Last updated on June 8th, 2023 at 04:10 pm
With 7 in 10 Singaporeans being active social media users, a statistic that is more than double the worldwide figure of 34% (Hootsuite 2017), incorporating social media as part of your marketing strategy is no longer an option but a necessity, whether you are a conglomerate or a small business.
It then boils down to the question of whether you should hire an intern to do the job, select a Singapore social media agency or engage a freelance social media manager. If you decide to engage a social media agency, it is important that you can work well with the agency and also whoever is in charge of your account. Here is a quick guide on how to sieve out the good from the bad, and how you can choose a social media agency that is pocket-friendly and suitable for your needs.
Choosing the Right Social Media Agency for Your Business
(1) Check the Social Media Agency’s Own Social Media Accounts
A social media agency must have a good amount of followers on at least 1 or more of its social media accounts such as Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest. However, it has been revealed that some social media agencies in Singapore regularly purchase engagements, likes and followers for their social media accounts. You can use audit tools to check whether the agency you want to engage has purchased any engagements, likes or followers to boost their accounts.
For instance, you can look at the insights provided on some social media platforms, such as Instagram. If there is a sharp increase in followers or likes, followed by a decline, or there are some automated or robot-like comments on some of its posts, this agency may have purchased some form of engagements, likes or followers. It might also have been using automation or bots to obtain more engagements.
You might also want to check out the copywriting, creatives and ideas on your prospective social media agency’s social media platforms. For example, you can check out how it brand itself, the quality of the posts, such as the artwork, photographs and videos, and the way they engage with their audience.
(2) Decide on Your Objectives
Before getting a cost or quote from a social media agency, decide whether you want to outsource the entire social media work to them, or just let them handle a specific part of it, such as the creative content management, influencers, advertisements, fans engagement or even handling customers’ feedbacks.
Also, did your prospective social media agency make an effort to learn more about you and your business objectives? During the initial meeting, the sales managers from the agencies will normally just present their company and its portfolio, and show you the quality of their work. Only a selected few will attempt to ask you about your objectives and what you want to achieve. You should only hire a social media company that genuinely makes an effort to find out more about your business objectives and other important information such as your brand, its tone of voice, personality and visual identity and so on before customising a strategy for your business. An agency who asks you these questions through meetings, surveys and/or business questionaires mean that it already has a good workflow and understands the importance of this process to the customer’s business. From my experience, to 60% of small and medium-sized businesses do not map out their business objectives, nor do they have a good brand manual or identity in place before they start operations.
(3) The Social Media Agency’s Ability to Plan a Strategic Direction
One of the key skills of a social media agency is the ability to plan a strategic direction for their clients. This involves setting goals and identifying the steps that need to be taken to achieve those goals. This is especially important in the fast-paced world of social media, where trends can change quickly and businesses need to stay on top of the latest developments to remain competitive.
A social media agency can help a business to define its goals on social media, whether that be to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or drive sales. They can also conduct research to identify the target audience and determine the best channels and tactics to reach them. For example, if the target audience is primarily on Instagram, the agency can help the business create an Instagram strategy that leverages the platform’s strengths.
Once the goals and target audience have been identified, the agency can develop a content strategy that aligns with the brand’s values and resonates with the target audience. This may involve creating a content calendar, selecting the right mix of content types (such as images, videos, or blog posts), and identifying the best times to post.
The agency can then help the business to measure and analyse the success of their social media efforts, using metrics such as engagement rates, follower growth, and website traffic. This allows the business to make data-driven decisions and adjust their strategy as needed.
Hence, a social media agency’s ability to plan a strategic direction is a valuable asset for businesses looking to improve their online presence. By setting clear goals, identifying the target audience, and developing a content strategy that resonates with that audience, a social media agency can help a business to achieve its social media objectives and stay ahead of the competition.
(4) Is the Social Media Agency In Sync with Your Brand’s Style and Culture?
Your brand’s style and culture are the essence of what makes your business unique. It includes everything from your brand’s visual identity to your company’s values and personality. A social media agency that is not aligned with your brand’s style and culture may create content that is off-brand, inconsistent, or even damaging to your reputation. For example, if your brand is stylish and caters to a younger crowd, your social media agency should be able to understand what that means, and knows how to develop an effective social media content strategy that speaks to your target audience.
(5) What Does Your Social Media Agency Call Themselves?
Digital marketing agencies, content marketing companies or social media marketing agencies – what are the differences?
In Singapore, there are many companies that identify themselves as digital marketing agencies, offering all the digital marketing services there are out there, such as Facebook and Google ads, social media management, content marketing and/or web development. But the truth is, every digital marketing agency has its strengths and weaknesses, and cannot be considered experts in all areas.
I would be more prone to hire an agency that identifies itself as a social media agency if I am looking for someone to manage my social media, rather than an all-encompassing digital marketing agency or company because a social media agency is more likely to be skilled in social media than a ‘jack-of-all-trade’ digital marketing agency.
In particular, look for a social media agency that is skilled in design and/or photographic skills, because social media is all about being visual, and you definitely need a highly skilled agency with a strong content, creative portfolio and a keen eye for design.
(6) Case Studies or Portfolio
Does your prospective social media agency have some case studies or portfolio? Review them and ask for the account names of the campaigns that they are managing for their clients and see if you like the style or what have been done.
However, some social media agencies might be relatively new and hence do not have anything concrete to show yet, though the founders could already have tons of experience in their previous corporate positions and more than capable to steer your business’ social media in the right direction. In such cases, you can ask them for their personal portfolios.
(7) Ease of Communication
Was it easy for you to get in touch with your prospective social media agency? How long did it take before they reply to your emails or calls? If it proves challenging to get in contact with them, you can expect to have a similar response rate or even worse when you engage them as your social media agency.
Communication with your agency is core, and it is important for you to be able to contact your agency shall there be a need to get in touch with them urgently during an emergency or send you the information you need.
(8) Measuring ROI
Ask your prospective social media agency how they will measure the success of your social media campaigns or content. They should be able to define the key performance indicators and you should be able to evaluate their efforts at the end of every month.
Gradually, customers and agencies in Singapore are realising that vanity metrics such as engagements, likes or followers are not important. What is really important is how much these metrics will convert to brand awareness and the quality leads that every business craves. Social media is primarily a branding tool and not a sales tool, and to achieve this objective, you need to work hand-in-hand with your agency over a period of time.
It is important to ensure that the social media agency that you are going to hire have a defined plan that will help achieve those metrics you are looking for, especially those that are most important to your business. Here are some examples of metrics that you might want to look at:
Number of Conversions from Social Media: How many conversions or sales did you get through social media? This is especially important for e-commerce or social commerce retailers.
Leads from Social Media: How many new leads did you get from your monthly social media activities?
Social Media Engagement: How much did social media engagement (such as comments, shares, likes, etc.) increase by monthly?
Social Media Reach and Growth: How many new fans or followers did your account gain or reach monthly?
Website Traffic: How much did website traffic increase per month due to social media?
(9) Pricing
If you are a startup or a small business with a limited budget, you might be tempted to select the social media agency that offers you the cheapest price. But I would definitely raise a red flag if an agency quotes you a much cheaper price than the others – check if they are outsourcing all their work to freelancers or other smaller agencies, or even keeping an unhealthy employee and accounts work balance.
Some social media agencies or digital marketing agencies in Singapore let each employee handle an average of 10 – 15 client accounts. On average, a social media marketer or staff should only handle a maximum of 3 accounts every month and that would already take up most of his time. It’s next to impossible to have one person handle 10 to 15 accounts and generate good results for your business.
There is always a reason why things are cheap. The old saying that “you get what you pay for” is normally true. You might just as well spend that monthly retainer on some digital advertisements rather than spending it on a social media agency that has no idea what it is doing, does not produces ROI, or could even damage your brand or reputation with poorly designed visuals or bad post copies.
(10) Check Out Their Thought Processes and Blog
Find out more about your prospective social media agency’s thought and work processes by reading through their website, resources or blog. It shows their professionalism, expertise and knowledge in their selected fields, and you can also get a good perspective of how much they understand about social media marketing and customer engagement.
Check also their knowledge about other social media related elements such as SEO, design and customer psychology. All these will aid them in understanding their customers’ products more, and hence help them in mapping out an effective social media strategy. Select a company whose perspectives most closely align to your business objectives.
It is important to hire the right social media agency that can meet your needs and help you achieve your business objectives every month. A good social media agency will attempt to stay ahead of your industry, be able to update you on the latest happenings or is able to understand and incorporate the latest technology into managing your social media platforms. Do the proper research, check its reviews on Google, or ask your contacts for referrals. If possible, do not sign a contract that is 3 or 6 months even if it provides you with some savings or discounts. There is a possibility that the agency you chose might not work for you, and in this case, you would waste your retainer fees.
Get Started Here!
If you are looking for professional social media services that can help you achieve your business goals, I’m here to help. Let’s discuss your needs and explore how I can help you produce measurable results. Contact me at +65-9622-8824 or bei@beithoven.com to schedule a non-obligatory consultation.
Bei, a bilingual (English/Chinese) Singapore content strategist, has over 20 years of experience in marketing for small businesses. She mostly writes about visual storytelling, AI art, SEO, social media and China marketing.