Who Should Run Your Social Media and Content: An Agency or You.

• YesLyfework

  Video, photo and writing made from your real business, posted to Instagram and Facebook on a schedule that holds. The same content feeds your ads, your website and your Google Business Profile, and the messages it brings in land in one customer record.

• YesMarketing Agency

  Social media is core work for most marketing agencies: a content calendar, posts, captions and often the ads beside them. Quality depends on whether they shoot your real business or build posts from stock and templates, and on who answers the messages.

• Usually notFreelancer

  A freelance web designer builds the site your profiles link to, and that is usually where the work ends. Planning posts, shooting video and photo and running the accounts week to week is a different job.

• Usually notSEO Company

  SEO companies write for search, often well: blog posts, service pages and Google Business Profile updates. Running Instagram and Facebook, shooting video and photo and answering comments and messages are usually outside their work.

• You do itDIY Builder

  You plan it, shoot it, write it and post it yourself, and you answer every comment and message, so it sounds like you. Some builders include simple social or email tools, but the ideas and the schedule are yours to keep up.

How we picked these: Picked because each one decides whether a post brings in calls and bookings or only likes.

1. Content from the real business

   Your team at work and the results they deliver, filmed and photographed. People can tell stock photos and recycled captions from the real thing, and real work is what earns their trust.

2. A schedule that holds through busy weeks

   A page that goes quiet for a month looks closed to the customer checking you out. Posts should keep going out on a steady rhythm, even when the week gets away from you.

3. Posts that answer what customers ask

   Customers want to know how the work is done, how long it takes and who they'll deal with. Posts that answer those questions do some of the selling before anyone calls.

4. Comments and messages answered fast

   A comment or a direct message is often a lead. It should get a quick reply and land in the same customer record as your calls and forms, so it can turn into a booking.

5. One shoot used everywhere you show up

   Good content feeds your social posts, your ads, your website and your Google Business Profile, so every place a customer finds you looks current and tells the same story.

6. A monthly look at what brought in work

   Which posts led to messages, calls and bookings, and which only collected likes. Each new month of content should build on what customers responded to.

• Will you film and photograph my real business, or work from stock and templates?
• Who writes the captions, and do I see posts before they go out?
• What do you need from me each month, and how much of my time does it take?
• Who answers comments and direct messages, and how fast?
• Where do messages from social media go, and how do they turn into bookings?
• Will the same content feed my ads, website and Google Business Profile?
• Who owns the photos, videos and accounts if we stop working together?
• What does the monthly report show besides likes and followers?

1. 1
   Count the hours it takes you now

   Planning, shooting, editing, writing and answering messages all add up. If those hours come out of running jobs, you are paying for social media either way.

2. 2
   Decide what social media has to do

   Bring in messages and bookings, back up your reviews, or give your ads better creative. The answer tells you who to hire and what to measure.

3. 3
   Look at their work for businesses like yours

   Scroll the accounts they run for other service businesses. Real people and real work should be obvious within a few posts.

4. 4
   Make sure messages have somewhere to go

   Before you post more, make sure every comment and message gets a reply and lands where it can be booked.