The Forex Market

In many companies, community management is still improvised by an intern, whose only reference is to be very active on social networks.

The animation of a community and the publication of professional content on Facebook, Twitter, or even Instagram require much more expertise, at a time when the slightest false note in terms of communication can be devastating for the image and the company's reputation.

The major issues related to the brands' social media profiles, the management of their community, or even their online visibility have encouraged the emergence of new independent and specialized service providers.

These community management agencies can provide a tailor-made solution to manage the communication of their customers on the Internet and social networks.

They can also develop on their behalf a real web marketing strategy intended to increase their visibility.

• What are the good reasons to use a community management agency?
• With premier, your referent agency, find out what you need to know below.

What is a community management agency?

A community management agency (CM) is a service provider specializing in digital communication on behalf of its clients. In particular, it offers expertise for:

• Management and animation of social media profiles,
• The management and loyalty of an online community,
• personal branding,
• Monitoring and curating content,
• Online visibility and search engine optimization (SEO).

Depending on the case and the specific needs of the client company, the service provided by an agency specializing in CM can range from the simple animation of a profile on social networks to the development of a complete communication strategy intended to optimize its notoriety, refine the management of its public image and attract new customers.

Referent CM agencies often provide a social ads consultant mission for their clients. This means that they offer the design and monitoring of online advertising campaigns via the boards of major social networks (Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, etc.) with a view to customer acquisition or remarketing. Some numbers :

• One out of five community managers works in an agency,
• According to a BDM and MyDigitalSchool survey conducted in 2020 among 834 community managers in France, 20% of them would already work within an agency specializing in community management, compared to 52% in companies and 20% in the public sector.

5 good reasons to hire a community management agency

The publication of content on social networks is only the most visible aspect of the activity of a community manager. Despite appearances, it can be extremely tricky for a neophyte to improvise as a good communicator on a Facebook or Twitter brand profile.

The task requires a certain level of technicality and above all a good knowledge of the communication codes in force on the web.

A company is mainly likely to use a community management agency for the following five reasons  :

1) Maintain and protect the brand's e-reputation

online reputation e-reputation is the most valuable capital a brand has on social networks. It can be defined as the aggregation of opinions and comments left by Internet users on their social media profiles, official forum and anywhere else on the web.

The tone, mostly positive or negative of this feedback, makes it possible to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the brand image and to define an appropriate communication strategy.

A community management agency has the technological tools and know-how necessary to continuously monitor e-reputation, and inform its client of the general content of the discourse concerning him on social networks.

It is also able to detect a potential controversy or a "  bad buzz " well in advance. », then propose to the client company and have it validate the appropriate response elements.  

2) Gain better online visibility

It is not enough to create a LinkedIn profile to spontaneously attract the best profiles of recruitment candidates, nor to publish a few photos on Instagram to immediately generate massive enthusiasm. The competition is fierce to get some visibility on social networks.

A brand wishing to break through must engage in an appropriate strategy to achieve this. 61% of French community managers consider that working on brand awareness is their main and priority task daily.

A specialized CM agency thus implements a set of techniques and skills in the service of the visibility of its client and the acquisition of new followers, with for example:

• The regular publication of textual content that meets Google's preferences and mobilizes the most searched keywords by Internet users according to the sector of activity or geographical area (search engine optimization or SEO ),
• The promotion of special events, likely to reach a wider audience than the brand's usual audience, such as an Instagram contest with exceptional gifts,
• The production of attractive visual content, whether illustrative photos showing a product in the situation on Instagram or professional quality infographics on LinkedIn or Facebook,
• The production of short videos is associated with a powerful message, inspired by popular formats such as those offered on Vine or TikTok.

Community management agencies, real creative know-how:

• 88% of French community managers ensure the publication of videos on social networks,
• 30% even go so far as to broadcast live videos to interact with the community, most often on Facebook (78%), but also on Instagram (51%) and YouTube (22%),
• 83% of them also publish Instagram stories. 

3) Manage and grow the community of followers

The daily interaction of the brand with its followers on social networks is a task as fundamental as it is time-consuming.

Beyond the regular publication of content, it is in fact necessary to monitor reactions, respond to comments or criticisms and quickly adapt the elements of language according to the first feedback received.

This permanent interaction is the essential condition to give the feeling of real reciprocity to your followers and not that of a simple top-down and institutional communication.

A community management agency has the human and material resources to effectively monitor the activity of social networks and allows you to be everywhere at once, with your customers and your brand ambassadors.  

4) Co-build a web communication strategy

A good community management agency will offer much more than the simple execution of a content creation service.

She can also carry out a real mission of social media consultant, with companies – often VSEs or SMEs – which still have difficulty defining their own needs. The agency will then carry out an in-depth study of its client's business environment, and develop, in consultation with him, a tailor-made digital strategy that may include:

1. The design of an editorial charter, which will set the main elements of language to be respected in all official communication of the company,
2. The definition of an editorial calendar to determine the regularity of publications – as well as their nature – on the various platforms where the company is present, as part of an inbound marketing strategy,
3. The definition of key performance indicators (KPIs) relevant to the company, including, for example, the evolution of the number of followers or the rate of sharing of publications.

5) Benefit from a social media technicality comparable to a major brand

When employed directly by a company, the community manager is the only digital communication specialist in the structure in 66% of cases! This isolation can be detrimental to the proper performance of all of his tasks, to his ability to innovate, but also to the updating of his knowledge in a field in perpetual evolution.

Community management agencies provide you with a full team of web marketing professionals, often specializing in specific and technical areas.

They offer all their client companies, even small or medium-sized ones, services comparable in quality and precision to the social media communication of major brands:

• Share,
• Content monitoring and curation,
• community tracking,
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM),
• Advertisements on social networks ( social ads ),
• web analytics,
• E-mailing…

The use of a community management agency allows a company to delegate certain particularly sensitive and complex missions to a professional service provider, such as its official communication on social networks and the monitoring of its online reputation. premier lets you benefit from its recognized expertise in community management.

Three key points to remember:

1. A community management agency manages the profile(s) of its client on social networks,
2. It improves its web visibility while carefully enhancing its brand image,
3. It allows the client company to focus on its core business.