Looking for a social media agency? Here are the right questions to ask

Any partially successful business wouldn’t hire a new employee without ensuring that they can do the job at hand. So why do many of these same organisations hire social media agencies without checking if they can do what they need them to do? These days every second person on the street is a social media community manager, strategist, or even worse, a self-proclaimed social media ‘guru’, making it increasingly difficult to single out the real experts from the frauds.

The only way to make sure that you don’t get taken for a ride is to ask the right questions, do some research and investigate the individual or agency in question. You’re exposing a lot about your brand to these people in your day to day interactions, so you better ensure they are trustworthy and well equipped to handle the tasks at hand. Here are the right questions you should ask when hiring a social media agency.

What are they doing on their own social accounts?

Ask for their own social media account handles and check if they are active. Their content should be relevant, engaging and free of errors, memes and cats. How can they run your social media accounts if they can’t effectively run their own? Be suspicious of small agencies with huge numbers of followers or likes (5 000 +). If this is the case, it is likely they have fabricated their audience.

How do they see success?

Get them to define what they view as success. This will help you determine what they will set out to do for your brand and where they place the goal posts.

Ask how they will demonstrate this success (or barriers to success) to you. The way they interact with you and report to you is vital in determining if you are getting the results you need. A Skype meeting every three months isn’t going to cut it.

Do they know what they are doing?

Find out what qualifications and experience they have. Have they worked with brands like yours? Can they create content that attracts and engages with your desired audience? Your brand is too valuable to be their training wheels.

Request to meet the people who will be involved with your account. These people will be representing your brand, make sure they are the right kind of people for the job.

Enquire about their understanding between social media and SEO. If they don’t know that SEO and social media go hand in hand, smile and leave as quickly as possible.

Ask how they will get things started. If this doesn’t include a communication strategy, competitor analysis and influencer profiles they don’t know what they are doing. If they say “don’t worry we’ll handle it by ourselves,” run away. You need to be involved in the process and clear guidelines need to be set by both parties.

Request some examples of published articles and shared content. A big part of social media is to share your message to new communities and they need to know how to do this.

Do they see the bigger picture?

Question them on how social media should work with your marketing strategy. Social media should work in-line with your current marketing strategy. It is not the only marketing efforts you need, it is not the magical solution to all of your marketing problems. It is part of the bigger picture, it isn’t the bigger picture.

Ask what they want to know about you. As a potential social media agency for your brand, they need to know or at least want to know about your industry. If they have no questions, they probably don’t care about what makes your brand tick.

Hiring a social media agency can be a confusing and stressful process. Make sure you are certain that the company you choose is the right one. Contracting the wrong people can have the adverse effect that you want and could end up damaging your brand. That being said, social media can be the kick start your brand needs, if done correctly.