4 Tips To Selecting The Right SMMA For Your Brand

Please note that SMMA is an abbreviation for Social Media Agency 

 

When Choosing A SMMA or purchasing a product you should avoid people who ‘call themselves’ Marketing Gurus or Social Media Experts.

 

I’ve been in the game for over 8 years and I don’t call myself a guru or an expert. I’m just a simple social media manager who has worked on 100’s of social media accounts in a number of different industries.

 

So why don’t I call myself a Digital Marketing Guru or Social Media Expert?

 

It’s one thing to be called a digital marketing Guru by a publication or a client, but self-proclaimed… sounds like a dodgy sales pitch.

 

In reality social media is constantly changing, and I mean almost every 3 months there is a new social media product, strategy, tool, gambit, plugin IOS 14.5 (KILLING CONVERSIONS) etc that marketers need to stay on top of.

 

Fun fact: Facebook introduced business manager only a couple of years ago… and it’s a hot mess. But we have no choice but to roll with the punches.

 

How can we call ourselves Marketing Gurus if that’s the nature of the industry?

 

So what do we call ourselves? Marketers, digital strategists and data lovers.

So here are 4 tips to selecting the right SMMA for you.

 

1. Find an agency that has experience working in your industry. Simple. Don’t fall for a fancy sales pitch, simply ask the question, and ask the approach you would take to furthering your brands digital reach. If you smell Bullshit, trust your gut.
2. Make sure you have a Face-to-Face meeting and not an over the phone sign up. Why? Because you need to see how well you vibe with the SMMA that you’re being pitched to. You’re literally asking another person to be the voice of your company, it’s important to have a Face-to-Face before you sign. If you can’t meet in person, have a zoom call.
3. Numbers don’t lie, marketers do. Make sure that the SMMA you are working with has a coherent reporting system.
4. Don’t trust google reviews. These can be faked and there are ton of businesses you can pay that will organically write reviews for business. I’ve seen many of our competitors do this. What you should look out for is roughly 1-10 reviews on any given business. Think about it, there are about 4,000-8,000 small businesses in Australia. Let’s say 10-20% engage with a SMMA. Of that 10-20% maybe 0.1% will take the time to leave a review… now factor in how many social media agencies and contractors are in the country… you’re left with… 1-10 reviews on a business.

 

5 Red flags to watch out for when you’re selecting an SMMA:

 

1. Are they self-proclaimed experts or marketing gurus? Instead look for an agency that pushes the idea that they know their shit vs we are great because we say we are great. Fair
2. If you see a “Featured In” Publication section on their website. Did you know you can pay to have your articles featured in News Websites / publication? So don’t be fooled. We’ve done it.
3. They don’t post anything significant on their own social media platforms. This can indicate they are either too busy to take on new clients or that they are not very active on social media.
4. They require you to sign a 6 month contract. Why do they need to lock you in, what if they get 0 results or you find out they outsource off shore? Essentially; that way they can keep you for longer and if there is no result, you’re stuck and they still get paid. Our SMMA only requires 4 weeks notice because we create our content, videoshoots and planning 4 weeks in advanced. Our clients stay, because they want to.
5. Does the person you are talking to confuse you with Buzz Words? Every buzz word in our industry can be explained very simply. A social Media Agency’s value comes from experience, quality and the ability to save you time. Don’t fall for that shit.

 

In summary, there are Guru’s out there who will genuinely fuck you and we have heard so many horror stories from our clients that I felt the need to write a quick blog article.

 

If you have any questions about this post or need any advice feel free to email social@tsmn.com.au or visit www.tsmn.com.au

 

Cheers

 

Zak