What is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is the implementation of a content plan that educates your audience about your service areas, and engages current/former clients, and referral sources. It is important to have a fully integrated plan, that accounts for the different demographics and formats on different platforms.
Social media marketing is an essential part of your organic marketing mix, and is expected by customers in most industries. Social platforms have a greater purpose than only generating leads. It gives you a chance to educate clients and referral sources, keep them engaged with your brand, and has other benefits, such as benefiting/supplementing your Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
It isn’t about going viral. Your content can also deliver appropriate entertainment, and news of your brand. It’s also a place to highlight employee achievements, and business accomplishments. There is great opportunity to grow your community involvement through social media, as well. Think of it as your own channel to program with content.
Do you really need Social Media Marketing?
While we may be biased, we recommend every business has a strong presence on social media. Social platforms have more reach than legacy platforms, including TV. If you are not participating in social media, your business is missing out (no matter the industry).
Most costs in social media marketing are related to the team pumping out your content. From a social media manager, to your videographer, to an account manager to oversee and revise, you need a well experienced team to know what to pursue, and what needs to change. At May Media, we split paid social media advertising into its own service, click here to learn more.
We don’t always see the highest number of leads come from social media, but we do gain business from it in other ways, as well. Through cold leads, referrals, community engagement, and SEO benefits- social media can prove as a useful instrument in your marketing symphony.
Planning Social Media Marketing
The planning process of social media is the most important step. Without the proper preparation and content schedule, your social media effort is not going to prove efficient. From designing, to writing, to approval, to scheduling- you should have a system that works as a well-oiled machine.
At May Media, we have custom made workflows that allow us to create social media posts faster, track progress, archive past posts, and much more. We have recommended software for scheduling, and workflows for designing posts.
Having a 12-month plan that covers all the stops is crucial, as well. Our team creates an integrated plan that accounts for all areas of your business, and the initiatives you are pursuing in your community. Frequency matters, and in today’s social media feed you need to post at least once a day to stay top of mind with potential clients and referral sources.
Social Media and SEO
While social media doesn’t directly affect whether your website will show up first on search engine results, social media engagement is one of the 200+ factors that Google uses to rank websites in search results.
By gearing your content strategy to specific service offerings, you can attract high quality traffic to your website, as well. When users stay engaged on your website with relevant content, your authority rises.
Your social media profiles will show up in search when you look up your business name, if they are optimized and posted to correctly. This can help you gain more traffic, and makes your website gain authority when your profiles are linking to it.
Overall, social media can be a helpful tool for driving impact to your SEO efforts, but you should remember that social media is not a direct ranking factor- such as core vitals.
May Media’s Experience
Our leadership team has a combined 29+ years of experience in the industry. We actively manage social media marketing for accounts around North America. We specialize in law firms, but we work in various other industries, as well.
We have a background in education, communications, and journalism. We understand how to craft messages that are going to be heard, and know how to speak to different audiences. We have worked on social platforms from Facebook to YouTube, and all of the in-betweens.
We have managed numerous vendors throughout our careers, and know what makes a good contractor. We will only hire vendors that we have personally vetted, and trained to our system. If we do not believe in their work, we will not hire them to work on your account.
If you would like a list of references, schedule a 15-minute discovery call!
What is our Pricing?
While we know you would love to have the pricing up-front for our Social Media Retainer, but it depends. We create a custom bid for each client that is dependent on their needs, objectives, and goals.
By creating a custom bid, we are able to ensure you are only paying for what you need, and we are getting paid enough to achieve your goals. If we need to bring on our trained vendors for any work, you will be notified up-front, and you will know their costs.
We operate on a retainer basis, and you will always know what you are paying, without hidden fees.
What’s the Next Step?
We make all of our new Social Media Retainer clients go through an onboarding marketing evaluation. Our marketing evaluation will identify gaps, opportunities, and threats in your marketing plan. This will also give us the chance to learn your brand’s history, what has worked in the past, and truly be able to represent your company.
To learn more about Marketing Evaluations, schedule your first free 15-minute discovery call!
