In the last 10 years, Social Media has grown from a risky proposition to a crucial part of any marketing strategy. Large brands such as Coca-Cola and Nike have increased social spending to levels drs-jots-outsourcing-300pixpreviously only seen for TV and print advertising. But what about the smaller brands, in many cases niche luxury brands, that don’t have Coca-Cola sized budgets? How do they see the same results?

Smaller brands must find their audience and create content that directly appeals to them. It’s not enough to simply tweet their URL and call it a day. They must develop their own online personalities and create lasting conversations that not only establish them as experts in their field but as voices their followers would want to speak to every day.

However, the need to constantly engage and build content presents a problem for smaller brands in niche markets. Large brands can afford in-house Social Media teams that spend all day creating content, building conversations and monitoring activity, but in the case of smaller brands, those duties are often handed off to someone with other responsibilities. What these social managers quickly discover is that personal social media use and Social Media Marketing are totally different animals. As a result, their updates can become sporadic or content can become generic or geared too much toward company insiders. When someone’s primary job is to handle customer service calls or sell product, how can they dedicate the amount of time it takes to maintain a successful social media presence? There’s only so much one employee can do.

This is where outsourcing stops being a dirty word and starts being a necessity for brands looking to increase their social media presence. The decision to hire an outside agency can bring up several questions: If it’s not us tweeting, will we lose credibility? Will an agency understand our company? Will they work as hard as we would?

Hiring a marketing agency to handle your social media presence isn’t disingenuous because your agency should serve as an extension of your company. A good agency should be able to act as your representative and online voice, knowing how to balance the fine line between being conversational and sounding salesy. It’s also important to find an agency that truly understands your company and the market in which it operates. While the basic social media tenants are universal, the methods used to build a fanbase around luxury brands and interior design products are much different than those of say, consumer electronics. DRS and Associates has a deep understanding of this niche market and knows what potential luxury brand customers will respond to as well as designers, architects, specifiers and luxury brand showrooms.

DRS also understands the time commitment it takes to maintain an active social media presence. Whether it’s a 9 to 5 workday, a weekend or a holiday, we’re continually monitoring our clients’ social media properties and looking for the best ways to leverage timely conversations as well as deal with any customer service issues that may arise.

With more and more luxury brands venturing into social media, it’s no longer enough just to have a social media presence – it’s important to have a social media presence that stands out. And by utilizing a committed agency like DRS and Associates, we can help you get the attention you deserve.