Social media promotion has become a fact of life for many businesses. Getting it right can be the key to unlocking your sales potential. However, getting it wrong can cause your numbers to plummet.
To negate this risk factor, many small businesses are turning to digital marketing gurus like Rapport Digital to ensure their socials are sizzling. But do you need to get the professionals involved to make the most of your potential online?
In this blog we’ll take a look at the pros and cons of DIY social media marketing for business and outline what you need to know if you’re thinking of going it alone.
Pros of DIY Social Media Marketing
Stay in the know
If you’re Commander-in-Chief of your business’ social media marketing, you’ll always be on top of trending content, industry news and your own statistics. This will, in turn, enable you to react to sales spikes and jump on relevant trends as they arise.
For example, if you’re a travel company and you’ve noticed more people interacting with your Spanish holiday offer, it may be worth adding more Spain content to your socials to help service that demand. As well as boosting your follower count, you might also find that this speed of action improves your sales figures too.
Being the boss of your business’ feed also ensures you can respond to customer queries, feedback and reviews in the right tone for your brand. Additionally, this will keep you up to date with how your customers feel about your products and services.
Create your own narrative
Often, when working with an agency, you’ll have to supply information around offers and business announcements in advance. You’ll then need to outline the best time to introduce them to your audience, so the agency can schedule related posts.
When you take matters into your own hands, you have full control over what appears on your feed and when. From creative to content, it’s your baby. But that does mean planning, creating and posting is all on you. Meanwhile, a good social media agency will listen to what you need and do the work to deliver content that fits your brand.
Keep costs down
There’s no denying it’s cheaper to advertise on social media than more conventional platforms like TV, magazines and billboards. Plus, there are many ways to succeed when it comes to advertising online as the content can be more highly targeted.
But you will need to know how to spend your budget effectively. If you have money to use, it’s important to know you’re putting those financial eggs into the right baskets. You’ll therefore need to do your research to avoid wasting your resources.
Cons of DIY Social Media Marketing
Time sap
Recent stats show there are around 53 million active social media users in the UK. While it’s unlikely you’ll capture them all, the main aim of social media marketing for business is to attract as many eyes to your products and services as possible.
Businesses who have found success online offer a healthy mix of content across their feeds. From polls and offers through to video and blog content. Although, being in complete control of your channels means you’ll have to deliver most of this content yourself.
The problem is, managing your business, creating engaging video content, writing informative blogs and staying up to date with your posting calendar is a lot to keep up with! In the meantime, your competitors may just get a good agency involved to take care of all that work while ensuring strong return on investment (ROI). Can you out manoeuvre the competition with all that on your plate?
You can only grow as fast as your knowledge
You may be able to boss your business’ feeds to the point where you’re thriving, which is great. But, at some point you will need to improve your platform knowledge to expert level for the growth to continue (or even maintain itself).
Unfortunately, those kinds of social smarts only come with years of training and experience. Moreover, knowing your platform goes beyond simply replicating what has worked for you in the past. It also pays to know about the latest social media trends and how to utilise them to make your brand sing online.
Interpretation of stats and metrics
Following on from that point about developing your knowledge, knowing your metrics is the key to success. After all, if you aren’t clued up on your business stats, how are you going to be able to see what’s working?
This lack of insight could also mean you’re not setting effective key performance indicators (KPIs) or monitoring your ROI in the right ways. Not sure how to go about it? An expert social media team can examine what is currently working for your brand and use that knowledge to build effective campaigns that deliver results.
Could end up costing more than you think
Despite previously highlighting the cost saving element of DIY social media marketing, we must point out that this approach will only save you money if you know how to appropriately strategise your campaigns.
A poorly thought-out social media campaign could end up costing your business a fortune and, worse, yielding no results or ROI. On the other hand, with an established social media agency on board, they can help you decide where best to invest your funds for the biggest gains depending on past and predicted results.
How can a social media marketing agency help?
Social media agencies like Rapport Digital help accountants and accounting firms get every element of the digital marketing mix right. With a team that knows platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube inside out, they can offer tailor-made plans to suit you.
Soon there won’t be any pros and cons of social media marketing to debate. Instead, you’ll be left with a plethora of converting campaigns that work for your brand.
For more information on how we can help you supercharge your social performance contact our team today.