Handing over the reins of your social accounts can seem like a daunting task, especially if you’ve been successfully managing social media up until this point. While you might be hesitant to relinquish control—or, even, to share control—of your online presence, utilizing an inbound marketing agency to bolster your social media strategy can be extraordinarily beneficial for a number of reasons. Keep reading to discover four reasons your agency and social media go hand in hand.

1. Amplify Your Inbound Campaigns

One of the top channels for inbound marketing is social media. Social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are great ways for new contacts to discover your products and services. Your inbound marketing consultants can, and should, be using these channels to amplify your inbound campaigns to drive traffic and generate leads across your website.

Any inbound agency worth its salt will coordinate social media campaigns alongside content creation, product launches, or other important milestones to amplify reach and impact. Not allowing your agency at least some degree of autonomy when it comes to social media can stunt your campaigns and prevent them from reaching their true potential.

2. Content Ideation and Creation

While social media is a powerful tool for amplifying inbound campaigns, it can also serve as a valuable resource for creating content and inspiring campaigns. Your inbound agency should always have one ear to the ground when it comes to social media, keeping track of trending content and recurring themes.

For example, if prospective buyers are always reaching out over Twitter to ask about a specific feature of your product, then it might be time to create a one-sheeter describing its capabilities. If a specific topic or news story is trending in your industry, then it might make sense to capitalize on these trends. Your agency can use social listening tools to research topics for future content, ensuring that your inbound campaigns will be relevant and well received across all channels.

3. Align the Buyer’s Journey and Social Media

Another way your inbound marketing agency can utilize social media is by aligning it with your buyer personas and each stage they face throughout the buyer’s journey. While this goes hand in hand with content creation, ensuring content is relevant is a different story. After all, anyone can write an article on your blog—but an inbound agency should be writing articles that speak to different personas, at different stages of the buyer’s journey. This content can then be amplified with social media, and specific messaging can help ensure that your personas see it as relevant and compelling.

Additionally, having your inbound agency handle persona creation, content ideation, and social promotion can ensure greater consistency across all channels. Having it manage your editorial calendar can also ensure a regular and active posting schedule, ensuring that your channels are consistently attracting new followers and engaging old ones simultaneously.

4. Leverage Their Expertise

One of the most valuable, albeit somewhat obvious, benefits of using an inbound marketing agency is that you can leverage its expertise and knowledge to your advantage. Inbound consultants are experts in the field, and considering that inbound and social media marketing go together like bread and butter, it would be a waste not to fully utilize them in your larger marketing strategy.

As social channels continue to evolve and expand, having an inbound marketing consultant at your disposal can be a valuable asset to ensure your business doesn’t get left behind the times. Whether you’re looking to expand into new social channels such as Snapchat, or simply to ramp up your existing Twitter strategy, using an inbound agency can ensure you have all your bases covered.

Social Media and Inbound: a Marketing Match

Hiring an inbound marketing agency to manage one of your most prolific and sensitive marketing channels requires a considerable amount of trust, but leveraging its expertise is an invaluable tradeoff. Considering the complementary nature of inbound and social media, using them to augment each other simply makes sense; allowing your inbound consultant to drive your social strategy can provide your organization with increased benefits that wouldn’t be seen otherwise. If you want to see the best possible ROI for your inbound efforts, then partnering with an integrated agency is the only way to ensure each facet of your campaign is truly successful.
Article author: Sarah Hecker of Business 2 Community