Social media was initially developed as a way to help people stay connected to each other. Today, however, these platforms have evolved. They are no longer only used as a way for people to communicate but have also become platforms that help businesses make their mark on the internet.

There are an estimated 31,700 individuals in the Virgin Islands with their own Facebook account. Meaning, about 27.4% of the population uses Facebook, with most of these individuals aged between 25 and 34. By the beginning of 2021, a record 70.55% of people traveling and living in the area reported having a Facebook account. The number continues to grow, which means a social media presence should now be considered essential for local businesses. 

DIY Social Media Marketing – What Are The Costs?

Small businesses are often faced with a tight budget. This is especially a concern throughout the earlier stages of the company. For this reason, many of these people would attempt to do their own social media marketing, which brings up many questions about social media management pricing. While it is possible, business owners should at least understand the costs involved with a DIY strategy. 

When it comes to implementing a social media management strategy yourself, your highest cost would generally be associated with time. It takes quite a while to set up a professional profile. Before this can be done, you need the right graphics to use on your profiles – cover art, profile pictures, and even imagery that can be used for each of the posts you make. If you do not have experience in graphic design, you will need to find some way to get these done – and this often involves hiring designers. 

After your profiles are up, you still need to put in the effort to ensure your accounts remain active. Frequent posts are necessary to ensure your audience continues to engage with your post. Additionally, you also need to implement strategies that help your pages and accounts grow – without followers, all of your efforts would go unnoticed. 

Agency Fees For Social Media Management

A lot of business owners are reluctant to the idea of hiring an agency to do social media marketing for them. It is, however, important to compare fees associated with DIY marketing efforts to those charged by an agency. 

An agency will generally conduct all of the tasks that you need to do for you. One of the major benefits here is that you no longer have to spend hours doing research, setting up posts, and ensuring your profiles remain active. Instead, the time you would have spent on these tasks can now be put elsewhere – ultimately creating a more productive business environment.

There are several costs that an agency needs to cover when they handle your company’s social media accounts. Here is a breakdown of a few to take into account:

• Graphic designers need to be hired to create images for our accounts, as well as ongoing posts.
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• Writers are hired to help populate your pages with the right type of content – it is crucial for social media profiles linked to businesses to provide the audience with valuable content at all times, without promoting the company itself too much.
  
• Social media marketing experts are hired to help increase exposure for your social accounts too. This is an important step, as it allows your pages to grow in terms of followers – ultimately creating more recognition for your brand.
  

Even though initial fees may seem higher than what you expect with a DIY strategy, consider the benefits. You get access to a team of professionals who have been managing social accounts for years. You also only have to worry about one fee instead of paying multiple freelancers and companies you outsource tasks to. 

Using Social Media Ads To Promote A Business

Apart from standard social media management, many platforms also come with their own ad system. The use of Facebook Ads, for example, helps you get your business in front of people browsing through their timelines. This is another area that should be looked at when asking about social media pricing.

One thing that many business owners find is that the social media advertising cost can be surprisingly affordable. You can get an ad going for a minimal budget, which can still give you impressive results and help you build up your presence on these platforms. Thus, social media ads cost can be kept low at first and then scaled as the business grows. 

Conclusion

Social media marketing can be a tedious task for business owners. It takes up a lot of time. In the business world, time equals money. When you’re ready to set up a presence online but don’t have the time to deal with all of the steps and processes, consider hiring an experienced agency. Get a quote from us – CrucianPoint. We will do the heavy lifting so you can focus on other essential parts of your business.