For marketing professionals, social media is at once a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, social media platforms serve as a potent brand touchpoint, providing direct and immediate access to an engaged audience; on the other, even the most highly refined social media engagement strategies can be unpredictable and—when accounting for paid advertising in particular—extremely expensive.
Paid social campaigns don’t simply demand significant resources—they also require strict targets and efficient measurement tools in order to accurately determine ROI. Additionally, given the vast array of social platforms available, it’s crucial to identify which networks in particular will work best for your brand.
All of this is to say that social media marketing is not for the faint of heart—but when executed correctly, the payoff can be significant.
At The Bank, we realised that our clients want to feel their social media marketing investments are being used wisely, and by an agency that knows the social media landscape inside out. That’s why we set up Engage: an arm of our full-service digital agency that’s dedicated entirely to social media marketing services.
Engage Your Social Media
The Engage goal is simple: a suite of digital marketing services that focus specifically on social strategy, management, and marketing. Our services cover your social media marketing on a holistic level, implementing strategies that reach your target audiences on the platforms they use the most. At the same time, our marketing team have unbeatable platform-specific expertise, allowing them to develop social media marketing plans that make the most of each network both individually and as part of a whole.
Engage clients also benefit from being part of The Bank’s fully-integrated marketing agency, meaning they also have access to content marketing, SEO content creation, search engine marketing, web development, and web design services—all of which can support their social media efforts.
To learn more about our social media agency services, contact our team today. Alternatively, keep reading for our comprehensive guide to social media marketing and management.
A Three-Pronged Approach to Social Media Management
For social media agencies, marketing strategies are commonly split into three distinct categories:
- Organic social media, which is shared freely and without any paid promotion;
- Paid social media, which is boosted through social platforms’ internal advertising mechanisms;
- and community management, which is the proactive maintenance and development of audiences through platform interactions.
Whilst it is possible for brands to hire social media marketing agencies to handle each of these elements individually, the results are often less than impressive. A great paid advertising strategy might achieve your KPIs, but if it isn’t working in conjunction with your organic strategy, you may be overspending. At the same time, a strong focus on organic media might result in impressive engagement rates, but without paid promotion, your reach will be limited.
The most effective social media strategies take a three-pronged approach, using organic, paid, and community management techniques together to achieve the best results. An integrated digital marketing agency like The Bank is focused on establishing an all-encompassing digital marketing strategy for your social media presence.
Nevertheless, these elements of digital marketing are distinct in their own rights. Let’s take a look at them in more detail.
Organic Social Media Marketing
Organic media is material which is shared freely and without any paid promotion. For the most part, this is the kind of content that is shared by users who have been naturally reached by your brand’s message.
It is often the most important part of social media strategy as it is where you lay the foundations for your relationships with customers and followers.
The Benefits
When executed correctly, an organic social media strategy can increase brand awareness among both new and existing customers. It can also improve your brand’s reputation by projecting a positive image to the world and increasing customer loyalty.
Organic social media has been shown to be more effective at building long-term relationships with customers as it comes across as more authentic than paid media. What’s more, through frequent organic engagement, brands can encourage their followers to take action and become advocates for their brand.
The Challenges
Establishing an organic profile on social media is not as easy in 2023 as it was in 2013. The platform algorithms have changed, the competition is more fierce, and brands are now fighting for attention in a very different landscape.
Understandably, social platforms will favour paid media first, user-specific content second (posts from friends and family), and organic brand content third. This means that, for businesses, getting in front of a target audience is now more difficult, requiring a greater understanding of the hurdles and technical mechanisms involved.
The Engage Way
Content should lead your organic digital strategy. Our creative digital agency team help brands to develop content based on the following framework:
Entertain
Material that entertains will be more likely to be engaged with than content which doesn’t. This is because users are more likely to spend their time consuming something which piques their interest, rather than something which bores them.
Think about the last branded social media trend that you saw take off. Was it excitement about the product which led to that success, or was it the way the product was shown?
Educate
If your content educates users on something they’re interested in or solves a problem they have, it will be more valuable to them than content which doesn’t.
This is because users are always looking for ways to improve their lives, whether that’s through becoming more efficient, developing new skills, or simply learning something new. If your content helps them to do that, they’re more likely to want to be a part of it.
Engage
The best way to get users to engage with your content is to make it interactive. This could be in the form of a poll, a quiz, or a simple question which encourages users to leave a comment.
User-generated content is also an excellent way to encourage engagement as it gives users a sense of ownership over the material and makes them feel like they are part of the brand.
Challenge
Brands that connect with consumers on an ethical level tend to be more successful than those that don’t.
This is because consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the impact their buying habits have on the world around them, and they’re looking for brands which share their values.
If your content challenges users to think about the world in a different way, or encourages them to take action on important issues, it will be more likely to resonate with them.
Paid Social Media Marketing
Paid social campaigns are used by brands of all shapes and sizes, leveraging the enormous reach and demographic data offered by platforms to guarantee their message is seen by the right people.
The Benefits
Paid social can be an extremely effective way to boost brand awareness, create a need for your product or service, or increase website traffic. When used in conjunction with organic media, paid social can also help to significantly improve your SEO efforts.
Common objectives for a paid social campaign include:
- Generating leads
- Bolstering organic content
- Retargeting website visitors
- Driving traffic to specific landing pages
The Challenges
The main issue with paid social marketing campaigns is obvious: paid social media advertising is expensive! Not only do you have to pay for the privilege of placing your content in front of users, but you also need to have a well-thought-out plan if you want to see any meaningful ROI.
As with all digital marketing campaigns, paid social requires careful planning, continual optimisation, and regular reporting to be successful.
The Engage Way
For paid social and performance marketing campaigns, we take an approach that is driven by data, experience, and creativity.
Audience Targeting
We’ll work with you to create paid social media campaigns which are laser-focused on your target audience, and we’ll continually test and refine them to ensure they’re as effective as possible.
We use the latest targeting features offered by each platform to make sure your content is seen by the people who are most likely to engage with it.
Platform Analysis
Your ad spend should be devoted specifically towards the areas which will benefit your brand. Facebook advertising and Instagram advertising work great for targeting broad audiences, but if your ideal customer is more niche, then LinkedIn or Twitter ads may be a better use of your budget.
Our social media marketing agency professionals have extensive experience with all the major platforms, and we’ll advise you on the best way to allocate your ad spend.
Influencer Marketing
In the past, influencer marketing was seen as something of a dark art, with no guarantee of success. However, with the rise of social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, it’s become an essential tool for brands looking to connect with new—and often younger—audiences.
Our influencer marketing agency network allows us to link our clients’ brands with some of the biggest names on social media. We’ll work with you to identify the best influencers for your brand, and we’ll create a campaign which is guaranteed to get results.
Ad Creative
As with organic digital marketing, creative social media advertising is essential for success. Our creative agency services team will work with you to develop ad campaigns which are visually arresting and which accurately reflect your brand identity.
At the same time, our highly personalized services allow us to develop ad copy and creative content assets that can be used across your digital marketing, email marketing, website, and much more.
Social Media Community Management
Community management is the process of moderating and managing user-generated content. This could be in the form of comments on a blog post, questions asked on a forum, or brand mentions across social media.
The Benefits
Community management is an important part of social media strategy as it helps to build relationships with customers and create a sense of community around your brand. It’s often far too often ignored by even the best social media agencies in favour of more “sexy” marketing strategies that are easier to quantify.
The truth is that community management is a vital part of any successful social media strategy. A good community management strategy will:
- Encourage customers to stay engaged with your brand
- Help to resolve customer service issues
- Make your brand more accessible
- Foster a sense of community around your brand
The Challenges
Community management can be a full-time job in itself, and it’s often difficult to find the resources to manage it effectively.
Managing the problem in-house can be difficult for large companies, as there can be confusion about where and how to implement social strategy.
For small- and medium-sized businesses, meanwhile, time and staffing limitations often push community management down the list of priorities; at the same time, the financial resources may not be there to retain a dedicated PR agency.
Consequently, regardless of size, a business’ main challenge becomes that of finding an effective and affordable way to outsource community management, without yielding too much control or accountability.
The Engage Way
Community experts CMX have developed SPACES, a 6-part framework for defining community business value:
- Support: Community spaces for customers to ask and answer questions.
- Product: Gathers feedback and insights on products and offers.
- Acquisition: Drives new customers through experiences and brand advocates.
- Contribution: User-generated content which builds a collaborative platform.
- Engagement: Boosting loyalty and retention through a common interest.
- Success: Connects customers to share best practices and drive adoption.
The extent to which these elements might apply to you depends on the nature of your business. However, when it comes to effective community management, we believe that all six can potentially prove invaluable at different stages of the customer journey.
This is where our social media services can help. We offer a complete community management solution which covers all the bases, from content moderation to customer service. We’ll work with you to develop a strategy which is tailored to your specific needs, and we’ll make sure that your online community is a safe, welcoming, and valuable space for everyone involved.
Digital Marketing Across Social Media Channels: Tips and Best Practices:
Suffice to say, social media is a powerful marketing tool. When used effectively, it can help you reach a wider audience, connect with potential customers, and build your brand.
Even so, maybe you don’t feel ready to hire a dedicated social media content marketing agency. In that case, why not take a look at some of our foolproof tips for managing your social media effectively:
- Use social media to share your expert knowledge. Whether you write blog posts, share infographics, or post video tutorials, make sure your content is helpful and informative.
- Be active on multiple platforms. While you don’t need to be everywhere, it’s important to have a presence on the platforms where your target audience is most active.
- Engage with your followers. When people comment on your posts or ask questions, take the time to reply. This will help create a community around your brand
- Use social media ads. With targeted ads, you can reach people who are more likely to be interested in your products or services
- Monitor your activity level. Don’t post too often or you risk overwhelming your followers, but make sure you post frequently enough to maintain their interest
The Bank Is Your Social Media Marketing Agency: UK-Based, Globally Connected
When it comes to hiring a social media marketing company, you want one that’s going to be there for you when things go wrong as well as when things go right. You want a team that will be proactive and responsive, that will understand your business and your customers, and that will work with you to achieve your goals. One that will handle your brand as carefully as it does its own brand, and which will be as invested in your success as you are.
You want The Bank.
Unlike other digital marketing agencies, by working with The Bank you get a comprehensive service that spans your entire digital output. From online advertising to email marketing services; content marketing to Google Ads; even website development and design. Our creative digital agency based in Newcastle offers a holistic approach, covering every base effectively and all at once.
Don’t settle for just another social media marketing firm. Choose a global social media agency. Contact us today to arrange a consultation with your dedicated project manager. We can’t wait to get to work!
