In New York the price range for this service is wide and the reason is almost always production. An agency that will send a person to your restaurant, shop, clinic or office regularly to shoot is providing something expensive in this city and genuinely valuable. An agency that will schedule posts and write captions from photographs you supply is providing something much cheaper. Both are sold at similar headline prices and the difference is the entire service.
Ask who shoots, how often, and what it costs separately
A monthly retainer that includes a half-day shoot is a different product from one that includes twelve scheduled posts. Ask for production and management to be priced as separate lines even if you buy them together, and establish how many days of filming a month you are actually getting. In this city a shooting day is the most expensive thing in the proposal and it should be visible.
Neighbourhood, not city
A business in Astoria, Park Slope, the Lower East Side or Jackson Heights serves people who identify with that neighbourhood, and content that shows you are genuinely there works where content that could be from any city does not. Ask the agency how they will make the material specific to where you actually are, and treat a generic answer as a preview of the output.
Organic social here is mostly retention, and paid is a media buy
For a local business, the people following you largely know you already, so organic keeps you present rather than producing measurable new customers. Paid social is a different discipline with creative volume behind it. Separate the two in the proposal, in the reporting and in the fee, so you can judge and cut them independently.
Own the accounts, the handles and the raw files
Profiles created under your business's ownership with the agency added, and the original photographs and video delivered to you as files rather than living in the agency's library. This is routinely neglected, and a New York business that changes agency and loses three years of footage of its own premises has lost something it paid for and cannot recreate.
Judge the work by what they made for somebody your size
New York agency portfolios are full of recognisable brands, which says nothing about serving a business with one location and a modest budget. Ask for the account most like yours in size and constraint, and ask what the client actually provided. That comparison is more informative than any list of names.
Questions people ask about social media marketing agency New York
Why do social media quotes in New York vary so much?
Because production does or does not include somebody coming to film you, which in this city is the expensive part. Ask for production and management priced as separate lines.
Does the agency need to visit our business?
If you want original content of your premises, staff and work, yes. Scheduling and captions can be done from anywhere, and it is a legitimate and much cheaper service, provided you know that is what you bought.
Will organic social bring new customers?
Occasionally. Mostly it keeps you present with people who already know you, which converts later. Judge it as retention, and be sceptical of acquisition promises without a measurement attached.
What should we own at the end?
The profiles, under your business's ownership, and the original photographs and video as files. Losing years of footage of your own premises when you change agency is a wholly avoidable loss.