June 12, 2018

Why Social Community Management is best done in-house

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Picture of Michael Jenkins
Michael Jenkins

CEO - Shout Agency
[email protected]

Overview

Welcome to the world of social community management! In today’s digital age, social media has become an integral part of our lives, connecting people from all corners of the globe. As social platforms continue to evolve and grow in popularity, businesses are realising the immense potential they hold for building and nurturing communities around their brands.

Social community management goes beyond simply posting updates and sharing content on social media channels. It involves creating and fostering an engaged community of followers who not only support your brand but also become advocates, spreading positive word-of-mouth and driving your organic growth.

In this blog post, we will delve into the importance of social community management and explore the strategies and best practices that can help you build a thriving online community. Whether you’re a small startup or an established brand, harnessing the power of community can amplify your online presence, increase brand loyalty, and boost customer satisfaction.

Join us on this journey as we unlock the secrets of social community management and discover how it can propel your brand to new heights. Whether you’re a social media novice or a seasoned marketer, this blog post will equip you with the knowledge and tools to cultivate a vibrant online community that drives meaningful results for your business.

Social media is an essential component of most businesses’ digital marketing strategy today. The challenge is whether you should use an agency or do your social community management in-house.

The question of who should manage your social network is something many companies around the world large and small struggle with as the channel continues to develop. Below, we discuss why the process should happen in-house. We can help guide you, but you are the best person to connect with your social network.

social media community

3 Reasons to do your Social Community Management in-house

#1. Voice

Agencies are great at a lot of things. However, it is almost impossible for an agency to fully get your voice right in every interaction with a client. While sometimes this happens after a while, it takes a long time to train an agency to do this.

Additionally, if you are a small business owner then truthfully, only your partners, long-time employees, and you can ever fully share that voice on social media.

#2. Technical Questions

If you are in a technical industry, you might not want an agency to manage your community. That is because the agency knows how to market your business, not how to operate it.

Additionally, if you have a mid-size to large company, they might not know the best resources in your company to ask about technical questions. The extra person creates an added barrier that delays responses as the agency then needs to relay their questions to you, and you send them to the expert at your company.

When you do it in-house, you save a step and respond faster. Social media has a large component of speed. Customers expect fast responses, and your company can struggle if you do not perform to expectations.

#3. Cost-effective

An agency charges a specific rate per hour. Depending on the agency it could be anywhere between $100-150/hour for your average agency.

If you have the agency working full time, this means you pay them between $208,000 to $312,000 per year. More than likely you could hire 2-3 full-time employees dedicated to your company to manage your social media.

Additionally, the employees would have the flexibility to spend more or less time on specific social media campaigns throughout the year as you needed them. They are also in the office to take photos of the staff and products on location, so you can get more live shots instead of stock photos.

Three ways to make it easy

#1. Time

If you are a small company and do not have a lot of time to run your social media campaign, then you want to use a few tools to make your life easier.

More than likely you can manage your social media with a few proper tools.

Canva – A long-time favourite with many social media managers, Canva is now available as a mobile app. The tool helps you create great social media images

(iOS and Android).

Quik – if you want to use video marketing on social media, consider using the Quik app (iOS and Android).

quik mobile app

#2. Chatbots

If you want to automate some of your social media management, then you should consider using a chatbot. They help you create automated messages on Twitter Direct Messenger and Facebook Messenger.

If you offer products that customers need to purchase, they can do this automatically without you needing to be present. Furthermore, you can integrate the chatbots into your website to coordinate your marketing efforts.

If you have questions about chatbots, contact us today.

Facebook chatbot

#3. Schedule

You can quickly schedule your social media posts on a mobile app like HootSuite, Sprout Social, or Buffer. Once you set up the social media accounts, you can create the content and then share it out to the networks on a schedule of your choosing.

Hootsuite

Final Thoughts

Managing your social media accounts has changed a lot since the early days when you could automate everything. Today, you have to build a real community that engages with your content and responds to your requests. To do that, you need to spend the time to build up your audience. The tools here help you do that in less time and still effectively reach your audience, so they want to learn more about your products.

If you have questions about social media community management, feel free to contact us our social media agency in Melbourne.

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        Shout logo in grey

        As Founder and Director of Shout Web Strategy, Michael Jenkins is at the forefront of digital marketing. Since it’s inception in 2009, Shout has built a strong reputation as one of Australia’s leading strategic SEO agencies, assisting online businesses to formulate, implement and track successful marketing strategies. Michael is a respected thought leader and digital strategist, specialising in online strategy, corporate SEO, Google retargeting, email and conversion rate optimisation, and online reputation management. Follow Michael on Google+, connect with him through LinkedIn or visit the Shout Web Strategy website.

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