Social media is such a critical part of our world now. It drives sales, networking opportunities, and simply gets the word out about your business! However, it can be daunting to try and manage everything yourself. Why not hire a professional? Let’s get to know, Olivia Taylor with Simply Social, a full service, boutique social media agency specializing in small businesses. Olivia will help you market, manage, and advertise your business in the best light possible to ensure growth and positive development!

Tell us the story of your business. How did it begin? My social media management journey actually began in 2019 when I became the Social Media intern at TSG Tulsa! The editor, Hannah, gave me the incredible opportunity to manage the Guide’s social media for a summer while I was in college at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Once COVID hit, I moved back to Tulsa from New York City and used my local connections to freelance social media management. Somewhere along the way I began my business and now Simply Social has served over 20 local businesses in the past 3 years!

What is a fun or unique fact about your business or your line of work that you would like to share? Social Media Management sounds like a very creative and relaxed job, but in reality, I am poring over spreadsheets and analyzing data about 90% of the time. And I love every second of it.

What is the most rewarding part of your business? The most rewarding part of my job is hearing my clients say that they feel a huge weight lifted off their shoulders. Small businesses owners are also typically the marketing managers, salespeople, HR team, and every other role their business requires. Being able to take social media off their plate and provide a sense of ease while helping them grow their business is the best feeling.

What kinds of services are offered? Simply Social is a full service social media management company. This means we offer everything you need for your social media from creating the content, to strategizing, to writing captions, to optimizing your bio and links, to creating and managing paid advertising, to actually posting, and every little thing in between. You truly can remove social media from your to-do list and let us take it off your plate!

What does your process look like? When you start working with us, we will first have you fill out a questionnaire that helps us get started and fully understand your business and goals. From there, we will build a general content strategy and calendar for you to approve. Next, we will put together a shot list and schedule our first content shoot. Then, every week you will receive the following week’s posts for your review. Every single week we check your analytics on every platform to adjust our strategy and optimize your content. At the end of each month, you receive a growth report so that you can see the specifics of your social media progress and ensure growth and improvement!

Why should someone consider your business? As someone with a passion for small businesses, and a small business owner myself, it is my top priority to do everything I can to help them succeed. With over 3 years of experience in social media management, Simply Social has worked with over 20 businesses and helped them increase their engagement, awareness, reach, following, and most importantly, sales. We genuinely love what we do and want to not only help business owners make time to scale and grow, but also form true friendships and connections.

What is a tip or trick that you would like to share with us in relation to your business (or in relation to a certain social media platform)? One of my top tips that applies to most industries is to leverage User-Generated Content (UGC). Encourage your audience to create content related to your brand or hire a UGC creator. This builds community, enhances engagement, and provides authentic content for your platforms!

How do you suggest someone should go about trying to grow their social media presence? Consistency is key. Whether you post 1 time per week or 7 days per week, staying consistent will make your social media platform algorithms very happy. Plus, always prioritize quality over quantity. If you only have time for 2 posts per week, be consistent and make sure they provide value to your audience.

What are your thoughts related to the various social media platforms?

– Website – A website is a great central hub for your business where you can consolidate information about your offerings. Something to consider is that building traffic and visibility can take time without paid advertising or a strong SEO strategy.

– Instagram – 62% of users say they are more interested in a brand after seeing it in an Instagram Story. 81% of Instagrammers use the platform for researching new products and services. 87% of Instagram users say they take action after seeing a product on Instagram. The stats speak for themselves! The only reason your business should not be on Instagram is if you are not going to manage it properly.

– Facebook – Facebook offers access to a large and diverse audience and offers sophisticated advertising options to target specific demographics. Something to consider for certain industries is that younger audiences are migrating to other platforms, potentially limiting reach within that demographic.

– TikTok – TikTok’s high engagement and algorithm favoritism can make content go viral more easily. It also encourages creative and authentic content through easy-to-use video editing tools. Most importantly, it dominates the Gen Z demographic, offering direct access to younger consumers. Where business owners typically struggle on TikTok is the fact that it is video-based, requiring specific content creation skills, and more frequent posting.– Pinterest – Pinterest is an excellent platform for driving traffic to blogs, websites, and e-commerce sites. Users often come to Pinterest with a buying mindset, making it great for product discovery. Pins can also remain relevant and drive traffic for months, even years, after posting. Although, Pinterest is mainly going to be relevant to less local dependent businesses.