How a marketing agency can boost your social media engagement.

This month we’re taking a look at social media from an agency’s perspective to provide an idea of why it could be a valuable source in assisting with social media for your company. Drive Marketing Group, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, is an automotive marketing agency that represents several automotive and aftermarket brands including Formula DRIFT; various auto shows; OEMs like Toyota, Lexus, Porsche, Kia, Nissan, Aston Martin, McLaren, Audi, and many more; plus manufacturers like Continental and General Tire.
“One of our favorite success stories would be Formula DRIFT,” noted Josh Chow, president and founder of Drive Marketing Group. “We took their social media, amongst many other marketing services, in which they boasted 500,000 Instagram followers, and over the course of four years, we more than tripled their account. Now at year seven, they sit at over 1.8 million followers.
“With a combination of our love for motorsports from every staff member and being Meta’s automotive Partner, we were able to use our passion, understanding of motorsports, combined with our social media knowledge to create a ‘storytelling’ social media to generate so much engagement that everything grew organically,” Chow explained.

Drive Marketing Group is a full-service marketing agency, but with its social media suite, clients can choose the level of involvement they need. The options include social media consulting, full management, content creation, specialized advertising, media creation (photography and videography), influencer management, and much more.
To stay up to date with the latest trends and algorithm changes, as a Meta Partner, the Drive team is continuously in training modules within the platform. “In addition, our team looks to other industries as well to research what has been working for major brands,” Chow said. “Our team uses a platform that compilates best practices from competitors of our clients as well as aligned brands to see what everyone is doing from a 10,000-foot view.”
To become a Meta Partner, an agency must have enough clients in a specific category (i.e., automotive), spend enough ad dollars to qualify, complete required training modules to qualify, and be an industry leader and innovator. Once the agency becomes a Meta Partner, “we consult for Meta in the automotive sphere, we have access to the latest Meta technology, usually in beta stages so we can let our clients access these technologies not publicly available, we have access to training modules for our staff, and we participate in all Meta learning programs,” Chow explained.
When asked about what strategies Drive utilizes to boost engagement, Chow responded, “Using tactics that foster engagement such as questions, education, comments, emotions, and actionable items is always our first point of attack in any social media. We want to make everything noteworthy to share and engage with others.
“We also recommend a social media engagement advertising budget where we can help push impressions, but very tactically using our proprietary advertising system that pinpoints people most likely to engage with your brand,” he added.
One of the basic tips the team at Drive recommends is to understand your audience and the content they would like to see. Furthermore, educating the audience is often met with much success. “We want educational videos on social platforms to be quick, bite-size (15–30 seconds) videos with captions or ‘supers’ (stylistic captions) since most people are now viewing things on their phones,” Chow explained. “Also, remember to edit your videos for vertical formats to optimize for mobile as it creates a better user experience, and Meta favors this.”
Using a marketing agency can be beneficial for social media, but do your research and choose the right fit for your business. Many agencies offer expertise in this realm, and they have the proper tools and resources while bringing creativity and innovation to the table as well.