Questions

Is it possible to start a Social Media Marketing Agency with not much experience in Social Media and not much money?

9answers

I have to ask why you would start an agency in an area you don't have much experience in. Perhaps you'd be better off getting at least a little experience first?


Answered 10 years ago

If you're good at social media, you really shouldn't need to advertise, so absolutely! (Okay, I'm being a little cheeky, there.)

Of course, you say you don't have much experience. In a field where things change so rapidly anyway, 5 years experience isn't necessarily better than 6 months experience, if the newbie is clever and motivated.

Obviously, learn everything you can about social media marketing. Master Hootsuite. Be able to answer questions like, "How can businesses use Vine?"

If you want to be really clever about this, put up a blog and blog your way through your learning. As you learn about how to sell on Instagram, write a blog post about it (and give credit/links where they're due!)

Transparency won't hurt you here. If I read your blog and saw that you spent the last three months teaching yourself about social media and writing about what you learned, I'd be impressed. I wouldn't care that you didn't know anything three months ago, since I really don't have time to spend three months cramming on this topic; I'd be happy for you to do that for me.

You can start working for real clients by taking on nonprofits and doing social media for them for free. Or a friend's small business, if you want. But ONLY work for free if you get permission to TALK ABOUT IT, share details, use screenshots, etc. And only work for free over a limited time.

For free work: Create a simple written agreement that says what services you'll perform over 6 weeks, or 3 months, or whatnot, and that either party can terminate during that period, and that if the pro bono engagement lasts the entire term, the client will give you a written recommendation (associated with their name and business) that you can use on your website and on LinkedIn, and you can use any other details.

At the end of the free period, the client would then have the option to continue working with you for a monthly retainer if they choose to do so; if not, you'll leave them with a short manual on how do maintain their own social media.

Also keep in mind that, in order to sell expertise, you often only need to be about two levels above who you're selling to. Social media for a major corporation may involve detailed analytics and a video production team. Social media for a church down the block may involve starting a Twitter account, explaining what Twitter is, establishing a few hashtags and getting the word out to members, and suggesting the types of things a church might want to tweet.

Boom, now you have a social media agency.


Answered 10 years ago

If you are serious about launching a social media agency, take the time to learn the various networks before you engage with any clients.

There is a great deal of information available for free on social media best practices, so yes, you can learn about social media and be knowledgeable enough to help others.

Before you allow anyone to hire you, make sure you have the basics down. Watch, listen, learn and then start engaging.

Grow your social network so you have proof of your knowledge. Prospective clients will look at your profiles to see if you have followers, you are engaged, and you have authority.

Once you're comfortable take on a few pro bono clients to test your skills. That will not only teach you some things you may have missed, it will also help give you confidence to take on clients for real money.


Answered 10 years ago

I would argue that it is definitely possible. And in my experience even sometimes a good thing to not know a whole lot about a field. But there is one thing for sure: you should have fun. And it should be interesting for you to learn.

Why do I think it's good to now know much?

If you want to build this business to be something bigger, it's an important skill to be able to outsource. If you start outsourcing right from the beginning, your margins might be smaller but on the other hand, your ability to scale the business is much better.

So go out there. Learn some things for yourself. But keep the actual work outsourced. And scale the business by getting new clients.

I have done this with an animated video business and I have helped friends to do the same with social media and website businesses as well. It's a great place to be in and definitely a field of great return.

If you want to know more about my experience or have specific questions, please feel free to reply here or request a call. I'm open for discussions and consultations.


Answered 7 years ago

Hi,
Regarding your question. Social Media Marketing is inexpensive,that's what it is meant to be. Nowadays, people find experiences through watching YouTube, blogs and several sources. However, if you want to swim,no matter how much you know about swimming,you need to jump in to learn the experience, so jump in and call Clarity when unresolvable problem arises,our experts have been through it before and will easily row you through the darkest storm. CHEERS!!!


Answered 5 years ago

What defines success for you is totally up to you. It is about what you personally need to live a happy and fulfilled life. Success is not about being perfect. It is more about knowing what you are best at and being properly aligned with your context. The level of your success in life is directly related to the stories you tell yourself. It is beneficial that you say positive stories to yourself rather than saying I have no money, or no experience are pessimistic talks, get rid of it.
Money and experience matter a little. What determines the kinds of stories you tell yourself is largely your outlook on life, whether it is optimistic or pessimistic. By thinking positively, optimists persevere and end up creating more opportunities for themselves. When you shift your explanatory style from pessimistic to optimistic you feel better and you become gritter.
To become a successful Social Media Marketing, you must understand what individuals and businesses want from your social media? For individual these are the following benefits they will look for:
1. Personal Use: Individuals can use the social media for personal reasons, which may be for keeping in touch with the latest technology, news, gossip, and happenings around the world or in their own locality. Social media is also fast replacing the traditional means of communications. Currently, it would be hard to find a person who does not use the e-mail facility to send messages to friends/colleagues and/or for official purposes or use the social media for collaboration.
2. Explore Your Creativity: The social media is available in many forms, as explained in the previous chapter. People can use this media to explore their own creativity, for example, a person who loves to write can create their own blogs and explore their writing talents. Blogs are the best way for individuals to express themselves, their views, and opinions on any and all subjects. In this manner, a person can establish their expertise in their particular niche subject by using the blog effectively. There are several other writing platforms that allow people to submit content on their site and reward them in different ways. Due to the very nature of social media it is easy to reach a large audience and find an interested readership.
3. Social Interaction: Human beings love to socialise and interact with each other. The social media enables people to interact with each other using the highly accessible and scalable communication techniques that are available today, in the form of websites and the mobile phones.
4. Get Empowered: The social media has succeeded in putting the power back into the consumer’s hands. As mentioned in the paragraph above, any individual can have a “social influence” by virtue of his/her social interactions on the web or via mobile technologies.
Social media has opened up new avenues for people to engage with each other and with the content available on the Internet. The social interaction of the yore, severely restricted by various boundaries, has now been taken online, opening up a world of new possibilities. The popularity of Smart phones has added yet another very lucrative avenue for all businesses to engage directly with their target audiences via the mobile messaging apps and has helped to improve their marketing strategies remarkably.
Social media offers opportunities to a business to connect and engage with its customers, build long lasting valuable relationships, generate new leads, build awareness, educate people and above all manage reputation.

There are hosts of benefits, for businesses, of participating in the social media. Non-participation on the other hand could be eating away your market share and reputation. Given below are some of the principle benefits of social media for businesses. They are as follows: -
1. Online Branding: Every business wants to be known as a brand, which is, in effect, its “identity” that may be represented by a name, logo, colour schemes or the tag line. But the term “branding” goes much beyond just these and is in fact a culmination of the individual “identity” of the business, how it differs from its competitors and why a buyer should come to it.
2. Marketing: Social Media Marketing is the way businesses and non-profit organisations use the social media effectively to build relationships through trust, useful content, helpfulness, and authority.
3. Building Relationships: For a business to be successful it needs satisfied customers, and for a customer to be satisfied they need good customer care and service. A satisfied customer is a loyal customer. So how can a business provide good customer service, care or support?
4. Word-of Mouth / Networking: Social Media is the new Word-of-Mouth. Since people are all inter-connected with each other, a small mention in any of your audience’s profile goes a long way in spreading the word about your business/product. Let your customers become your marketing agents.
5. Online Reputation Management: “The practice of monitoring the Internet reputation of a person, brand or business, with the goal of suppressing negative mentions entirely or pushing them lower on search engine results pages to decrease their visibility is known as online reputation management (ORM).”
6. Community Building: A company or business can use the social media to build a community around its products/business. Vibrant communities create loyalty and encourage discussions, which can contribute towards business development and improvement.
7. Lending a Human Face to the Business: More and more customers are sick of the marketing jargon and are not comfortable dealing with faceless businesses. People like to deal with people and participation in social media helps to lend a face to your business.
Now once you have a clear vision of what individuals and businesses want from you, you are halfway there. Let us look at the essential steps to excel in the arena of social media marketing:
1. Install Web Analytics
2. Analyse Site Visitor Pattern
3. Keyword Research
4. Determine Most Valuable Keywords
5. Show 3-Year Keyword Trend
6. Create Backlinking Strategy
7. Create Content Strategy
8. Create Data Collection Strategy
9. Website SEO
10. Create Optimized Profiles for SAM sites
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath


Answered 3 years ago

Everything is possible but you don't want to embarrass yourself in the world of work. Get the needed experience and some startup capital and hit the ground running. You can look for an attachment to get hands-on knowledge before you start your company. Learning on the job is allowed if you have a high IQ


Answered a year ago

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