What Is a Social Media Agency? (And What Do They Do?)

What is a social media agency?

A social media agency provides marketing, advertising, design, or influencer partnership services for platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn on a one-time or ongoing basis.

What does a social media agency do?

A social media agency helps businesses achieve their social media goals by developing custom strategies, producing relatable content, designing visual content, building online relationships, and tracking network performance.

What services do social media companies provide?

Social media companies can provide several services, including:

• Social media marketing services
• Social media advertising services
• Social media design services
• Influencer marketing services

In some cases, they’ll offer specialized services, like for:

• Ecommerce
• Franchises
• Enterprises
• Social media network, like Facebook vs. LinkedIn

Which services a social media firm provides will depend on their business. Typically, businesses prefer firms that offer everything because it saves them the time and hassle of hiring another social media company.

How much does a social media agency cost?

How much a social media agency costs depends on their experience, location, and service package. Typically, businesses will invest $900 to $20,000 per month for social media marketing and advertising services.

When should I hire a social media company?

In our decades of experience, we’ve seen most businesses outsource their social media efforts to a social media company when experiencing the following issues or opportunities:

• They’re looking to scale their social media strategy
• They’re looking to partner with influencers
• They’re looking to optimize social media spend
• They’re struggling to manage multiple networks and strategies
• They’re struggling to deliver results to leadership
• They’re struggling to learn each network’s needs

If your organization is experiencing any of the above scenarios, consider hiring a social media firm. An experienced and reputable firm can help you get more value from social media networks.

Why hire a social media agency?

Hiring a social media agency can deliver several benefits to you, your team, and your organization:

1. Save time

Pass time-consuming tasks to your social media company and get more time in your day. Instead of checking your Twitter daily or monitoring your Facebook messages, your trusted agency will. WebFX, for example, provides our clients with a dedicated, familiar team.

2. Level-up strategies with experts

When you hire a social media management agency, you’re hiring individuals that know what they’re doing. In an agency setting, employees have been trained in all things social media, and are well-versed in how to recommend the right services to get you the results you’re looking for.

They’ll be able to recommend how much you should spend on ads, and they’ll be able to write content that’s geared toward your target audience. They’ll likely also create a social media content calendar to ensure that your profiles always feature new information.

This will keep you from having to learn all-things social media.

3. Access advanced software and toolkits

Agencies serve hundreds of clients, which means they want to have top-of-the-line tools and resources to ensure that they’re providing the best services.

Social media management agencies (including WebFX) have access to all kinds of resources and tools that allow them to do an incredible job at marketing your company via social media.

They have access to analytics tools, ad platforms, and more, which means you’ll never have to worry about the health of your social media profiles.

For example, with WebFX, you’ll have the opportunity to leverage our client-exclusive marketing platform, MarketingCloudFX. The AI-powered software unifies data from various channels to help you make more strategic decisions and can boost your marketing performance by 20%.

4. Improve social media’s ROI

If you’re on the fence about hiring a social media agency for your business, the bottom line is — they will bring you results that outweigh what you pay for in terms of services.

Social media ads are extremely cost-efficient, which means they also have a high ROI. This means that you’re not throwing money away, and instead, spending it on a marketing strategy that can truly make more revenue for your business.

How to choose the best social media agency

With so many options, it’s hard to decide which social media company is right for you. Do you choose the one that is known to drive results, or the one that is close to home? Learn how to choose the best social media agency for your business with these tips:

1. Get to know the agency

Before you sign on the dotted line, you should be sure that you get to know the social media company. This means talking on the phone and having all your questions answered.

You should always have a consultation with the agency before making any decisions, since this allows you to learn more about their offerings, pricing, and company.

First, talk to them about their pricing. It’s a huge red flag if a social media management company isn’t transparent about their pricing, because it likely means there will be hidden costs and fees.

In addition, every agency should understand that for clients to decide if they’re the right option, you have to talk budget.

You should also talk to them about the services they provide, and never settle for an agency that doesn’t provide all the services you’re looking for. With social media, you might want to invest in organic or paid social media marketing — or a combination of the two.

For example, if you’re set on having a Facebook marketing campaign with paid ads, blogs, and contests, you shouldn’t settle for a social media ad agency that only offers paid ads.

Make sure you understand the services they offer, the services you want, and how much it will cost for the package of your choice.

You should also ask for information about their company.

Is all their work done in-house, or do they outsource? Have they served clients in your industry? How many years have they been serving clients?

Answers to these questions will help you decide if they’re a great social media strategy agency for your business.

2. Consider the agency’s location

Though it’s not necessary to meet in-person to discuss your social media campaign, some people prefer it that way, and that’s okay!

If you’d rather have in-person meetings instead of Skype, email, or phone communication, location is something to consider.

Though some social media agencies will fly to your location to talk details, and even fly to you on a regular basis to talk about your campaign, you should always be sure to ask.

Otherwise, if you prefer to meet in-person, you should choose a social media strategy agency that is close to home, or at least a drivable distance.

3. Don’t forget about budget!

Budget is important — even though we wish it wasn’t. Although we all wish we had an unlimited budget, the fact of the matter is, when you run a business, you have to budget your expenses to ensure that all aspects of your business are taken care of.

You can’t spend your entire budget on social media marketing, which is why you have to determine how much you’re willing to spend, and stick with it.

First, do your research so that you can create a realistic budget for your social campaign. Blindly setting a budget won’t get you far, since you could be completely off the mark.

Properly planning your budget means you’ve done your research, and you know how much it will cost to accomplish your social media marketing goals.

This will also help you to make a shortlist of potential social media firms, so that you don’t have to talk to everyone you come across, which saves you time and energy.

4. Create a shortlist of agencies

Speaking of shortlists, you should create one! This will help the whole process to run smoothly and save you precious time and energy.

After you’ve considered the things mentioned above (budget, location, company culture), you’ll want to make a shortlist based off your decisions.

Once you’ve set a budget, it makes it extremely easy to go through a list of potential social media agencies and cross a hefty amount off your list.

From there, you can cross off ones that are too far from your business to travel, and you’ll be ready to start making phone calls.

After you’ve talked with each potential agency, you’ll be able to “shorten” your shortlist to a very shortlist and discover which social media company is a great match for your company.

5. Don’t settle for a social media agency

Last but not least, don’t settle for an agency.

The process of finding the perfect social media management agency for you is a time-consuming process. You shouldn’t settle on an agency just because they fit your budget, they’re around the corner from your business, or they’re the first one you called.

It’s likely that you won’t be satisfied with the results if you don’t put in the time to find the perfect agency for you.

So instead of losing money and seeing subpar results, take the time up front to do your research, and give yourself ample time to find the social media management agency that will drive results for your business.

Achieve your goals with a top social media agency

Attract more follows, likes, and shares with WebFX, an award-winning social media firm with a 93% client satisfaction rate (and more than 25 years of experience).

Learn more about the social media services that have helped our clients generate more than $3 billion in revenue by contacting us online or giving us a ring at 888-601-5359 today!