Should a small company invest in social media services?
I’ve had so many interesting conversations about social media lately, from both client side and agency owner side. It seems like nearly everyone is struggling with it for all different reasons:
Client side:
They have no time or energy to spend on creating content for social. They know it needs to happen, but it a beast that needs to be fed almost constantly. But if it’s not filling up their bottom line, they have trouble coming to terms with investing in it.
Agency side:
It’s a hell of a lot of work that comes with really high expectations and, often, really low budgets. To do it well takes a lot of creativity and time, which means higher retainer fees that clients won’t pay, particularly if it’s not filling the bottom line.
There’s a common thread here, isn’t there?
It can feel like there are two options:
For clients, they’ll invest what they can and see how it goes with mediocre content, or
For agencies, they’ll take social media contracts but find a way to keep them simple as possible for lower fees, so that means less creative (and less impactful) content, and probably a cycle of churn-and-burn social contracts.
So is it even worth it for a small business to invest in social?
I will always want to say yes to this question, because I feel like well done business social media can be so much fun. (A few favorite examples of my version of well done: No. 14 Boutique, the Pittsburgh Airport, Wisner Baum Law Firm, YNAB budgeting software.)
But content like that? It takes time, effort, a good eye, and—often—an internal perspective.
If you look closely at the examples above, it’s clear that there’s someone on the inside making that content. They know what’s going on in the day-to-day and have a pulse on the culture of the company and a deep knowledge of their customer.
The longer I do this, the more I believe that having an internal-to-the-business social strategist is the way to go—agency support is great if you don’t have a skillset for editing, video capture, or photography, but to be able to get the kind of off-the-cuff or in-the-moment content that makes audiences engage takes a boots-on-the-ground, highly flexible approach.
That’s not to say that you shouldn’t outsource to a freelancer or agency—that’s usually the best approach for small businesses who can’t take on the overhead of an employee. But if you’re going to do that, here’s a few things to consider:
Think of your social media strategist as an extension of your team
Indoctrinate them into the business as much as possible. See if they can be flexible enough to spend time in the office/job site/team meetings/whatever it is so they can get the lay of the land.
Make sure you’re having regular meetings or check-ins and taking note of interesting things that happen in your day-to-day.
The more information you give a good social media strategist, the more they’ll be able to riff and iterate and help you get what you need to make stellar content.
Please don’t shrug and say, “Well, YOU’RE the expert. YOU tell ME what to do.” Here’s the thing: they can tell you what to do, but they need to know a lot of context and particularities to make truly great content.
A good social strategist will use their expertise with the right guiding questions to uncover the meat of your business. They’ll know how far they need to push to get on the inside of things. Just make sure you’re removing the barriers and making it comfortable for them to do that.
If you have a small budget, go for quality over quantity.
A lot of very successful social media users will often talk about how they post 5x a day to keep their audience engaged—but did they start there?
Also, is creating the content the entirety of their job, or just a part of it?
Anyway—there is so much out there about how many times you should be posting and when you should be posting and yadda yadda, but in my opinion? None of it matters if your content sucks.
Start with 1-2 posts a week and make them super valuable—and if you’re the type who bombards your social media strategist with ideas, be okay when they push back on scope or ask for priorities.
Know that magic doesn’t happen on social media alone.
How exactly do you want to increase your bottom line? You probably need to sign contracts, get free consultation signups, have screening calls, or sell a product.
You need some kind of funnel or process in which a prospect expresses interest and goes through a series of steps to become a customer—and that part often happens outside of social media.
If you don’t have a user journey clearly laid out, your social media won’t be nearly as successful as it could be. You need a clear user journey, and it shouldn’t be:
Step 1: We post
Step 2: They like it
Step 3: They pay us
Step 4: We profit
You will be wasting your money on any kind of social media efforts, unless you’re okay with going for pure brand marketing.
A great social strategist will understand how the ecosystem fits together and help you push for tangible results, not just a creative play.
Temper your expectations.
If you’re paying very little but demanding a ton of posts, there’s going to be compromise somewhere and your strategist will probably start looking for some low-hanging fruit to meet the demands. Be clear on your priorities or be okay with lowering the post load.
If you have a service based business and no ad spend, it’s going to take some time to get the word out unless you’re really pounding the pavement and connecting with new audiences on and off of social.
If you don’t want to give your time and expertise to fuel the content machine, you’re not going to get great quality content. That doesn’t mean making content from scratch—that’s why you’re hiring someone—but you need to give them the tools and info they need to really understand your process, service, and objectives.
And always remember this gif:
The Bottom Line
Investing in social media services can absolutely be worth it for small businesses. But only if:
You give your social person access and context,
You focus on quality over volume,
You’ve got a funnel in place, and
You keep your expectations in check.
Otherwise? You’re just feeding the beast without much to show for it.
And whenever you’re tempted to think you can “have it all” for pennies on the dollar—remember this gif:
Need help vetting a social media hire? Or maybe you just want some advice on how to pump up your presence? I offer hourly consultation for anyone who needs it. Click below to book.
