The world is being flooded with “social media agencies” popping up everywhere and after being in the social media game since the early days and guiding the biggest companies for 20 years we thought it would be helpful to drop a blog on why there are so many social agencies now and the impact they’re creating in the marketing industry.

First and foremost, no company is created equal in the business/social ecosystem and it’s up to you to make the most out of opportunities every day which come from hard work, running experiments to gauging predictions then being successful in the end, and so much more. Your success.

Secondly, that ties into social media marketing agencies and why they’re so prevalent now along with how to identify the good, bad and the ugly (OG movie reference). Essentially, cutting through the smoke and mirrors to identify the difference between what someone tells you they’re going to do (speculative) versus what they’ve done in the past (demonstrable).

There are common questions we are asked around social media agencies and how to choose the best given our experience and track record, and we want to hit on a few recent inquiries below:

Why are there so many social media agencies today?
Nowadays anyone can create an online presence within a day, including setting up a business, launching a website to promote products/services and the other simple things needed to get stuff going. And we saw that take place years ago where ghost kitchens really took off. Similarly, a majority of social media agencies operate in the same way where it’s easy now to launch a site and sell marketing services though newbies don’t typically produce in the end.

Expanding internal social media marketing teams vs outside resources?
Nowadays everyone is a social media expert and many times your neighbor’s friend maybe isn’t the best solution, and whether looking at startups or Fortune 500 companies the most important thing is the teams themselves; particularly their knowledge/experience. And if the internal resources aren’t there, bring in a consultant to get you on track.

What are the benefits of hiring a social media consultant?
The benefits of hiring a social media consultant, marketing consultant or anyone else that can provide expertise to help you in your life/business will be beneficial in the end, but you first have to identify what you truly need help with then pull the trigger on that.

How to find the best social media marketing agency?
This is an ongoing question we’ve been asked for 15+ years and we’ve also seen the metrics shift over time where a social media agency that was that best in 2015 maybe isn’t relevant today because they don’t understand how AI algorithms work now.

The above questions are a fraction of the big picture we’re looking at, though exciting at the same time, and we’ll be sharing more soon…