5 common myths about agency DFY social media

Who else both loves and misses the epic show, Mythbusters? Oooh oooh oooh, pick me! I loved their scientific approach to solving world problems like whether I could bake a lasagna in my dishwasher safely (I CAN!) and whether drinking liquor THEN beer will reduce hangovers (BUSTED, mine still suck).

Today I’m going to apply their premise to an important (but oft overlooked) aspect of your digital marketing agency: organic social media. This is a valuable tool in the marketing space that agencies and clients both want. The challenge is that many agencies just don’t have the bandwidth to do the work themselves and are (understandably) hesitant to hand it off, thanks to some common myths about DFY social. Let’s channel our inner Adams, Jamies and Torys and see if we can’t stamp “BUSTED” on some of these assumptions.

1. THERE’S NO POINT IN MY CLIENTS’ INDUSTRY

MYTH: My clients’ industry (or industries) doesn’t align with social media. We like it as a tool, but don’t think there’s a space for it in their field(s).

BUSTED: I will say that there are absolutely some industries that social media isn’t a good fit for.  But there aren’t many. In most cases, social media can be an effective tool for certain goals and outcomes (more on that later).

This is typically more of a question about where to post. Choosing the right platform is one of the most important aspects of targeting by industry.

I honestly can’t think of a single industry that couldn’t use social media for at least some valid and relevant business goals and outcomes.

2. YOU CAN’T FIND CONTENT TO POST FOR MY CLIENTS

MYTH: Okay, maybe you can find my clients’ target market on their chosen platform, but I guarantee you there’s no content to post about for them.  

BUSTED: Frankly, I’m offended by this myth. I started my career in marketing writing blogs about parking garages. If I can write a compelling, SEO-focused article about parking garages in downtown Omaha (there are like 3, BTW), I promise we can find content for your clients.

Ultimately it’s about engaging with their target market about what they care about in a way that helps them know, like and trust your clients. The rest is just your social media experts leveraging their experience, talent and creativity to come up with on-target content.

3. IT’S TOO HARD TO FIND THE CUSTOMERS’ VOICE(S)

MYTH: Look, maybe you can find the right platform and the right content, but there’s no way anyone could get my clients’ voice.

BUSTED: First of all, how dare you. One of the basic things any social media marketing agency should be able to do is understand and pick up on your clients’ unique voices.

While I can’t speak to everyone’s process, my team has a multi-step approach to ensure the copy we develop looks, feels and sounds like your clients.

Part of the process is typically shaping the client’s voice a bit (let’s face it, not every client comes to the table with clear ideas about brand voice and tone). But the social content should work with the brand identity, industry terms and phrases and copy the platform values.

4. IT DETRACTS FROM MY CLIENTS’ OTHER INITIATIVES

MYTH: Even if you do get to my clients’ voice, content and target markets, I don’t want to detract from our paid marketing, our email campaigns, our website work or other initiatives.

BUSTED: Any social media marketing resource worth their salt (if that’s what they want to get paid in, I guess? Salt? Weird, but okay) will enhance your additional marketing efforts.

Got a great paid campaign? Organic social can help you achieve objectives and support your expertise in that area.

Working with a large email sequence? Use organic social to drive list growth and support your email content. 

We can all play together very nicely. And a great social media marketer will be looking at the overall strategy to support your other activities.

5. IT DOESN’T WORK

MYTH: You could come up with the world’s greatest post topics, written in our exact voice on the perfect platform that aligns with our strategy, and it just won’t move the needle.

BUSTED: I’ll be honest, and this is a hard-learned lesson that I’ve had to accept over the past few years. Organic social media doesn’t serve the same purpose it did 10 years ago when I started. Let me be clear: social media is effective, but there are definitely a few factors that impact outcomes.

Here are a few things to consider:

• Client Goals Organic social media is very effective for maintaining a presence,  top-of-mind awareness and research source for prospective employees, customers and partners.
• Audience Size One of the biggest factors in how quickly you’re able to accomplish these client goals is the size of your audience on those platforms. The bigger the audience, the faster you see results.
• Timelines Does your client need to see immediate results or do you have a few months to get the foundation built up? Organic takes longer than paid, but as a long-term strategy, it’s effective.

There are many more factors to cover when it comes to bringing in support for your organic social media and baking it into your long-term strategy, but the value is in the conversation and understanding how it contributes to that strategy.

SHOULD WE CALL THE MEDICS?

Is it just me, or do these myths feel, like, really busted? The bottom line is that organic social media marketing is a service that agencies will continue to offer. The question is if you invest your time, energy and resources into managing it internally (totally fine, BTW!) or if you want to hand this task off to someone who can do it for you.