Our tagline at Ignite Social Media has for years been, “the original social media agency,” because we were created way back in 2007 out of nothing to work exclusively on social media. While most social media practitioners then, and now, were PR firms, ad agencies and digital agencies, we envisioned a different way to handle social. Our way includes having all the disciplines you need (community managers, art directors, web developers, data analysts, strategists, project managers and media buyers) under one roof, focused on nothing but social media marketing for major brands.

The philosophy hasn’t changed in the last eight years, but it seems like everything else has:

• Social media has moved from a desktop experience to a mobile experience;

• Getting fans and followers is harder than ever before as people got “like fatigue.”

• Organic reach has been ratcheted down for brands on Facebook and Twitter is introducing an algorithm to their feed as well.

• While there were virtually no paid advertising opportunities on social networks when we started, brands now pump billions into promoted posts across the networks.

What does it mean, therefore, to be the original social media agency today? Some thoughts:

• We encourage our clients to think beyond an individual channel into a larger content strategy; and then adopt that larger strategy to specific channels.

• We’ve always thought that way, but for a while everyone wanted “their Facebook strategy.” That’s starting at the wrong end of the problem.

• We encourage our clients to think about partnerships with other like-minded content producers.

• Brands frequently want to focus on what they have to say. Many times it’s better to find someone else to say it for you.

• We encourage our clients to focus on Organish™ content.

• Organish is our trademark for a philosophy built around the fact that organic content does better on social than ads. But today, you often have to pay to boost that content. Even when you’re paying, if you create content that can perform well on its own, you’ll pay less and get more from your media budget.

• As people discover products on social networks such as Pinterest, we encourage our clients to strive for Content Everywhere™.

• It’s not enough to fill your branded channels with branded content anymore. Great social strategies facilitate content featuring your brand appearing across the social web. When done properly, we’ve been able to tie that back directly to sales metrics.

If you’re in social media marketing, you can never believe you “have it all down.” Because if you ever did, the world is constantly changing under our feet and we need new strategies that thrive in these new situations. A program we did 3 years ago may have worked then, but we have to take a hard look at it today. In all likelihood, it won’t work today.

So I guess that’s what “original” means in the context of the modern social media agency. It means constantly evolving as we all work to invent, perfect, and quantify social media as the productive marketing discipline it ultimately can be.