True story: I walk the walk. I’m not just a social media manager for my clients – I also walk the walk and outsource aspects of my social media presence. Now, not Instagram (that’s my baby lol) but I do outsource my Pinterest to the genius that is Sarah Burk. And she recently published a case study on the past year of working on my account. Reading it reminded me of some important lessons you need to know before you invest in social media management.
#1: It’s a long-term commitment.
Social media management isn’t an in-and-out type of service. I’ve seen what happens when clients expect miracles in two months and leave when it doesn’t happen – they’re always dissatisfied with their SMMs. It took a year for Sarah to bring my account to 1,000 clicks a month. That’s 12 months of investing in Pinterest and seeing the traction slowly but steadily build.
I’ve seen the same story play out with my clients. The ones that are with me for 6+ months see fantastic results: multiple leads in the DMs daily, soaring engagement month after month, booked-out for projects. But the ones that dip after 2-3 months because things didn’t go as fast as they expected? They don’t see that same kind of traction.
#2: To get the results you want, give your social media manager what they need to make your account a success.
In order to see results on Pinterest, I had to give Sarah what she needed: fresh content targeted towards my dream clients, in the form of blogs. I crank out anywhere from 3-8 blog posts a month (I’m an overachiever, what can I say). Without this fresh content, even the best Pinterest strategy wouldn’t work because Pinterest wants new URLs to send people to.
When my clients regularly upload beautiful photos, provide me with info on their projects, and share details about what’s happening in their business, their Instagram thrives. But when getting visual content is like pulling teeth? You can see the effect in their Instagram insights.
#3: We can’t save your business.
This is probably the toughest pill to swallow. Your social media manager is not *solely* responsible for your business’s success, and we cannot save it. If something is off – in terms of pricing, business strategy, ideal client, your offering – all the marketing in the world won’t help it.
The clients who see the most success with social media management already have thriving businesses – they have proof of sales, they love what they do, they have happy clients. But they need to add fuel to that fire. That’s where social media management comes in and can make a huge impact.
Want more where that came from?
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