Questions to Ask Before Marketing Your Company on Social Media

Marketing your company on social media is a great way to get the word our about your company and amplify the reach of your content marketing efforts. Many businesses have made it the backbone of their operation. However, doing a poor job or having the wrong messaging can backfire on your business and cause lasting damage to your brand.

Here are some key questions you need to ask before marketing your company on social media.

What platform are you going to be on?

Facebook? Twitter? Instagram? LinkedIn? Pinterest? Periscope? TikTok? Medium? Imgur? Snapchat? Reddit?

There are many different platforms to choose from and there’s not enough time for you to do all of them. The biggest concern to have is that your audience might not be where you are. For instance, the average age of a Facebook user in the US is 40 years old. If you sell a product with a target demographic of 15 – 24 year olds, you’re probably not going to get a lot of traction on Facebook. If any at all.

Another concern to have is that your messaging will need to be crafted differently depending on the platform. Twitter’s 280 character limit is the most obvious example. However, platforms like Pinterest, Imgur, and Instagram see better engagement using images, gifs, or video instead of text.

If you want to reach your audience there, you’ll need top notch imagery to get the job done.

The most important takeaway here is that you’ll need to be a social media strategy around the platform of your choosing.

Is your business social media friendly?

Tell me if this sounds familiar. “Every business should be marketing on social media! There are millions of people waiting to hear from you!” The people that are typically the ones saying this are…wait for it…social media marketing companies. Shocker, right?

Here’s the truth. Some businesses aren’t social media friendly. They just aren’t, and that’s okay! You don’t have to be on social media.

Some industries are inherently boring. Some audiences just don’t talk about the thing you do or interact with content. These things happen and it’s okay!

Don’t keep bashing your face against that wall if it isn’t going anywhere. You’re wasting time and money that could be better leveraged elsewhere.

Does your product grab people’s attention?

When people are on social media, they’re there to be entertained. They’re not there to be marketing to. They’re watching videos, they’re looking at memes, they’re learning about their hobby, and you’re in the way.

Your business has to immediately grab their attention or they’re going to keep scrolling. Much of this falls on the shoulders of your Creative, but if you have a boring product, your Creative is going to have to work overtime to get through to them.

That’s one of the reasons why TV commercials have gotten more and more ridiculous over the last decade.

You’re fighting for your customers’ attention. While you don’t need to be over the top like a Skittles commercial, you need to 1) get your point across quickly, 2) make it clear what you want them to do, and 3) make it easy for them to do it.

If you can do that, you’ll see solid engagement from your social media efforts.

Who is going to manage your social media profiles?

The eternal debate; in house vs agency. At the end of the day, results are what matter. If you have someone on your team savvy enough to handle this for you, have them do it. However, if you don’t, don’t hesitate to contact a social media marketing agency to do it for you.

No matter who does it, you need someone who has their thumb on the pulse of your company and is able to effectively communicate your brand’s messaging across multiple platforms. This person, or agency, needs to know your policies and procedures as well as how to speak to your clients the way they’re use to being spoken to.

If you’re a big law firm, it’s probably not the greatest idea to have someone in their early 20’s speaking conversationally on your social media profiles.

How are you going to monetize the work?

Some companies chalk up marketing as a cost of doing business (which it is), but one of the goals for every marketing campaign should be for it to pay for itself and then some. Because, let’s face it, everything takes time and time is money.

Before you dive into the social scene, you need to have a goal in mind.

  • Do you want to get more qualified leads?
  • Are you trying to generate more sales?
  • Do you want to expand your brand presence?
  • Are you trying to get more reviews?

Once you know your goal, you can start reverse engineering your strategy from it and figure out how you’re going to make it a profitable revenue stream for your business.

Is there room in the budget for it?

It’s no secret that Facebook has been changing their algorithm over the years to reduce a Page’s organic reach and “encourage” more business to pay for ads. It was under 2% as of 2016 which means that if you have 1,000 followers, only 20 could possibly see your posts in their feed. Twenty.

What this basically boils down to is that if you want to make social a part of your online marketing strategy, you’re going to have to pay for it. You might not be able to make that happen if your marketing budget is running thin.

Examples of what to expect for Facebook ads pricing.

That being said, paid ads on social media can be quite affordable. The CPC (cost per click) is usually significantly lower than Google AdWords and similar PPC platforms and you’re also able to target a specific audience. You can even set up a campaign to get more followers which can in turn broaden both your organic and paid reach. On top of that, you can also set your campaign budget to $1 a day so you aren’t breaking the bank.

But even though it’s more affordable than other platforms, you still need a monetization plan to make sure it pays for itself.


There’s more to social media marketing than just posting an update every day. Beyond just asking yourself these questions, you need definitive answers and an action plan before doing any getting started. This will help point you in the right direction and make sure that your social media accounts help your business grow.

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Kenny Empey


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