Social media account management: what you are actually paying for
Useful, but not marketing. What social media account management includes, what stays outside the contract, and five questions to ask any firm before you sign.
Contents
- What social media account management includes
- What it leaves out: the decisions before the first post
- Social media management packages: how to read the offer before you sign
- What an account management report should measure
- Account management is not marketing
- When account management is enough, and when you need a marketing department
Social media account management is a service in which a specialist firm plans, designs and publishes your company's posts, replies to your followers and reports on the results each month. It is useful, but it is not marketing: marketing decides who you sell to, what you say and why, and account management carries out one part of that on one channel.
If you are about to hire a firm to manage your accounts, this piece sets out what you are actually paying for, what stays outside the contract, and how to read any package before you sign.
What social media account management includes
In most offers in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, the service has five parts:
- A monthly content plan: the topics, the formats and the dates.
- Production: designing the posts, writing the copy and making short video.
- Publishing: on a fixed schedule, on the agreed platforms.
- Engagement: replying to comments and messages.
- The report: a monthly summary in numbers.
Most packages sell the middle of that list: production and publishing. That is real, legitimate work. The trouble is that the first and last parts, why we post and what it achieves, are rarely anybody's job.
What it leaves out: the decisions before the first post
Before anybody publishes a single post, some questions need an answer. Which buyer are we trying to reach? What do we want this channel to deliver? Which platform does that buyer actually use? And what happens when someone sends a message asking for a price?
If nobody settles those questions, the account manager posts to fill the calendar. The page fills up, engagement sometimes rises, and nothing changes in sales. We cover this in detail in social media marketing is one channel inside marketing.
Social media management packages: how to read the offer before you sign
Do not start with the price or the number of posts. Start with these questions:
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| What result will you put in the report? | Posts and likes measure activity. You want messages, enquiries and customers |
| Who answers the messages, and how fast? | An enquiry left a day without a reply is a customer gone to your competitor |
| Who writes the Arabic? | A Gulf buyer notices translated Arabic from the first line |
| Is paid advertising inside the package or outside it? | So you can see what went to the platforms and what went to the work |
| Who owns the accounts and the files? | If you end the contract, the accounts and the designs should stay yours |
A firm that answers the first question with a number of posts is selling you activity. A firm that answers with a result your business cares about is thinking like a marketing department.
What an account management report should measure
The monthly report is where you find out whether you are paying for activity or for a result. Most reports open with reach, likes and new followers, because those numbers nearly always go up. They are the platform's numbers, not your business's.
Ask for the report to open with four things:
- How many messages and enquiries the accounts brought in.
- How long, on average, it took to reply to them.
- How many turned into a quote, a meeting or an order.
- Which posts those enquiries came from.
If the firm managing your accounts cannot answer those questions, it does not know whether its work is helping you. Neither do you.
Account management is not marketing
Inside agencies, "account management" has a second meaning: managing the relationship with the client. In the video above, Aziz Musa, founder of Cush Digital, admits he is the worst account manager you could imagine. He has no patience, and he cannot explain things gently.
A good account manager is the bridge between the company and the client. They hear every request, understand every objection, then persuade the client, gently, to give a plan that has worked before the time it needs. Aziz says the best account manager he has ever seen is his wife, because she does that every day, and every time she does it, the trust between us and our clients grows.
The point is the same in both meanings. Whether you manage a company's accounts on the platforms or manage a company's relationship with its client, you are managing part of marketing, not all of it. Marketing is bigger: content, visual identity, email, advertising and everything in between, all with one aim, to move the business from where it is to somewhere better.
When account management is enough, and when you need a marketing department
It is enough when
Your offer is clear, the demand for it already exists, and one channel is where your sales come from. A small shop selling through Instagram is a good example: what it needs is steady production and fast replies.
It is not enough when
You sell to other businesses, more than one person signs off the purchase, and you need leads rather than posts. Then you need someone who sets the strategy, runs every channel together and answers for the result.
That is why Cush Digital does not sell account management on its own. We work as our clients' marketing department, and account management is one part of that department's work, not a substitute for it.
If you are not sure which case fits you, the marketing diagnostic takes two minutes and shows you where your marketing is leaking, before anyone asks you for a call.
Questions people ask
What is social media account management?
A service in which a specialist firm plans, designs and publishes your company's posts, replies to comments and messages, and reports each month. It is one part of marketing, not all of it.
What do social media management packages include?
Usually a monthly content plan, post design and copy, publishing on a fixed schedule, replies to followers and a monthly report. Before you sign, ask what result the report will measure, who answers the messages and who owns the accounts.
Is social media account management enough to win customers?
It is enough for a small shop with a clear offer, existing demand and one sales channel. It is not enough for a firm that sells to other businesses and needs leads, because that takes a strategy that runs every channel together.
How do I choose a social media account management company?
Ask what it will put in the monthly report. If the answer is posts and likes, it is selling you activity. If the answer is messages, enquiries and customers, it is thinking about your result.
Does Cush Digital offer social media account management on its own?
No. We work as our clients' marketing department, and account management is one part of that department's work, alongside strategy, content, advertising and reporting.
The two-minute diagnostic shows which pattern your marketing is in
The diagnostic asks nine questions and names the pattern your marketing is stuck in. No call, no pitch, and you get the paper written for that pattern.