I've watched a few webinars and read some articles lately that have suggested against hiring a social media professional to run your company social media profiles. For the most part, the reasoning behind that is to keep your profile personalized and authentic. While I understand that, these are some reasons you SHOULD hire a professional. Social media professionals will learn your company "voice" and create messaging to match that. Social media professionals have to stay on top of all the changes that are constantly happening. While you are working on your business, we know how the algorithms are changing, what new tools are available, and how these changes may affect your strategy. Which brings me to my next point. Rather than posting randomly, social media professionals will create a strategy to maximize your efforts. Social media professionals have tactics to increase your potential reach, without necessarily having to pay hundreds of dollars per month on ads. Social media professionals are able to create a fine balance between promotional, personal, informational, and entertaining posts. One thing I encourage my clients to do is to be involved in the process. I've found that, while I can do all the research and create all the content, the most effective campaigns have always been the ones where the client shares company happenings with me so I can create more personalized content. They do their part to engage with their own business pages. My suggestion to business owners is this, hire a professional and stay involved. If you have questions about social media, email me at paola@socialmediaampd.net

2. Side by Side Comparison
AMP’d Client
4% engagement
Local Competitor
.02% engagement

3. Side by Side Comparison
AMP’d Client
2.5% engagement
Local Competitor
0.65% engagement

4. Side by Side Comparison
AMP’d Client
3.23% engagement
Local Competitor
1.56% engagement

5. Side by Side Comparison
AMP’d Client
7.35% engagement
Local Competitor
.11% engagement

6. Side by Side Comparison
AMP’d Client
2.24% engagement
Local Competitor
4.9% engagement

7. Side by Side Comparison
AMP’d Client
3.5% engagement
Local Competitor
0.77% engagement

8. I used to work in real estate and when my clients were buying or selling homes, I would pull
information about other homes in the area that were comparable to the home that my client
wanted to list or buy. I decided to do something similar for my social media clients.
This is just a basic, side by side comparison of the percentage of Facebook engagement that
my clients have versus their competitors. Keep in mind that these stats are from my small
business clients. Some of the industries they are in are specialized. For instance, one is a bail
bonds and another is an audio visual company. Those industries will take more time to build
a social media following and it really takes creativity and strategy to engage their target. Their
target audience is also much smaller, than a restaurant or entertainment client's target. I'm
sure you've heard many social media professionals say "the number of followers is not quite
as important as the number of people engaged". As you will see, one of my new clients
currently has nearly 300 followers with 12 people talking, while one of his competitors has
over 4000 followers and only 1 person talking. That equates to my client's 4% engagement vs
the competitor's 0.02%. Although I can't see his competitor's analytics, in this week, my
client's reach was over 600, which is twice as many number of followers he has. That's not
bad. Now imagine if we grow his following to 4000 like his competitor. A 4% engagement
would equate to 160 people talking and a potential reach of 8000. This is why engagement is
more important than the number of followers. Even with considerably less followers, he is
still reaching far more people.

9. If you have questions about building your social media following and increasing
engagement, email me at paola@socialmediaampd.net