At first glance, it seems that at the present time, even older people are well aware of how Facebook differs from Instagram, how “live” subscribers are better than “bots”, and most importantly, how all this knowledge is used to promote goods and services. Nevertheless, the ranks of people who are easily deceived or misled by negligent SMM agencies are growing every day. What forms of deception do they use and how do they catch gullible customers on their “hook”? Experts of the SMM-services market tell about this and not only.
Antonina Gorzhankina, creative director of the Krasnoe Slovo SMM agency (part of the Krasnoye Slovo Communication Group)
The average scheme of deception is as follows: a little-known SMM agency offers a ready-made and, as a rule, inexpensive package of SMM services to a client inexperienced in SMM promotion, the distinguishing feature of which is simple and clear guarantees presented in numerical terms. Everything looks very impressive: coverage of hundreds of thousands of users, thousands of subscribers and likes, hundreds of reposts, tens or even hundreds of orders. In general, not a package, but a miracle. The most important thing is that everything is without superfluous words and unnecessary maxims.
Later, of course, it turns out that all these thousands and millions had nothing to do with real life(banal cheating, bots). For some reason, neither hundreds, nor even dozens of customers are visible. But this does not bother SMM fraudsters at all, since they are well aware that they have done their job according to the report, and the clients deceived by them will definitely not go to court because of an unsuccessfully purchased package worth 5 or even 100 thousand rubles. As they say, there is no judicial perspective, especially since the services of a lawyer / attorney often cost more than the ill-fated package. The worst thing that threatens scammers is swearing at them over the phone, which is not so scary, especially if a client who brought them several tens of thousands of rubles on a silver platter yesterday is swearing. The task of scammers is to find as many naive people as possible and sell everyone their package at least once.
Unfortunately, unlike the same search engine optimization of sites or any programming, the ability to do something on your own in in social networks gave rise to a deceptive opinion that working in social networks is not such a serious occupation, and it should not cost big money. In fact, the key feature of high-quality SMM promotion is not only the knowledge of an SMM specialist obtained in practice, but also significant labor costs, which does not allow one SMM specialist to maintain dozens of accounts and groups. The implementation of this or that SMM strategy, which brings a real effect, takes more than one month and requires repeated adjustments in the process. In general, good SMM is a long, routine process that takes place mostly in manual mode.
I would not say that I see massive fraud in the SMM market. Opaque practices bordering on fraud are more about the SEO market (where the visibility of activity is presented as hard work), RTB and CPA networks (where low-quality traffic is sold under the guise of quality traffic or simply drawn in the report). In SMM, I rather see a large number of inexperienced contractors who do stupid things with the best of intentions and thereby either do not help or harm clients. This is because the threshold for entry into SMM is the lowest - hence the large number of beginners who make bumps for clients' money.
I will give examples of the most common nonsense.
Let's say contractors often offer a KPI based on the number of subscribers. But the number of subscribers in itself does not give anything, it is important to engage in each material, virality, etc. Roughly speaking, 500 people who are a direct target audience and who “rummage around” your every post are much better than 10,000 who, when It’s not clear why they subscribed to you, but today they are silent. I’m not talking about bots, it seems that everyone has already understood that this is a dead end.
Another example of such nonsense is mass following. Beach Instagram and some other networks - promotion by automatically adding friends. As long as the site is new, it can work, although it smells bad. Now, when a car wash, a beauty salon and a cellulite remedy are added to every living user every day, this tactic should not be used in any case. Don't get on the same level with idiots.
Another common mistake is content that does not match the tone of the brand. The flow of entertaining cards is good in the public with jokes and bad almost anywhere else. However, beginners see that these formats are spreading well, and begin to litter the feed with off-topic jokes. This is a consequence of working without a strategy.
There can be many examples of stupidity, but the root is always the same - contractors rushed to work without specifying for whom they are trying, without drawing up a plan, without delving into the customer's business. How to protect yourself from such contractors? Ask them to show what they have already done, how planning is organized, what formats they offer and why, what metrics they use. For outsourcing SMM to really work, the contractor must understand the client very well and have the authority to speak on their behalf quickly and independently. The work of negligent agencies leads to the fact that clients, remembering a negative experience, begin to micromanage - they require the approval of each comment, reports for every day, etc., thereby slowing down processes and killing the creative enthusiasm of sane contractors.
Marina Zak, head of SMM-agency Web Step
Many of you have come across messages on VKontakte or Instagram in which they offer “only targeted” subscribers for 1000 rubles. Of course, these will be so-called bots, and the person from the “agency” will very quickly stop communicating. The worst consequence can be blocking your communities for some time or even permanently for violating the rules of the social network. Unfortunately, many clients (especially in a crisis) fall into such stories. What forms of deception are most often used by negligent agencies? The most common is the promise of targeted subscribers for little money and in a short time. Which is basically impossible.
To avoid this situation:
– Be sure to check out the agency’s website or presentation, as well as request case studies. They can be used to determine how long the agency has existed, with which clients they have worked and are working, what qualitative and quantitative indicators they have achieved;
before providing you commercial offer any professional agency will definitely ask you clarifying questions or ask you to fill out a brief. Most often, at the calculation stage, it is important to know: what are your business goals for promotion in social networks, what is your target audience and what is important for them, who are your competitors, etc.
- pay attention to the commercial offer - what are the indicators of the effectiveness of the promotion, what is the forecast. High-quality promotion in social networks cannot be cheap!
- and of course, if possible, work only under a contract and try to meet with representatives of the agency in person before starting work.
In my opinion, negligent agencies are really the “pain” of real SMM agencies. After working with negligent agencies, the client thinks either that SMM is cheap, or that SMM does not work, and there are only fraudulent agencies around. Therefore, my colleagues from other agencies and I try to talk more often and in more detail about the principles and quality of work in social networks and show what effective promotion in social networks is. For example, with the help of this article.
Alexander Korolev, SMM specialist at Top-Life internet marketing agency
Usually, freelancers and agencies that you find in the Instagram direct or in corporate mail spam are sinning. It is there that you are offered to buy subscribers for a penny. For example, an ignorant businessman can acquire 5,000 new subscribers for a couple of thousand rubles. However, all subscribers bought in this way are ordinary dead bots.
It is worth noting that most mid-range agencies value their reputation. After all, very often they become contractors of larger players. At the same time, the quality of services of small agencies is not inferior to the quality of large ones, and in some cases even surpasses it. For example, customer service for small agencies works 24/7. Major players have everything strictly from 9:00 to 18:00.
One of the most common forms of “cheating,” if you can call it that, is overstating KPIs and forecasts. This data is not fixed in the contract, but manipulations with them play a role competitive advantage. For example, in the SMM agency "A", a client is promised 50 orders for 150,000 rubles. In the agency "B" the client will be offered 100 orders for the same amount. The client agrees to the last offer, but at the end he will receive the same 50 orders. Attempts to express dissatisfaction in this case are legally groundless - KPIs were not reflected in the contract. As a result, the agency loses a client who leaves to look for the next contractor.
Working with freelancers is also fraught with losses. Nevertheless, many deal with them, ordering an increase in subscribers (due to bots or offers) or work using gray methods of promotion - inviting, or mass following. There are obvious downsides to this. Firstly, if you work without a contract, then the deadlines may be missed or the work will be performed poorly. Secondly, if you abuse such “promotion” methods, sanctions can be applied to your community or account - removal of bots, restrictions on actions, or even a ban from a social network.
In some cases, the work of negligent agencies and freelancers can influence the opinion of clients, ruining SMM as an effective promotion channel in their eyes. This is corrected by communication with competent specialists. Such specialists will be able to build an effective promotion strategy and justify it. If errors occur during the implementation of this strategy or the result does not meet the client's expectations, it is necessary to correct the situation in the process of work, coordinating it necessary steps. Work should be built on the principle of win-win. This will eliminate fraud both on the part of the agency and on the part of the client.
Elena Kupriyanova, director of SMM-direction Smart Media
Most often, small and young agencies - not all, we are now talking only about non-professionals - not only deceive customers, but do not fulfill their obligations to customers. Negligent agencies are chasing only money and the name of the client, and not the quality of their work. They are attractive to customers due to their low cost, but here lies the catch: there is no such thing as fast, cheap and high-quality at the same time (recall the truism about “choose any two items”). Cheap agencies take the amount of work, but often lose either in speed or quality, and most often they sag on both counts.
Another point that clients often face is the discrepancy between the commercial offer and the promises that the agency makes on the pitch with reality. That is, you saw a beautiful idea, an excellent strategic approach, and you really liked the one who presented the concept to you. But at the beginning of real work, it turned out that the copywriter does not feel the brand and makes mistakes, the creative does not participate in the work, the manager does not answer calls, and bots are sent to groups, not real people. Of course, there is another side, when a client buys a concept from a client, but starts saying “let's cut it here, and do it differently here, but we don’t need this at all.” It is important to understand here that what you are offered is most often a holistic approach, and it is almost impossible to achieve all the declared KPIs in the absence of certain elements of the concept. But that's another story.
In this regard, I advise the following. First, pay attention to the experience of the agency - not just cases, but the real work that they are doing now. Secondly, get to know the working team before you start working with the agency on the presented concept, look for a specific copywriter and targetologist. “Don’t chase, pop, for cheapness!” as Pushkin said. This does not mean that you need to choose the most expensive offer, it means that you need to know the average cost of services in the market from agencies of different categories and understand that for five rubles it is impossible to bring a thousand people into a narrow targeting group. If you are promised this, then you are being deceived. Third, look into it. It is clear that you are hiring an agency so that your head does not hurt at least about SMM. But remember that the less you know about the service that the agency sells to you, the more opportunities to deceive you.
Clients often come to us and say that they are disappointed in one or another digital promotion tool. And I always say - you are not disappointed in the tool, you are disappointed in the contractor. Of course, it is very difficult to make a client “thaw out” in relation to SMM when a negligent contractor worked with him before you. A competent agency will always select the right tool for you in accordance with your business objectives, and will not sell you anyhow. Digital specialists, realizing that you don’t need SMM to solve your problems, but, for example, context, will tell you how context will help you, even if you originally came to this agency for SMM.
The most important indicator of a quality agency is that we delve into your goals and try to solve your problems, and not just make money on you.
Stella Rybnikova, head of the SMM department of the Penguin Benjamin digital agency
I will tell you about the most common mistakes that lead clients to negligent agencies. At the stage of searching for a contractor, the client chooses a cheaper specialist. The result is poor-quality work, pictures from the Internet. A competent SMM manager will not work for 3 thousand per month. In addition, you decided to contact the agency, where specialists probably work. The deception may consist in the fact that the company does not have a full-time SMM manager, and it gives an order for freelance, keeping a percentage for itself. The result can be, as in the first case, poor-quality work.
To protect themselves, clients need to familiarize themselves with the cases, make sure that they belong to the contractor. It is not uncommon - a fake portfolio, results. Also, don't limit yourself to communicating in writing. You need to make sure the specialist is competent. Make an appointment and personally discuss the details of cooperation. It is also important to ask for a media plan and monitor its implementation.
So you can understand in advance what work will be carried out, and correct it in case of disagreement. Not all companies bother with a media plan and make content in a chaotic, unstructured way.
At the execution stage, the client can also face many dangers. Among them are the main ones: grabbing content from other groups, using low-quality materials (mainly photos), buying subscribers, poor-quality advertising settings, including thoughtless “strait” of the budget. Ask to be shown Personal Area advertising and "strait" of the budget. No one will give you access for reasonable reasons. If you are in another city, the Skype screen sharing feature will help.
Also keep in mind that some agencies may be in the business of forging screenshots of statistics reports. Everything can be done in Photoshop! Do not be lazy to track statistics on each social network yourself. Of course, due to unscrupulous performers, trust in the entire SMM sphere is undermined. Clients often come to us who have had a bad experience working with SMM managers. We have to restore their trust. To do this, we show our projects, statistics, develop a media plan, offer online support 24 hours 7 days a week.
Marketing in social media (Social Media Marketing, SMM) is communication with the audience of social networks and forums on behalf of the brand. Today, most progressive companies create their own corporate pages and communities in many popular social networks (VKontakte, Facebook, Odnoklassniki), through which they actively interact with the target audience, fill the pages with useful and exciting content, and hold quizzes and contests among users. At first glance, it may seem that all these activities are mainly entertainment in nature, but in addition, they act as a powerful tool to increase loyalty to your brand.
Loyalty- this is a stable positive attitude of the audience towards the company as a whole, which can be expressed in the recommendations of its services to others and the constant purchases of products of this brand.
Forming a loyal attitude towards your company, its services and products among the audience is one of the primary tasks that every business owner should set for himself. By increasing the level of this indicator, you can achieve the following goals:
- develop in potential clients brand trust. By encouraging the activity of subscribers, you show how their opinion and participation in the life of the brand is important to you. Positive feedback from other participants, who are generally trusted, also has a significant impact here. If a user needs a service that you and several other companies provide, he will most likely choose you and advise his friends and acquaintances to do this;
- eliminate the negative about the company, manage its reputation. By constantly maintaining communication with users in the community, you will be able to track negative comments and reviews about your company, process them in a timely manner and change the audience's opinion to a positive one;
- increase brand awareness. If you post informative and interesting content in the group, your subscribers will be happy to share it on their pages. As a result, more users will be able to learn about your brand, who may also be interested in your services.
After making sure that the loyalty of visitors directly affects the development of your company, you will probably have a question:
There are 3 main reasons why you should start promoting your brand there:
- Channel popularity and wide audience coverage. Every year, social networks are becoming an increasingly important element in the lives of most Internet users. According to a study by Mail.Ru Group, more than 90% of the 65.9 million people who use the Internet daily in Russia use social networks. Therefore, the likelihood that among them you will find thousands, and maybe millions of representatives of your target audience, is very high.
- Favorable atmosphere. In social networks, users are at ease and feel quite comfortable. The purpose of their pastime is to get new information, entertainment and communication, so what you offer in the community fully meets their needs and will be perceived positively.
- No direct advertising effect. People are skeptical about advertising and do not like it. But the posts of companies in the communities, which, in fact, are promotional materials, are mainly perceived by them as entertainment and do not cause negative.
Building brand loyalty on social media is a great opportunity to positively influence the success of your business. It must be used as famous companies, and those who are just starting their journey to the top: popular brands need to maintain the love and affection of customers, and little-known firms have yet to win the trust of the audience. Next, we will talk about how to create a high-quality community on a social network, attract the right audience to it, develop the activity of subscribers and get their recognition.
Building a community
It may seem that creating a group on a social network is very simple: just press a few buttons on VKontakte or Odnoklassniki. But it is not so. The brand community is the face of your company, and in order for it to adequately represent it in social networks, you need to implement several key stages, each of which has its own characteristics. Let's consider them in more detail.
Conducting analytics
Before starting activities in social networks, it is necessary to determine the target audience (TA). The success of the analytical stage and the course of further promotion of the company in the social network will depend on this. Treat this responsibly and specify in advance all the characteristics of users that are important to you: gender, age, occupation, geographical location, etc. For example, if your company sells men's business clothes, most likely, young people and men 25-50 years old working in offices will be of interest to you.
After you have determined the target audience, you should find out in which social network it is concentrated. To do this, it is necessary to study the socio-demographic portrait of each of them. We will bring for you short review Mail.Ru Group research on 3 social networks: VKontakte, Facebook, Odnoklassniki.
Using such statistics, you can get an idea of where your target audience lives, and in the future choose the right platform for creating a community.
Igor Davydov, social media specialist at Ingate Digital Agency.
To date, most large companies, as a rule, carry out work to promote the brand in several social networks at once. For example, IKEA, Samsung, Coca-Cola, Gillette, Lipton. If during the process of analytics you have determined that your target audience is on Facebook and Odnoklassniki, you need to create and develop groups on both social networks at once. This will increase coverage target audience and determine which platform works more effectively for your goals.
Strategy Development
A well-chosen strategy is the key to success, so it is necessary to approach the implementation of this stage gradually so as not to make mistakes in any case.
First of all, pay attention to how your competitors behave in your chosen territory, how they organize the company's activities in the community. Study the style of their communication with subscribers, the activities they conduct, the content they post, determine what allows them to constantly maintain the interest of users. Armed with such examples, you can make your community even better and more effective.
After that, you can safely proceed directly to the development of a strategy - a plan according to which you will work in the community. You should think over its idea, content, ways to activate users. For example, if you are doing hotel business, tell us about the most unusual hotels in the world or hold a competition for knowledge of sights.
Rubrication
To make it easier for you to gather information at the stage of creating and publishing content, make a list of topics or headings that you want to cover in advance. Please note that all of them must correspond to the concept of the strategy you have developed.
For example, for a community dedicated to wedding celebrations, you can prepare the following headings:
- Collections of wedding dresses.
- Unusual decor ideas for photo shoots.
- Councils for the organization of the celebration.
- Information about the services of the company.
- Holding weekly contests.
Before launching the community and making it available to users, post a few materials (2-3 scrolls down the screen). An empty group is unlikely to make the user want to stay and, moreover, subscribe to its updates.
Nina Istomina, community manager of online publications SEOnews and Likeni
As you fill your community with content, remember to always mix entertainment with branded content. This will allow you to increase the level of loyalty: subscribers will be grateful to you for useful and exciting publications and will perceive information about your company more positively.
Community design and functionality development
Another important condition for creating an effective community in a social network is its appearance and functionality. How these elements are implemented determines the first impression users have of your group. Let's consider each of them in more detail:
Attracting subscribers
There are several ways to achieve a constant flow to a group of visitors who will become your subscribers. Each of them has its own characteristics and specifics. Consider the most popular methods of attracting an audience to the community, which can be used in social networks such as VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Facebook.
Some users fundamentally do not want to join the community first. They definitely need to have at least 100 people in the group by the time they appear. If you think that this is your case, use offers - those who become a member of the group for a certain fee. At the same time, keep in mind that you should not expect any activity from these subscribers.
Involving the audience in the life of the group
When attracting users to the community, one should not forget about the development of their activity: interact with them, arouse interest in the company. The audience of social networks is quite categorical: if nothing happens in the group, people will leave it sooner or later. To prevent this from happening, you need to make the stay of users in the community as “alive”, exciting and useful as possible. As a result, you can not only inform or entertain the audience, but also build strong trusting relationships.
The two main components of engaging users in the life of the community are content and communications. These elements are directly interconnected: even the most intense and lively communication will not help you achieve results if the filling of the group is useless, and vice versa.
Let's take a closer look at each of these components.
Content preparation
In order for subscribers to be interested in watching updates in your community, its content must meet the following requirements:
- Relevance. People like to receive only the latest news, find out what they have not heard about before, discuss what is in this moment is at the peak of its popularity. Remember, for example, Eurovision 2014, or rather, the winner of this competition: the very next day, social media feeds were filled with discussions, photos and reposts on this topic. You can choose any fresh event - holidays, events, even weather conditions. The main thing is to think about how to connect your brand with it. Of course, if your community is dedicated baby food, memes with a "bearded singer" are unlikely to help attract the attention of the audience.
Here good example how you can use an event that, at first glance, has nothing to do with the topic of your community, to create relevant content: in March 2013, snow continued for several days, which was actively discussed on the pages different groups in social networks. The following post was posted in the official community of Avtopassage Premium on Facebook:
This publication was vigorously discussed by the group members, as a result of which it was possible not only to increase activity, but also to receive feedback on the company's products.
- Influence on the emotions of the audience. The content that you post in the community should be close to your subscribers, and the topics you touch on should encourage them to think, not leave them indifferent. The figure below shows that a similar post in the Wella VKontakte community aroused the interest of the participants. They voted with pleasure and spoke on the proposed topic.
- Branding. In the community, you represent your company first and foremost, so don't forget about branding when creating and posting content. Do not forget that publications with a mention of the brand must be alternated with entertaining ones!
Try to demonstrate the best sides products of your company, its advantages, uniqueness and individuality. This content option serves not only as a means of creating activity, but also aims to draw the attention of users to your products.
You can demonstrate the evolution of your product. The community consists of people who are obviously interested in this topic. They will be happy to participate in the discussion of such a post, perhaps share it with friends who can also become your subscribers.
If your company logo has changed since its inception, you can also illustrate this and use this information to increase the activity of subscribers.
By posting branded content, you can have an advertising impact on your audience. For example, as in the figure below:
Also talk about unique offers your company and demonstrate the value of the product.
This will allow you to find out the opinion of the audience and identify the need for these products among users.
- Quality design. Of course, the text is an important part of the content in the community, but its visualization also plays a significant role here. As a rule, users do not have the habit of logging into the community each time to view its updates. To do this, they use the news feed, and this is a real competitive environment in which your publication must stand out from the rest. Illustrations are the best way to draw users' attention to your post. Here are a few simple recommendations to help you choose images to post to your community:
- Variety of forms of interaction. And finally, when creating content, do not forget about the different ways of presenting information. You should not constantly publish standard posts like “picture + question”. It is important to diversify them, to provide the audience with the opportunity to participate not only in discussions of a topic, but also in other activities.
Contests are very popular these days. Before they are announced to the community, the goal (for example, promoting a new product or raising awareness) must be determined and the rules must be approved.
It is necessary to describe in detail the rules of the competition, arrange them as a separate document and post them in the community so that users can easily find it and familiarize themselves with the content. It is possible that among your subscribers there are so-called "prize hunters" who can ask tricky questions and look for an excuse to receive an undeserved reward. If this happens, you can always justify your actions by demonstrating the rules of the contest.
There are the following methods of holding contests and sweepstakes in communities:
Communication with the audience
As we have already noted, in addition to the quality content of the group, another significant factor on the path to success in the social network is communication with subscribers.
When communicating with an audience in a community, always follow the following rules behaviors:
By following these rules, you will be able to organize competent communications with community members. Together with quality content, they will become effective tool in the development of the group and will help win the heart of even the most skeptical user.
Do not forget that all of the above tools are recommended to be used in combination. Only in this way can you achieve the desired result. Surprise subscribers, give them more useful information and make every day of their time in the community exciting. Of course, this can take a lot of time and resources, so you can turn to professionals for help.
SMM - for outsourcing: when to use "heavy artillery"?
As a rule, in publications on the topic of SMM, one can find recommendations that the company should be promoted in social media by an employee specially allocated for this purpose, or even better, by a separate working group. Such advice is not without meaning, but in reality they are not followed by everyone and not always.
Practice shows that often, especially in early stages SMM-promotions, enterprises are engaged in corporate communities on a residual basis between other, more important, matters. And this is quite enough to declare your presence in social media. But not more. If you really want to strengthen audience loyalty, increase company/brand awareness, effectively generate leads, increase the flow of visitors to the site, that is, get all the SMM benefits that are written and talked about, you will have to take promotion in networks more responsibly and on a large scale.
Of course, large corporations - the "whales" of the market - can afford a full-time professional SMM team, but most companies follow a very reasonable principle "I leave for myself what I can do better than others, I transfer to an external performer what he does better than others." This means that the time has come to use the "heavy artillery" - to outsource SMM promotion.
Outsourcing (from the English outer-source-using - the use of an external source / resource) is the contractual involvement of third-party organizations, the use of external resources to achieve one's own goals.
Outsourcing is convenient and beneficial for a number of main reasons, such as:
- The contractor has the opportunity to specialize in a narrow area of services, has necessary resources and technology, which has a positive effect on the time and quality of work.
- An external contractor has experience of cooperation with many clients, therefore, he has the opportunity to test and select the most effective methods to solve diversified tasks.
- The customer saves on the maintenance of a staff unit, staff training, organization of jobs, saves the time of its employees and resources for solving other business problems.
- Cooperation with an outsourcing company is protected financially and legally: in case of non-fulfillment of obligations by the contractor, the client has the right to demand compensation for losses.
Of course, there is also the other side of the coin. The disadvantages of outsourcing can be associated with difficulties in choosing an adequate contractor, as well as with possible problems in communications between the customer and the contractor. However, these issues are completely solvable. In our book, we will tell you how to avoid the cons and take advantage of all the advantages of outsourcing in the field of SMM.
VS freelance company
So, when the fundamental issue of transferring SMM to an external contractor is resolved positively, another one comes to replace it: who will do it?
There are a lot of specialized companies in the Internet marketing services market, and even more freelancers. Whom to prefer? The correct answer depends primarily on the needs and desires of the client.
Sooner or later, we all find ourselves in the role of a customer of services (no matter what) and, in general, we want the same thing:
- solve a certain problem, avoiding difficulties, discomfort;
- get a quality product;
- pay a reasonable price in accordance with the services received;
- control the execution process. (it doesn't matter if we want to use this opportunity in the future or not)
Let's compare the work of an agency and a freelancer, based on the above desires.
| Large SMM agencies * | Freelancer / group of freelancers | |
|---|---|---|
| Efficiency | A streamlined production process, professional, technical and personnel capabilities of a large agency allow us to successfully solve problems of any scale and complexity. | Freelance services are a suitable option for small companies, conducting irregular work with social networks. |
| Quality |
|
|
| Saving money | Services professional agency not cheap. However, here we can talk about economic benefits:
|
The cost of the work of "free" specialists is indeed lower than the market average, but a high-class pro (if you are lucky enough to find one) will ask for a little less than the agency. Also here it is necessary to correlate the price and the real set of services that you will receive for it. |
| Control |
|
You can negotiate with the contractor to provide reporting, but there is a risk of getting superficial information that does not fully reflect the progress of the campaign. This is due to the fact that analytics in SMM requires a lot of time and work. In addition, it is most often difficult for a client to track the ways in which promotion is carried out, it is difficult to call the contractor to account in case of poor-quality work. |
* Considering the work of the agency, we take into account the major, established representatives of the industry. SMM agencies that have appeared recently or are still in a “small” format are, in fact, closer to freelance groups. Among such companies you can find truly professional performers, but the risk of error for the client is very high.
Next, you should focus on your specific needs, desires and opportunities. We hope that you will choose to work with a professional company as an option that provides greater stability, efficiency and transparency. The guidelines for choosing an agency, which you will find in the next chapter, are quite universal, no matter what decision you make.
Choosing an online agency to conduct an SMM campaign is a responsible process, since you are buying a complex marketing product. The reputation of your business in social networks directly depends on its quality. Therefore, it is important to prepare for this step, determine priorities in the choice, take into account a whole range of factors.
1. Prepare background information
In order to choose the right team, to quickly reach mutual understanding during negotiations with the agency, you need to prepare the initial information. To do this, it is enough to answer only 4 questions.
To what extent is SMM promotion suitable for your business area?
Social media promotion is more suitable for such industries as, for example, automobiles, clothing and footwear, entertainment, restaurants, hospitality and tourism, food and beverages, Appliances, design, decor, etc. These are areas that people encounter in everyday life, so they are ready to discuss such topics on social networks, share information and receive it.
But what if your products and services are far from the above areas (highly specialized, B2B)? This means that more creativity, non-standard solutions in content development and promotion strategy will be required - this will need to be remembered when choosing an SMM team.
What do you want to improve with SMM?
Internet marketers tirelessly repeat that SMM is not a direct sales channel. Promotion in social networks is primarily aimed at strengthening audience loyalty, increasing company/brand awareness, etc. In order not to be disappointed in SMM, it is necessary to set the right, conscious and specific goals (the “SMM Tutorial” will help you understand the specifics of promotion in social media).
What makes your company different from competitors?
The idea is not to announce your prices and assortment, but to stand out - to find such distinctive features of your company or product that people in social communities will really be interested in. For example, Zepter Russia took for the basis of its Facebook page the idea of what to healthy lifestyle life is very fun and enjoyable, especially with the company's products.
What is your target audience?
The worst answers to this question are “Many people buy our product” or “We have a wide range of customers.” A clear understanding of the target audience - average age, gender, occupation, etc. – will help your contractor develop the most effective promotion strategy, select the most suitable sites, and generate the right content.
Seriously considering the proposed questions, you will become the owner background information sufficient to be accepted by representatives of the contracting company, and you, in turn, could appreciate their professional approach.
So, having turned to search engines, having looked at the ratings of digital companies, you have compiled a preliminary list of candidates and are ready to choose an outsourcing company. According to what criteria to do this, what to pay attention to?
2. Study the portfolio of the outsourcing company
First of all, you should familiarize yourself with the experience of the agency in holding events of the scale you need. An analysis of successful cases, as well as communities implemented by the agency, which you consider close to the result you need, will help evaluate the work of an outsourcer.
The experience of the contractor is evidenced by the recommendations of former and / or current clients, and it is useful not only to get acquainted with their projects, but also to communicate personally. Recommendations are not yet a guarantee of your success, but they will help you understand the specifics of interaction with the chosen agency.
As paradoxical as it sounds, you should not unconditionally rely on reviews about a potential contractor on the Internet, in particular in social media. Clients who own successful SMM campaigns, as a rule, do not publicize the features of their promotion. Negative Feedback may be the result of "black PR" from competitors and ill-wishers.
Determine how deeply the agency is willing to understand the goals and features of the project
During the negotiation process, pay attention to how actively the representatives of the agency ask questions, clarify details, how detailed information ask about campaign goals, brand values, overall strategy, market characteristics, target audience, etc. If the questions of potential performers are few, superficial or absent at all, you risk getting "inanimate" communities filled with officialdom. The task of the agency is to organize unobtrusive communication of the brand with the audience, based on its interests. To do this, real professionals will try to study both of them in as much detail as possible.
Evaluate direct performers
By outsourcing SMM promotion, you hand over the image of your company to quite specific people - agency specialists. Therefore, it is worth assessing whether they have enough experience and competencies? Will the agency have to hire additional staff for your project?
Through the search engine, you can easily find out if the contractor's specialists participate in professional events: competitions, exhibitions, conferences, whether they have publications - this will be evidence of their professional growth, credibility among colleagues in the industry.
If you cannot do without hiring or transferring part of the campaign to third parties, discuss all the details of this step with the agency in advance. (including asking how well the contractor's headhunters work)
Evaluate the transparency of the agency's work
Most of the misunderstandings that arise in the course of cooperation between the customer and the contractor are related to the problem of control and reporting. In a trustworthy company, they will definitely explain to you exactly how the work of the agency is built, who and what will be done to promote your business in social media, how control, reporting, and communication between the customer and the contractor are carried out. Don't be afraid to ask questions!
How much is popularity
The cost of services and transparency of pricing is an important criterion that affects the decision of the customer when choosing a contractor. You, as a client, have the right to know how much and for what you will pay, whether the budget is optimized to the maximum. In this chapter, we will tell you what the cost of SMM promotion is, what it consists of, how to control costs and avoid miscalculations.
We have already said that outsourcing SMM is cost-effective, especially in the long term. However, the cost savings are not at all due to the symbolic payment to the contractor. Hiring an external contractor, the company wants to use the services of professionals. according to the laws of the market and common sense The work of highly qualified specialists cannot be cheap.
An offer with prices of less than 100 thousand rubles is a fact that is more alarming than encouraging an immediate conclusion of a contract.
Pay attention to what pricing principle the agency uses!
Price list principle
Like any customer, you will want to see the price list. Some agencies do just that: they use a standard price list, in which each service has a cost (or a price fork). As a rule, there is also a well-established system of discounts for the amount of work.
However, it is difficult to unify the costs of SMM, since in each case it is necessary to take into account many factors: specific tasks, the specifics of the industry, the activity of competitors, the level of brand awareness and audience loyalty. Accordingly, prices can be standardized in two ways: either when providing a service, do not take into account the specifics of the business, but limit yourself to template, universal solutions, or include a marginal cost in the price. As a result, such an attempt at standardization leads to the fact that the client either loses in the quality of services or overpays.
Calculation principle
This approach is the most constructive: the agency calculates all the costs that will be required as part of the campaign, takes into account its profit and forms the final cost. This happens according to the following scheme:
- Client request. At this stage, the client provides a request - the very preliminary strategy, the basic information that we talked about in the first chapter.
- Brief filling. Based on the request, the agency draws up a brief - a technical task of a conciliatory nature between the client and the contractor. It contains points, the completion of which gives the contractor the opportunity to understand in detail what and in what form the client wants to receive in the end.
- Formation and justification of the budget. At this stage, a budget is formed, in which all expenditure items are laid down with their justification. What exactly makes up the price for the services of an SMM agency, we will tell you a little lower.
- Coordination of the budget with the client. The client studies the budget, asks questions, makes adjustments.
So, in the case of calculating the cost of promotion according to the principle of costing, you get a detailed budget layout that allows you to understand how justified the costs are, whether it is possible to optimize them.
What is the budget for an SMM campaign
There are several main items that make up the budget for promotion in social media.
- Direct costs. This includes paying for advertising sites, working with targeted advertising systems, and the cost of organizing events for opinion leaders (users with authority on social networks). As a rule, this is the most expensive item in the budget. If the performer declares a low budget with high performance indicators, there is reason to be wary: promotion without direct costs may indicate the use of "black" methods, for example, the use of bots (profiles of non-existent people that are created specifically to be added to different communities for cheating numbers; naturally, they will not read the news, press likes and leave comments).
- Labor costs. This line provides for the remuneration of specialists who participate in the work on the project (we will tell you more about the composition of the participants in the process below). This should take into account the time that a particular specialist spent specifically on your project.
- agency profit. Would you agree to run a business without expecting to make a profit? Social media marketing is a relatively young industry, therefore, instead of the usual 10–15% margin for advertising and PR agencies, the profit of an SMM agency fluctuates at the level of 20–40%. In addition, the agency's expenses for the resources spent on the project, specialists who are indirectly involved in this work (lawyers, accountants, etc.) are covered from the profit.
The final amount of the contract largely depends on the features advertising campaign, its degree of complexity. To avoid financial "surprises", discuss all the details of the project with your contractor in advance. Agencies aimed at obtaining results, and not just profit, practice an individual approach to their clients - they take into account the nuances of a particular project, offer ways to optimize costs.
You should show your interest in the process and the result: ask questions, delve into the details. And so that you have an idea of what to ask your potential contractor, we will conduct a detailed tour of internal organization and the work of a large SMM agency. This information will help you build a productive relationship with the performer, which will undoubtedly benefit all participants in the SMM promotion.
Very often, customers and employees of the SMM agency deal with mutual false promises, as a result of which misunderstandings often arise. To exclude this, you need to carefully consider the choice of the artist and know some of the features.
Training
Before contacting an SMM agency, formulate certain tasks that will be assigned to the contractor. The presence of a strategy and specific goals ensures that the desired result is obtained and greatly simplifies the control of the work performed. The better the tasks are formulated, the easier it will be to understand and offer the most suitable option for you. Approach in the spirit: do something unusual and cheaper - absolutely wrong.
In addition, you should think about the distinguishing features among competitors, weaknesses and the audience to which the interaction will be directed. Experienced and professional specialists be sure to clarify these points for a quality result. Be sure to think about the answers to these questions. In their absence, you should be wary.
What to look out for
Choosing an SMM agency is far from the same as buying a loaf of bread. You acquire a marketing product that will significantly affect the success of the company. If you are not particularly versed in SMM, then the following criteria will help you make the right choice.
- Check out the portfolio first. Read customer reviews and comments, find out their contacts and chat. Familiarize yourself with the work and evaluate its result, activity in a group or community. It is desirable that the agency already has experience in a similar field. Examine work similar to the expected result. It's a good idea to get referrals from former or existing clients of the company. Study the activity in your own communities, read reviews on the Internet.
- At the stage of acquaintance, pay attention to the interest of the agency, the willingness to delve into your tasks and the specifics of the market. Employees should be treated informally. In the absence of questions about the specifics of the brand, target audience and other things, you should think about it.
- A professional SMM agency will, of course, listen to your tasks and get acquainted with the specifics, but this is not enough. After that, they will definitely tell you which metrics will be the most profitable. Achievement Metrics is a term that defines the key performance indicators and KPIs that best suit your brand. If you have never listened to what types of work will increase the efficiency of the project, then most likely your budget will be spent, and the result will not fully meet the objectives.
It is important to prioritize correctly. Make a choice not on the wrapper, but deliberately. Work for results distinguishing feature professional SMM agency
SMM agency is a fairly common business in our time. Since there is a demand for SMM agencies, there are also offers. Every day a new agency opens and every day someone closes, unable to withstand the competition. How to choose a reliable SMM agency in this market of SMM services, not to fall for scammers, but to get a good result for an affordable price? This is what our article is about today.
Types of SMM agencies
SMM agencies are different. Someone is engaged in websites and, a little, promotion in social networks (the service is popular). Someone is engaged in mass following and already calls itself an SMM agency. And someone generally takes all orders from tenders and works with millions of budgets, closing the entire range of work in digital marketing. So, here are the types of SMM agencies that I highlight:
1. Single freelancer. To make matters worse, a freelancer who works alone can call themselves an SMM agency. As a rule, freelancers do not have a legal entity. Yes 🙂
2. Freelancer with a team. When a freelancer develops delegation skills, he hires more freelancers to join his team. Gives them orders at% from each order. In other words, it is a team of professionals, each working for himself. Here, as in paragraph 1, in most cases there is no legal entity. But there are also such specialists who have already issued an IP for themselves and work officially. As a rule, such an agency works remotely, without an office.
3. Mini SMM agency. When the specialist gets sufficient flow applications and makes good results - customers continue to cooperate. There are resources for development in the office. This group includes a small agency with employees working in the company's office in some city. The number of people is from 3 to 20. There is usually entity, accountant. We also belong to this type of agency. We have 8 people in our office, including an accountant. We work under the contract with clients all over the world.
4. Large SMM agency. When an agency begins to expand its services to full cycle digital marketing, it turns into a "bidding agency" (when most orders are received from tenders). The staff of the company can include 50 and 300 or more people. With branches in different cities and countries.
How to choose an SMM agency?
In order to choose an SMM agency, you need:
1. Decide on an advertising budget, which you are ready to allocate to promote your business.
The cost of work and the choice of the type of SMM agency depend on the advertising budget. If the budget is small, then you should not aim at top agencies with the desire to hear an inexpensive price tag from them.
2. Choose the type of agency. Freelancing will cost less, the rest will cost more.
3. Study reviews and case studies of the agency. In order to understand what the agency specializes in, what results it achieves and which companies trust it with their budgets, be sure to look at reviews and cases.
4. Examine the agency leader's reputation. Naturally, this item is not suitable for top agencies. It has its own directors and managers, but the owner may be different. Yes, and ... tenders)
5. Level of expertise. Often, an entrepreneur does not know which social network he needs to promote in the first place. In this case, he asks this question to the SMM agency. And this is how the agency manager substantiates his proposal - this is important. Many take clients to a specific social network in order to get more% from the advertising budget, and not so that you can make a result in this social network.
6. Reporting and work process. Always ask how your project will be reported. On which days, what exactly will be in the report? Request a sample report.
7. Agreement. I recommend always signing a contract. Experience shows that this is better than nothing. Yes, and you will be sure that you will not be thrown.
8. Result. In the agency cases, look at what is considered a result. 1 application for 1000 rubles or 500 applications for 300 rubles? It is important.
Here is a short list of all important points, which must be considered when choosing an SMM agency. Do not forget that you do not need to build illusions of cheap cost of services and gorgeous results. A miser, as they say, pays twice.
You can see more useful articles and our cases on the website of our agency.
Several useful tips for newbies
Today it is difficult to find a business that does not have its own representation in social networks or at least does not consider such a promotion option. There are many reasons for this, the most important of which is the ability to reach specific segments of the target audience. In addition, in recent years, social networks have introduced a lot of new tools, for example, for creating shopping windows or booking tickets, and continue to develop systematically. Today we will tell you what to do if using SMM seems appropriate to you, but you have no idea how to choose who will put this locomotive on the rails and will drive it.
Agency or freelancer?
Let's consider both options.
Benefits of contacting a private individual:
Price. The main reason why freelancers are chosen over agencies is the lower price tag, plus the willingness to work with almost any budget.
Flexibility. Freelancers, as a rule, do not rely on complex infrastructure in their work and are ready to adapt to the specifics and "wishlist" of their customers
Benefits of using an agency:
reputation baggage. A business with a long history, as a rule, is kind to the accumulated reputation and strives in every possible way to ensure that all customers are satisfied.
Transparency. It is usually easier to "break through" an agency for cases and real reviews than freelancers
Regular reporting. Usually this item is already available by default in the internal regulations of digital agencies.
Replacement of employees. For example, in case of illness of your manager, another one will replace him for a while, which reduces the likelihood of deadlines being missed due to the human factor
Criterias of choice
Regardless of whether you are looking for an agency or a freelancer, pay attention to the following points:
Specialization. It is important that for the contractor SMM is not an applied activity, but one of the main services. Agree, it is difficult to learn how to build houses and treat arthritis equally well, especially in a short time, and for the sake of one client.
An experience. Despite the fact that the SMM services market is relatively young, it is better to choose specialists with 3-5 years of experience. social media, like new car, you need to feel, understand how they react to certain actions, literally at the cellular level to feel the characteristics of their audiences. One or two years is not enough
Achievements. As a rule, the effectiveness of the work of SMM specialists is evaluated in terms of KPIs initially approved with the customer. The KPI can be: the number of subscribers, the number of likes/shares to posts, the number of tickets booked or promo codes sold, etc. Do not be lazy, study the cases of the future contractor, find out how he himself describes his successes. Usually, if there is something to be proud of, agencies post such cases on their own websites.
Client pool. The larger and better known brand- the higher the probability that the candidate you have chosen has high expertise. But it should be borne in mind that some agencies tend to embellish reality a little and add to the list of clients even those who were provided with very tiny, one-time services.
Own pages in social networks. Everyone remembers the saying about the shoemaker and boots? Given that the SMM business cannot boast of high margins, many performers (especially freelancers) do not have the resources (and sometimes the need) to regularly update their own pages. However, studying them will help you get an initial idea about the performer.
Reviews. It is important not only to understand the ratio of positive / negative reviews. Ideally, you should ask former clients for details: was it easy for them to communicate with the contractor, "did he disappear from the radar", were there any problems with accepting work, etc.
Budgets and services
Agencies and freelancers tend to have two different scenarios. The former often sell services in the form of ready-made packages, freelancers are more inclined to form individual ones, for a specific customer. According to experts, the average minimum budget that agencies are willing to work with is 25,000-40,000 rubles per month, freelancers - 5,000-10,000.
All agencies are conditionally divided into five price segments: Economy (budgets can be less than 25,000), Low (25,000-50,000), Medium (50,000-100,000), High (100,000 - 150,000) and Premium (over 150 000).
It is important not to confuse budgets and the cost of services, since in the first case it may mean not only the cost of the work done, but also the amount of money spent on promoting pages / posts (that is, paid to social networks).
The size of the budget primarily depends on the set of actions that need to be taken, as well as on the subject of the business and the characteristics of the target audience of the client.
A slightly less important factor is the geographical location of the SMM contractor. It is logical that the services of a Moscow specialist will cost more than, say, in Voronezh.
The minimum package, as a rule, contains the most basic services:
Content plan development
15-30 publications (posts) per month
Report on the work done / achieved KPIs
In more expensive packages (from 40,000-60,000 rubles per month and above), the following options may be found:
Visual design of pages
Dealing with negative feedback
Mass following
Video promotion (in particular - on YouTube)
Content branding (watermarks on photos, unique hashtags, etc.)
Virus crops on third-party sites, etc.
What to ask at a meeting
Before we tell you exactly where to look for contractors, we suggest that you study one more small cheat sheet.
What you should learn from the contractor already during a detailed discussion of the project and what to pay attention to at the first meeting:
Fix for yourself - whether the future contractor has prepared for a meeting with you. A good sign if he tried to form his own opinion about the future project the day before, studied the current state of affairs (found your pages, made appropriate notes)
Try to understand if the contractor keeps abreast of the industry. In SMM, as in SEO, the rules of the game change quite often, so it is extremely important to find an artist who regularly monitors trends and innovations. Don't know how to phrase a question - just ask about latest changes in social media algorithms and what it has affected. If you are immediately told about what has changed over the past year - great
If you contacted an agency, find out if you will have access to a direct contractor. This can greatly simplify life in case of urgent tasks.
Ask what kind of achievements the future contractor considers the most significant. As a rule, creativity is less important for business, statistics is more important. If the performer speaks exclusively in categories from the series "beautiful" and "unusual" - this is an alarming bell. Any creative is good only if it works, and if it worked, then where are the indicators?
Where to look for contractors
Systematized information about agencies can be found in the directory of SMM agencies. Company cards contain a wide variety of data: from location and specialization to rates and received professional awards.
Those who find it difficult to make a choice in this way can be advised to hold a tender. To do this, you need to fill out a special form. Ideally, if at the step "Tell me more about the task" you not only insert a description of the project, but also your personal requirements for the customer (for example, his physical presence in your city, experience with specific social networks or topics, what you represent, etc. .).
After that, it remains only to wait a couple of weeks (usually the organizers of the tenders set the date for summing up 2-3 weeks after the start of accepting applications) and then you can choose whose competitive application is more suitable for your task and financial capabilities.
