Looking for a social media agency? Here’s how to get started

Last night when I searched for the phrase “social media agency”, thousands of results popped up. This clearly shows there are many agencies advertising social media services, news outlets talking about social media, and people looking for help in this field. If you are looking for a social media agency to help you with your marketing strategy, how do you pick one out of the thousand of results? How do know the agency you are using will live up to their promises and help you achieve your goals?

Here’s a couple of tips that can help you choose the best social media agency to help you with marketing on the social web.

Research
One of the first things when searching for a social media agency online is to choose one from the result pages and have a closer look at what they are doing. Do they have a blog? If so, are they active on it or is it a ghost town? The same with their social media profiles. Are they active on the social web? Also look at other details such as how often they post new updates, the people writing the blog posts, and if you are happy with the content that they publish.

Read more: The Memeburn guide to the SA digital agency landscape

The social web is public and so look if they are walking the talk. Are they using real people faces in their blog posts author profiles? I believe this is important because you have to feel the social element of the agency through everything that they do online. Practice what you preach goes a long way.

Go deeper
Research them even further by looking closely to their website. This doesn’t just mean the physical pages on the site, but all the services that they provide. For me, it’s all about what they do and what they know. Are they expressing their expertise and know how in the industry? Are they promoting social media services and on another page selling computer hardware?

I would also look for practical advice on their blog that I can implement right away and test if what they are telling us works.

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When you have decided on the one you are going to use, approach them constantly with clear questions that are important to your business and achieving your business goals. Don’t let the agency decide on your business goals.

Here are a few questions you can ask the agency you chose to get your campaign going:

• How are you going to measure the ROI of my campaign? Let them explain this in detail to you and if they understand the ROI mechanics of social media.
• Do you have any case studies relevant to our industry regarding social media? Ask them if they have done any research regarding your industry.
• What social media channels will be best for achieving my goals? There are thousands of social media channels available. Are they only going to use the popular ones like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn? Ask them why.
• Who will be responsible for my account? If it’s a big agency, get to know the person that will look after your account.
• What information do you need from my business in order to make the campaign work? In my opinion, they need a detailed overview of your business, your mission, and your goals so that they can make the campaign work.
• How often will you report and what will it consist of? There are many metrics you can measure with social media, but to see if your campaign is working, which metrics will be used to determine this?

Read more: The digital agency model is dying, but no one in the space can see it

Social media is really a great medium you can use together with your other marketing initiatives to reach your business goals. If you are looking for an agency to help you with your campaign, do some research on your side and ask them questions to make sure you are going to get the best out of your campaign.