How Can You Find the Perfect Social Media Partner?

You can use Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to promote your business. So, why would you need a paid social media agency? It is simple: as a business, you must translate engagement into revenue.

Not all agencies are created equal. This article enumerates five essential qualities to look for in a dream team. Plus, it provides you with:

• Specific tips and ideas that great social media marketers use to optimize your campaigns.
• Real-world scenarios and examples to show you how popular brands execute their social media plans.

Convert engagement into sales and cash flow. Read below to learn how to pick your business's best social media partner. Let’s go!

If you want to learn how Digital Authority Partners can increase your PPC effectiveness, watch this video!

Five Vital Qualities of an Effective Social Media Agency

The value of social media shopping is already over $50 billion. This means the likes of Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, and YouTube are no longer for mere social connections. These are powerful platforms to generate sales and scale your business. 

However, many brands need more expertise and bandwidth to maximize their social presence. The solution? Find the perfect digital marketing partner to help you level up. 

Here are the five non-negotiable qualities to look for in an agency:

     1. Unbridled Creativity

Cookie-cutter content becomes white noise in the dynamic social space. You need fresh concepts and innovative campaigns that break through the clutter. 

One amazing example is the Oreo Eclipse campaign. Launched in March 2015, it coincided with a partial solar eclipse in the UK. 

The visual ad appeared on 47 digital billboards across the country. It featured an Oreo cookie gradually covering the sun. However, the team used real-time astronomical data to ensure that the movement coincided with the eclipse. 

The campaign was a huge success. It generated over 20 million views on social media and received extensive global news coverage. It was so noteworthy that the Gunn Report called it one of the most successful ads of that year. Even better, the success translated to sales, which increased by 59% during the month. 

When choosing a paid social media agency, prioritize creative teams that think outside the box and deliver captivating and relevant content. Review previous campaign work. Does it capture attention and engage? Does it push boundaries without being offensive?

Look for diverse creative approaches tailored to different clients versus a one-size-fits-all style. Gauge innovation and imagination in proposal ideas tailored to your brand.

     2. Cutting-Edge Analytics

You can only improve your social strategy with the right data and analytics. For this reason, the ideal social media partner should have the following capabilities:

• Deeply mine performance metrics.
• Identify and track the right key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Segment audiences.
• Translate numbers into digestible reports.

If you are an enterprise, your hired social media team should also be able to work with sales and marketing. This way, you develop consistent experiences across channels.

For instance, the social team supports sales by spotting and engaging qualified prospects on social platforms and driving them into the funnel. It also provides these departments with a valuable audience and competitive insights for better community engagement.

Evaluate a social media agency’s analytics skills with these tips:

• Ask for report samples. Evaluate both the data they track and how they present insights. Are they customized, visual, and actionable?
• Confirm that they track goal oriented KPIs.
• Assess the platforms covered. Detailed analytics across each channel is ideal. 
• Review the report frequency. Real-time data is great, but, at minimum, ask for weekly or monthly reports. 
• Verify the tracking tools that they use. Are they robust and reliable? Do they provide easy-to-understand information? Can you integrate them with other platforms, such as customer relationship management software?

The report they provide should spotlight successes to repeat and opportunities to refine your strategy. 

     3. Strategic Mastery

Trying every “effective” tactic and hoping for the best does not make you win on social media. Instead, it wastes your precious resources. 

The ideal social media partner is—and will always be—strategic in its online marketing approach. First, they specialize in your niche, knowing its ins and outs by heart. 

This is especially important in a highly regulated industry such as healthcare. Healthcare social media campaigns should not violate HIPAA or prepare to pay hefty fines and rebuild a damaged reputation.

Second, they dig deep into your business. What are your short- and long-term goals? What is your vision and purpose? How about your brand story? Who is your target audience? Why do you want to use social media? How does it fit into your overall online marketing plan?

Lastly, the right agency develops a customized strategy to align with your evolving business needs and objectives. This long-term plan serves as the blueprint for defining your audience, messaging, and platforms. 

A great brand that exemplifies a strategic social media plan is Wendy's.

• Because its target market is younger generations, it maximizes social media, where millennials and Gen Zs hang out. 
• The tone is consistent enough that Wendy’s morphs from a fast-food brand to a social media personality. She is snarky, witty, and youthful.
• It capitalizes on trends, such as pop-culture moments. For instance, it released a playful ad featuring a disappearing Big Mac and a slogan saying “I don’t feel so good” to ride on the popularity of Infinity Wars.
• The brand consistently and humorously engages with the audience. Take National Roast Day, for example, to highlight its grilled products. In 2023, the three-day event on TikTok generated over 110 videos and 105 million views. 
• It strives to build emotional connections. Wendy’s paused roasting to run the GroupNug campaign. It encouraged X (then Twitter) users to tag anyone who could use a boost and share the posts on its page. To tie it to its brand, the followers could also use a code for free nuggets.

Wendy’s strong brand voice, real-time engagement, and optimization make it a fan favorite, which improves its bottom line. It is the recipe you and your social media agency can copy.

     4. Savvy Community Management

Likes and sporadic comments can only do so much to uplift your brand. The secret sauce to effective demand- and lead-generation strategies is consistent, firm community management. 

Doing this provides you with many benefits, such as the following:

• A direct line to your customers is invaluable for building relationships.
• Instant feedback, which helps refine your digital marketing strategies.
• Growth of active brand advocates and loyal fans actively promoting you to new audiences.
• Impact amplification as your community widens your reach for free.
• Enhanced brand personality.
• Uncovering opportunities to connect and reputational risks.

In other words, brands must nurture strong social communities to survive and stay competitive.

The top social media agencies invest in dedicated community managers to nurture a brand’s community. These specialists become brand experts. They immerse themselves in the brand’s voice, values, products, and target audience. They engage followers daily through thoughtful content and conversational interactions based on their intimate business knowledge.

They understand and believe in the value of trust on social media. Thus, the community managers respond promptly and professionally in a tone that aligns with the brand’s personality when new users comment or ask questions. They also resolve matters respectfully and quickly when complaints or issues arise. 

These community leaders identify highly engaged power users to nurture the most loyal brand advocates. They might share exclusive content with these VIP members and amplify their user-generated content. 

     5. Multi-Platform Expertise

Many brands have a strong social media presence but need help converting followers into leads and customers. Usually, it is because they do not grasp these two factors:

• Their audience’s customer journey.
• How to match the social media channel and content to such a journey. 

National Geographic is a great example of a brand that carefully curates posts for maximum impact and engagement on each social media network.

With strategic curation, agencies craft content that resonates on each platform and weaves in natural, relevant calls to action. It converts leads more effectively than a one-size-fits-all tactic.

Summing Up

We live in a social-driven world. The right agency partner provides invaluable expertise and people to sharpen your brand’s online presence and engagement. This article shares five essential qualities to help you scrutinize your choices. 

You can also work with an award-winning paid social media agency. Digital Authority Partners (DAP) dives deep into your business’s core mission and audience to elevate your brand and drive results.

Contact us today to schedule a free consultation.