Social media agency San Diego: posts, video and ads that play by the rules

Marketing Company San Diego is an independent referral service, not a marketing agency. When you send the form, your details go to an independent marketing agency that prepares any proposal and does any work. The rules on this page are the FTC’s, quoted from its published guides.

What a social media agency does

Work	What it involves	What to ask
Strategy	Which platforms, which audience, what you want people to do after they see a post.	Which platforms do you suggest for my business, and which would you skip?
Content	Photos, short video, captions and a posting calendar.	Who shoots the content: you, your staff, or the agency?
Community	Replying to comments and messages and flagging anything you need to handle.	Who answers messages, and how fast do you pass on a customer inquiry?
Paid social	Ads shown to chosen audiences and areas, with a budget you set.	What is the agency fee, and what is the separate ad spend?
Creators	Working with local creators or influencers on paid or gifted posts.	How do you make sure every paid post is disclosed?
Reporting	What was posted, what people did, and which posts led to inquiries.	What will the monthly report show, and can I see it in my own accounts?

Organic posts and paid social

Organic posting is what goes out on your own pages to the people who already follow you. It builds familiarity and gives anyone who looks you up a reason to trust you. Paid social puts posts and ads in front of people who do not follow you yet, chosen by place, interest or other settings the platform offers, for a budget you control. Most local businesses need some of both. A café in North Park may post daily and run a small paid campaign for an opening; a contractor may post finished jobs weekly and run ads to homeowners in the areas it serves. A good agency will say which balance it recommends and why.

Content that looks like San Diego

Local audiences respond to local content. Your own street, your own regulars (with their permission), your own work. Stock photos of generic offices do little. The best brief you can give an agency is access: to your space, your team, your jobs and your stories. If the agency shoots for you, ask who owns the photos and video afterward. The answer should be you.

Which platforms to start with

There is no need to be everywhere. A business that sells to other businesses may get more from one professional network than from three consumer apps. A restaurant, salon or surf shop usually wants the platforms built around photos and short video. A home service business often does best showing finished work to homeowners in the areas it serves. Ask the agency to recommend one or two platforms to start with, explain why, and say what would make you add another later. A plan that starts small and is done well beats one that spreads thin across every app.

The FTC rules every paid post must follow

Social media is where federal advertising rules are easiest to break without noticing, and the FTC is explicit that agencies share the responsibility. Its Endorsement Guides say advertising agencies, public relations firms, review brokers, reputation management companies and similar intermediaries may be liable for their roles in creating or spreading endorsements they know or should know are deceptive. Advertisers can be liable even when the endorser is not, and should guide and monitor the people who post for them.

• Disclose the connection. If a creator was paid, given free product, or is an employee or relative, that connection must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously.
• In the post, not hidden. The FTC says a disclosure only in the comments, behind a link, or on a profile page is not enough.
• Employees count. Staff who post about their employer must disclose it. The FTC says listing your employer on your profile page is not enough.
• Typical results. If a post shows results people will not generally get, it should clearly disclose what people can generally expect.

Reviews on social and on Google

Social posts often ask for reviews, and the rules apply here too. The FTC’s rule bars incentives conditioned on a review expressing a particular sentiment, positive or negative, and bars managers from posting reviews of their own business without clear disclosure. Google’s Maps policy goes further for Google reviews: no incentives at all, such as payment, discounts or free goods, in exchange for posting any review, and no review gating. A giveaway that asks for a five-star review is a bad idea on both counts. Ask for honest reviews, and offer nothing for them. More on this is on the local SEO San Diego page.

How to brief a social media agency in San Diego

1. Say who your customers are and where they live: a neighborhood, a few community planning areas, the whole county.
2. Say what you want them to do: visit, book, ask for a quote, buy online.
3. Share what has worked before, and what has not.
4. List what the agency can shoot and when, and who on your side approves posts.
5. Agree how inquiries from social will be counted: a form, a booking link, a tracked number.
6. Agree the agency fee and the ad budget separately, and keep the ad account in your name.

What you should own

Your social pages and ad accounts should be created in your business’s name, with the agency given access as a manager or partner, not as the owner. The photos and video made for you should be yours to keep. If you part ways, you should be able to remove the agency’s access in a few clicks and keep everything you built. A good agency will agree to that in writing.

Red flags

• Offers to buy followers, likes or views, or packages that promise a number of them.
• Influencer posts with no disclosure, or disclosure only in the comments.
• Contests that reward a positive review.
• Pages or ad accounts set up in the agency’s name.
• Reports that show reach and likes but never inquiries.

Social media works best alongside search, Maps and a good website. A digital marketing agency San Diego owners hire can plan social with the other channels, and web design San Diego businesses commission makes sure the page your posts point to does its job. Restaurants, where social and Maps carry most of the weight, have their own guide to restaurant marketing in San Diego.

Questions people ask