How Much Does it Cost to Carry Out a Social Network Strategy and to Hire a Community Manager?

by Miguel Angel Tolsa Miguel Angel Tolsa | Dec 6, 2018 12:00:00 PM

 

 

Since 2011, different types of companies have approached to us looking for a solution for "the administration of our Social Networks" or to have us put at their disposal a Community Manager to manage their accounts. Is this what best suits your needs? Will it really help meeting the goals and objectives of your company?

The use given to Social Networks grows with the passing of years and always gets improved. It increasingly demands a more serious and professional dedication (if it hadn't yet been carried out in this way).

community manager and marketing strategy We made a list of some important issues that we believe you should take into account before hiring any agency or person to perform this task:

  • Strategy comes first
  • Do you need a Community Manager?
  • Does it have to be "In-House"?

 

Strategy Comes First

What you first need to keep in mind is the strategy that you will follow. It should keep in mind:

  • The analysis of your potential clients or Buyer Personas
  • A Content Marketing strategy
  • An editorial calendar
  • A monthly analysis of the content that worked and didn't work in order to keep doing what has been working and abandon what hasn't
  • Metrics to define if our content improves and increases the number of visitors that turn into prospects and prospects that turn into clients
  • The development of a prospect assessment system that would help us know if prospect is ready to be assigned to the sales department or not

The development of a serious and wholesome Social Networks strategy could start from $ 15,000 MXN pesos and up to $ 70,000 MXN pesos.

Do You Need a Community Manager?

community managers are necessary?

 

social network and community managerI've been keeping record of some serious mistakes that Community Managers make for some time. This mistakes have affected the accounts of the companies for which they work for. For instance, messages that they considered to be funny but turn out to hurt people's feeling or derived into communication crises, being some of them very big crises! (like the case of KLM in the game of Holland against Mexico). Based on this, we must ask ourselves, What for do companies need a Community Manager?
 
 
  • To be present in the social networks
  • So people know your brand
  • To grow your community
  • To give an answer to your client's and prospect's questions or queries

But most of all: to ATTRACT visitors to your web site; to give them some direction so they CONVERT into potential clients; to increase the number clients that you CLOSE and; to DELIGHT those clients you already have.

waste of marketing resources

I suppose that this offers endless possibilities and opportunities both for people who dedicate themselves -or want to dedicate themselves- to these taks, as well as for the companies that employ them.

Which is why in DataBranding, we'd rather talk about Lead Manager. A Lead Manager is a person in charge of a project whose main function is to manage prospects or potential clients. He segments these clients creates campaigns that help them educate themselves on your brand, so that they get truly convinced of the products or services that you offer. Finally, they make a rating of each client in order to decide if they are ready for the purchase.

Radical examples: like the case of OfficeMax Mexico. I can't help thinking about their waste of resources and time by employing an agency or a person dedicated to publish content that lacks the strength to:

  • Address problems
  • Provide solutions
  • Grow a brand's presence
  • Follow a marketing strategy
  • Generate customers

The costs in Mexico for a Community Manager can range from $ 3,000 pesos (usually a recently graduated student who offers his services and is given several accounts to manage) to being a part of an agency or charge a full-time salary that of about $ 30,000 pesos.

Does it have to be In-House?

The following question arises now: Can someone represent my company in the Social Networks? The answer we love to give is: It depends.

We know that learning the way of saying something as a company says it, can be a easy-to-learn task that might even take a short time to learn. But what about generating interesting content (or Premium Content)? Content that would answers the questions of customers and prospects in a clear way and that would help them to move forward in their buying process? That takes a lot more time.

For example, we only provide the Lead Manager service to companies that have decided to work with us in a Full-service mode. Why? because that is the only way we can include in our work team a person who depends on us but who works "in house " as well. This person should be totally in the knowledge of the world and ways of each company or institution. What would an agency or a person that knows nothing about your products or your services could actually do for you?

Can you train someone from your company to do this job? Of course you can. That person can learn -with the help of proper training- all the tasks needed in order to:

  • Segment clients
  • Develop campaigns
  • Create the content that each client needs
  • Evaluate prospects in order to decide if they are ready to be transferred to the sales department or if they still need more information that would help them make a decision


As a conclusion, I'll use the example of having a gym routine in order to lose weight. Can you hire someone to lose weight for you? Obviously not. Now make all the changes needed in order to make this example work for our Social Networks situation. It is always better when each company handles its own power in order to turn it into a powerful support for the Marketing and Sales departments. Besides, this also helps reducing a considerable percentage of the investment, increasing efficiency and improving Return on Investment. 

 

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