(Warning: Long-winded post about SMMA ahead. Continue at your own peril.)
I can't help but notice a trend...
There must be some huge promos going out in the biz opp space right now that makes everyone and their mother think it's a good idea to start a social media marketing agency.
First things first: if it wasn't YOUR idea to start this business -- you probably shouldn't do it.
It's okay to be inspired by someone and say "Wow! I want to do THAT!" ... but if someone sold you on the idea that "the only way to make money is..." or "the biggest opportunity in the market is..." or "here's how I would make money in 2023..." then you've been bamboozled.
When you get a chance, look up the name Samuel Brannan. He's famous for selling shovels during the California gold rush. But if you skip the headline and actually read the story, you'd know that he literally bought every shovel and pickaxe in Northern California.. and THEN started rumors that there was gold everywhere if only you just "knew where to look" and "had the right tools" ... the marketing campaign worked and it spread like wildfire ... when everyone wanted to buy shovels -- guess who had them all?
If you don't see the correllation, let me spell it out for you:
Someone tricked you into starting a business that you know nothing about.
Yes, there's gold to be found. There are PLENTY of SUCCESSFUL social media marketing agencies... but you've got to know where to find the gold, how to dig it up, and what's real gold versus what's fool's gold.
And how does one acquire that knowledge? Lots of punches in the face. Lots of failures. Lots of mistakes. Long, long, LONG hours of reading, studying, living on social media to understand the latest trends, how to game the system, what you need to do to get eyeballs -- because let's not kid ourselves, your one and ONLY job as a social media marketing agency is to drive qualified traffic to an offer.
If you don't know how to do that, you've got two options: 1. Learn how, or 2. Quit.
In these threads I screenshotted about, people pointed out that:
BUT... if none of that has disuaded you from your goal and would like some unsolicited advice for building your SMMA... read on:
As many of you know, by night I am a male stripper/crime fighter/astronaut.
By day, I am a fractional CMO for a few companies and have a little coaching platform.
One of those is true. I'll let you decide which.
I am CONSTANTLY looking for talented social media managers and they are very few and far in between.
3-4 times a week I get a referral, cold call, or cold e-mail and I can't wait to talk to them hoping they might be "the one" ... but when I explain the standards I hold for the brands we're managing -- they all look like this:
...
You're still reading this...? Well, let me give you an example:
For one company I work with there's 6 people who handle Instagram. We post 6 times per day, 7 days per week. 2-3 reels, 2-4 sliders (and an occasional static image). That means the team needs to find at LEAST 100 ideas for posts per week (60%ish usually get shot down in the content meeting), write 14-21 engaging scripts for the talent to record, get them to actually record it, edit those videos, write copy for the captions, find the right hashtags, write copy for the slider posts, design them on brand, and physically post ON TIME (we've noticed a dramatic decrease in reach with automated posting services so someone actually posts). It's an international audience so someone is up at 4am their time to post. There's also an extensive "shout-out" strategy where we look for small, medium, and big influencers in the space and pay for shout-outs. THAT content goes through a dramatic gladiator style battle where only the best performing content gets used as ads.
The bar for non-CTA posts is 500k views +. For CTA posts, it's 50k. We don't track the other vanity metrics besides reach. That means EVERY. SINGLE. POST. has to be a winner.
... but when you realize IG is ONE of the socials we're utilizing every day... you start to see how the work multiplies. Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn...
This is generating 2,000-3,000 leads per week and 150-300 booked (and approved) appointments for sales calls.
The first question I ask any new SMMA wanting to win business is "here's our numbers, can you beat them? I will gladly pay you loads of money to do so."
Two responses I get: "absolutely not" and "OF COURSE I CAN DO THAT!"
I respect the first answer. The second answer gets a grilling "show me where you've done this with other people." (and it has to be THEM, not the "team" they were a pat of, not the "guru" they worked for -- THEY had to be directly responsible for results)
Now why be so tough on this? Because this is where we get booked calls. Booked calls for the salespeople on the team. If the salespeople don't get booked calls, they can't make sales. If they can't make sales, they can't afford to feed their families.
It is our responsbility and moral obligation to do everything we can to support them and the rest of the company because (get this) we actually care about people and we're not ONLY doing it to siphon cash off of some sucker who thinks they need a SMMA.
If you don't perform, everyone loses their job and the company goes out of business.
Marketing and sales is what brings in the money. It's the most important part of any business. If you're READY for that responsbility, here's my advice:
Last thought: the top is lonely. The bottom is where everything is overcrowded and oversaturated. If you ever think something is "oversaturated", the harsh reality is: you suck at it.
Get better.
I'll get off my soapbox now.
Love y'all.
I can't help but notice a trend...
There must be some huge promos going out in the biz opp space right now that makes everyone and their mother think it's a good idea to start a social media marketing agency.
First things first: if it wasn't YOUR idea to start this business -- you probably shouldn't do it.
It's okay to be inspired by someone and say "Wow! I want to do THAT!" ... but if someone sold you on the idea that "the only way to make money is..." or "the biggest opportunity in the market is..." or "here's how I would make money in 2023..." then you've been bamboozled.
When you get a chance, look up the name Samuel Brannan. He's famous for selling shovels during the California gold rush. But if you skip the headline and actually read the story, you'd know that he literally bought every shovel and pickaxe in Northern California.. and THEN started rumors that there was gold everywhere if only you just "knew where to look" and "had the right tools" ... the marketing campaign worked and it spread like wildfire ... when everyone wanted to buy shovels -- guess who had them all?
If you don't see the correllation, let me spell it out for you:
Someone tricked you into starting a business that you know nothing about.
Yes, there's gold to be found. There are PLENTY of SUCCESSFUL social media marketing agencies... but you've got to know where to find the gold, how to dig it up, and what's real gold versus what's fool's gold.
And how does one acquire that knowledge? Lots of punches in the face. Lots of failures. Lots of mistakes. Long, long, LONG hours of reading, studying, living on social media to understand the latest trends, how to game the system, what you need to do to get eyeballs -- because let's not kid ourselves, your one and ONLY job as a social media marketing agency is to drive qualified traffic to an offer.
If you don't know how to do that, you've got two options: 1. Learn how, or 2. Quit.
In these threads I screenshotted about, people pointed out that:
- No business is "Fastlane" unless it meets CENTS. And that's OKAY. If your goal is to earn a living -- you don't need to meet those commandments. Also see: MJ's descripton of "good money vs great money"
- Saying you're going to start a SMMA when you don't even have the ability to make creatives, write short-form copy, edit, create content schedules, etc ... is like saying you're going to become a world champion boxer at your first class of booty bootcamp.
- It's a highly competitive scene... but NOT because everybody is amazing at it. It's because every other idiot gets convinced that THIS is the opportunity that WILL CHANGE THEIR LIFE! So they overpromise and underdeliver. They spend all day trying to sell through sleazy tactics instead of letting their work speak for themselves. They trick someone into paying them, do shitty work until they get fired, and then move on to the next sucker thinking they are a "real business owner".
BUT... if none of that has disuaded you from your goal and would like some unsolicited advice for building your SMMA... read on:
As many of you know, by night I am a male stripper/crime fighter/astronaut.
By day, I am a fractional CMO for a few companies and have a little coaching platform.
One of those is true. I'll let you decide which.
I am CONSTANTLY looking for talented social media managers and they are very few and far in between.
3-4 times a week I get a referral, cold call, or cold e-mail and I can't wait to talk to them hoping they might be "the one" ... but when I explain the standards I hold for the brands we're managing -- they all look like this:
...
You're still reading this...? Well, let me give you an example:
For one company I work with there's 6 people who handle Instagram. We post 6 times per day, 7 days per week. 2-3 reels, 2-4 sliders (and an occasional static image). That means the team needs to find at LEAST 100 ideas for posts per week (60%ish usually get shot down in the content meeting), write 14-21 engaging scripts for the talent to record, get them to actually record it, edit those videos, write copy for the captions, find the right hashtags, write copy for the slider posts, design them on brand, and physically post ON TIME (we've noticed a dramatic decrease in reach with automated posting services so someone actually posts). It's an international audience so someone is up at 4am their time to post. There's also an extensive "shout-out" strategy where we look for small, medium, and big influencers in the space and pay for shout-outs. THAT content goes through a dramatic gladiator style battle where only the best performing content gets used as ads.
The bar for non-CTA posts is 500k views +. For CTA posts, it's 50k. We don't track the other vanity metrics besides reach. That means EVERY. SINGLE. POST. has to be a winner.
... but when you realize IG is ONE of the socials we're utilizing every day... you start to see how the work multiplies. Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn...
This is generating 2,000-3,000 leads per week and 150-300 booked (and approved) appointments for sales calls.
The first question I ask any new SMMA wanting to win business is "here's our numbers, can you beat them? I will gladly pay you loads of money to do so."
Two responses I get: "absolutely not" and "OF COURSE I CAN DO THAT!"
I respect the first answer. The second answer gets a grilling "show me where you've done this with other people." (and it has to be THEM, not the "team" they were a pat of, not the "guru" they worked for -- THEY had to be directly responsible for results)
Now why be so tough on this? Because this is where we get booked calls. Booked calls for the salespeople on the team. If the salespeople don't get booked calls, they can't make sales. If they can't make sales, they can't afford to feed their families.
It is our responsbility and moral obligation to do everything we can to support them and the rest of the company because (get this) we actually care about people and we're not ONLY doing it to siphon cash off of some sucker who thinks they need a SMMA.
If you don't perform, everyone loses their job and the company goes out of business.
Marketing and sales is what brings in the money. It's the most important part of any business. If you're READY for that responsbility, here's my advice:
- Ignore everyone's advice about "social media is toxic, stay away from it" -- because it's literally your JOB. Use viralfinder, actively engage on the platforms, learn something new about it every day. Save cool posts for later. Don't scroll through your phone without a notebook nearby to write ideas down on. Create a "vault" of unicorn posts (Posts that went viral on similar accounts in the same industry that you can recreate and make your own).
- Pick ONE social media channel to be an expert in. If you think you can handle more than one (especially just starting out) -- you're downright delusional. IG, FB, YT, TT -- they all have VERY different ecosystems and VERY different cultures. What works on one does NOT necessarily work on another.
- Instead of spending your money investing in courses trying to teach you how to do this stuff... invest your TIME in studying people who are SUCCESSFUL at it. BUT -- I highly recommend studying someone who is just a few steps ahead of you. Here's an example of a girl I hired last year off of Fiverr:
Super professional gal, look at her portoflio. She tries to get better EVERY day and constantly has a waitlist. While she wouldn't be able to handle the accounts I referenced above -- this level of the business is within reach to anyone with a dream, some motivation, and some discipline.
- Stop referencing Gary Vee or Alex Hormozi every other sentence. You can't do what they do. You're not at that level. This is not an insult, it's the truth. Their advice on social wouldn't even make sense to most people who are not "in the trenches" every day and even if it did -- they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to execute on those strategies... PER MONTH.
- Don't know where to start? Start with your own accounts. Create a nameless/faceless account about cats or pickles -- whatever the subject matter -- who cares -- but you need to be able to SHOW people your work. That Turkish girl? I can practically guarnatee her original portfolio she just made 30 posts of each kind on Canva as a portfolio to showcase what it could look like.
- Work hard.
- No, like actually work hard.
- Dude, it's hard F*cking work. So you actually have to WORK HARD AT IT.
- If you get good (and can prove it), I've got big contracts for you.
Last thought: the top is lonely. The bottom is where everything is overcrowded and oversaturated. If you ever think something is "oversaturated", the harsh reality is: you suck at it.
Get better.
I'll get off my soapbox now.
Love y'all.
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