but better!
If you’re in a highly regulated industry, such as financial services or pharmaceuticals, ensure the agency has experience with your industry or understands its guidelines. Robust compliance experience and sound judgement are extremely important.
Allow sufficient lead time
When outsourcing your social media, work closely with the agency well before you want to start seeing posts! Leave enough time for strategy and planning — before execution. The length of lead time depends upon the complexity of the project, and the agency should be able to advise you of an ideal start date.
Agree on the cadence
Your agency should create a clear editorial calendar for you to react to. It should map out the campaign’s scheduled messaging and features across social media channels and target audiences to build a story that attracts and engages followers. Make sure you agree with the timing for the posts and the logic behind them. Also ensure that you have plenty of clearance time with your in-house communications team, along with legal and compliance, if required.
Leverage the power of hashtags
The agency should explain how trending hashtags will be used, in addition to any of your established hashtags, to ensure that your posts are seen across social platforms.
Hand over the “keys”
When you are satisfied with the agency’s ability to represent your organization, share platform account credentials.
Conduct quality checks
If gatekeepers in your organization aren’t reviewing drafts as part of your approval process, make sure you and relevant colleagues are reviewing posts to make sure they consistently represent your organization well and align with your objectives.
Measure results
Your agency should be on top of KPIs and track posts’ engagement and lead generation. You should also measure your progress toward your organization’s ultimate goals. Ensure you and the agency have check-ins over the course of the project so adjustments can be made, as needed, to get you the results you’re seeking from your social media efforts.
Don’t miss the opportunity to reap the rewards of strategically using social media. The right, experienced agency can improve your social media presence and reach more of your target audience through stronger writing and imagery, establish the right cadence for posts, amplify your voice, and help you achieve your core business goals better than you could alone.
About us
Clients have entrusted Leinhäuser Language Services with their social media storytelling since 2015. We’ve worked with clients of all sizes, from DAX to small-to-medium-sized enterprises, on brief one-off campaigns to multiyear corporate and executive positioning work. With our strong heritage of translation work, many of our social media writers draft posts in the multiple languages required by our clients – reducing production times and keeping content creation within our in house team.
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