Go Forward: Internet Business Lifestyle Tips & Tricks: 4 ways to advance your agency with your social media strategy

Agencies of all types are brought on to handle a multitude of responsibilities for their clients. Whether providing full-service social solutions, specialized brand marketing or stepping in for a specific campaign or project, agencies cater to their clients first and foremost. But with a client-first mindset, some agencies forget to prioritize their own marketing efforts as well.

If you work for a social-first agency, you’ll know better than most the importance of a strong presence on social media. But even if your agency doesn’t offer social media services to clients, don’t overlook social for your own business.

Social media is just one of the strategic communication channels that afford agencies the ability to publish content, build relationships and have meaningful engagement with prospective clients, their communities. It provides a wealth of data and information to leverage in your pitches and client strategies. It’s also an opportunity to convince brands through content that rather than take efforts in-house, your agency is the best partner to support their needs.

Agencies are brands too and need to be treated as such. Just as you might advise your clients to incorporate social into their marketing efforts, agencies should do the same. Lead by example and let your agency’s social strategy shine through.

Show your work and communicate what sets you apart

Before a prospective client sends an RFP, they want to know what your agency is capable of. A brand’s reputation oftentimes stems from the reputation of its social media, so a sparse profile doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence. Take advantage of your social platforms to show off some of your best work, attract new audiences and set yourself apart from your competitors.

Every agency starts with a specific type of expertise. Maybe yours is design, maybe it’s content creation, digital advertising or social media management. Maybe it’s your experience working within a niche industry or vertical. Just as you might ask a client, ask these questions about your agency. What do you do better than everyone else? Why should clients turn to you? The answers should inform your messaging and the content you share on social.

Case studies are major marketing collateral and one of the best ways to establish proof that your agency can deliver quality work. Fortunately, your agency most likely already has at least a few published its website. If not, Sprout’s got a little guidance on how to get started.

In addition to sharing your case studies in a typical social post, consider these options as well.

Use paid targeting options to serve case studies to relevant people.
Share your case studies in industry LinkedIn and Facebook Groups. Make sure the group guidelines allow sharing and that you’re providing value—for example, sharing along with a lesson or key takeaway you learned from working with this client that would benefit other members.
Ask employees to add case studies from their clients to their LinkedIn publications.
Encourage employees to share case studies with their networks.
Tag your client in each of your social posts.

Generate leads and new business

Agencies are always looking for ways to win new clients and social media is one of the best places to see and be seen. While still keeping up with traditional ways to get clients like referrals, agencies can attract new business through social media marketing.

More often than not, research starts with a Google search these days. So, when prospective clients search for your agency, having a comprehensive Google My Business (GMB) profile is incredibly valuable. According to Google, businesses with descriptive GMB listing are 2.7x more likely to be considered reputable.

A GMB account is an easy way to increase visibility in search results, gain reviews and provide more information about your services. Many agencies and businesses with GMB listings also add their social media profiles, which increases traffic to your platforms and gets more eyes on your content.

Use social data to inform business decisions

As your agency shares content across social platforms, keep an eye on the results you’re seeing in your social data. These can be telling in a lot of ways. Using a tool with robust analytics capabilities, agencies can keep track of how many people are viewing their content, what content people are engaging with, which posts are driving clicks to your website and so much more.

Beyond the quantitative data that you collect, qualitative data that comes from social listening and monitoring can also come in handy.

The agency world is hyper-competitive as companies vie for top clients. With listening tools like Sprout’s, agencies can uncover insights and conversations that help you prepare a powerful pitch. Effective listening topics and queries for your agency can help you:

Dial into the pain points your prospective clients are facing in their industry.
Analyze the sentiment surrounding your agency.
For smaller agencies focused on a specific location, hone in on local clients and trends.
Discover influencers for your clients.
Track conversations surrounding your competitors and collaborators.
Stay on top of emerging trends and offerings your agency might adopt.

Agencies can and should glean insights from listening for both their own marketing strategies and their clients’. Sprout centralizes agency social efforts on one powerful platform and allows you to set up listening topics for both you and your clients.

Position your agency as a leader

Agencies both big and small should share content that positions you as a leader. With thought leadership, how-to webinars, industry insights, and other educational blog content, your agency can show that it really knows what it’s talking about. Even if you’re light on branded content, resharing content from other industry experts, trade publications and clients is a simple way to show that your agency has its finger on the pulse.

If you look at all the places written content is being created today, you would see a trend line that is still going up — dramatically with #blogging. https://t.co/KuMFrynIlX #MarketingCompanion #podcast pic.twitter.com/PHOyZD0JxR

— B Squared Media (@HelloBSquared) March 6, 2020

Content creation is not just for customer acquisition; it can go a long way for retention as well. Your content can instill confidence that your client made the right decision about choosing your agency.

Through Sprout’s Agency Partner Program, all of our agency customers receive access to sales enablement material, white-label content, webinars, as well as coaching and strategy to both educate current clients and attract new business. Agency partners can use the training, best practices and lessons they’ve learned and create more unique content.

If you’re an award-winning agency, make it known on social. Share it in your Twitter bio and about sections, incorporate the accolade in your cover photos and have employees spread the news. Employee advocacy platforms like Bambu make it simple for employees to amplify your brand’s achievement by sharing curated content across their social networks.

Treat your agency like a VIP client

Sometimes getting started is the hardest part. One challenge agencies might face is making time for non-billable work during billable hours. But, given the value of social as a platform and as a data source, agencies should treat themselves like their own client and build a holistic, social media strategy.

Sprout thrives in an agency environment, letting you collaborate seamlessly across agency and client teams. Try Sprout Social for free with a 30-day trial and consider joining the Agency Partner Program.

This post 4 ways to advance your agency with your social media strategy originally appeared on Sprout Social.