Working With a Social Media Agency FAQ
How do you charge for your social media management services?
We work with clients on a monthly retainer system. After meeting with you and determining your social media needs, goals, expectations and the level of support you're looking for, we'll send you a package with a monthly price. This price is based on the number of hours we expect to spend in a given month to complete the work. We do not track hours spent and our price does not go up or down based on more or fewer hours spent on your project. Each month, you will receive an automated invoice for exactly the amount to which you've agreed. More: How Much Does it Cost to Hire a Social Media Agency?
Can I approve every post that is sent?
For this business relationship to work, we need you to trust us. We will be working with you closely to produce content, but we will also be engaging with your audience on an ad hoc basis. Often in Twitter a reply is required much faster than an approval can be received. The spontaneous nature of Twitter engagement would be lost if we had to wait 24 hours or more for an approval on a reply to a tweet. So, while there are new programs available that would make the pre-approval task much easier, we currently do not work with clients that require this. Most of the small businesses that come to us for help managing their social media presence are looking for someone to take over the lion's share of the work, and they really don't want to have much to do with it as long as they're seeing results.
Why should we work with Twirp instead of Company XYZ?
Maybe you shouldn't. We are not the best fit for every small business out there. We excel at working with semi-national chains and retail operations with multiple locations. We understand how to market to women and parents. We are not your best choice for marketing industrial widgets, pharmaceuticals, or other highly specialized products that require a lot of unique knowledge.
Head Twirp, Anita Kirkbride, has a Bachelor of Public Relations (1997) from Mount Saint Vincent University. That means not only does she understand social media, she knows how to build a communications plan, write a media release, and plan for crisis contingencies. She truly does "Live on on social media so you don't have to!" With well-established accounts on major networks, Anita does this because she loves it. And she gets social media. She isn't about to put you on every network out there just because it's the thing to do...she will make sure your business is a good fit for the platforms she recommends.
Twirp Communications is acutely focused on social media services. We do not offer general marketing, graphic design, web design or search engine optimization. While we may be able to refer you to great people for this, and we may have some advice and experience with some of these, we are too busy keeping up with social media to focus on other areas. We are social media specialists; not marketing generalists.
Do you do SEO? Build websites? Ghost-write blogs?
We hate to repeat something, but We are social media specialists; not marketing generalists. We can help you understand the basics of SEO and recommend some great Halifax web designers and copywriters, but no, we don't generally do this type of work. If we are managing your roster of blog writers, we may also manage the SEO for the blog posts, in conjunction with your SEO expert of choice. If a current or new client needs website advice, well, we have lots of things to say about good and bad websites, but we'll likely refer you to someone who specializes in that and help you figure out what you need. We help companies maintain their presence on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and that really keeps us quite busy.
Who else is on the Twirp Team?
It's a big debate in the small business consulting world...do you use "me" or "we"? Generally speaking Twirp is a "we" because we often do call on a select group of freelance consultants to help with projects. Whether it's an SEO expert, a copywriter for your blog or someone to help manage your enewsletter, we really do have a team out there working with our clients. And we have been known to have full-time staff as well. So, the Twirp Team varies depending on the client and project.
What type of reports will I receive?
We will work with you to develop the type of reporting that you will find most useful. Some of our clients use robust Google Analytics reports and others rely on us to send monthly engagement reports from Cloud Campaign. We will gladly send you samples of the reports we are sending to other clients and discuss the options available to you.
