How To Choose a Social Media Agency

A social media agency decision should not be an easy one. You need to speak to numerous social media professionals before you can find the right group of people who understand your brand inside and out and can show you results on what you care about achieving in the space.

I’ve been on both sides of the table when it comes to hiring and pitching with social media agencies and some things prove to be consistent regardless of the situation. For those social media agencies reading and PR managers, small business owners, or professionals looking to hire the playing field can become quickly muddy with false promises and misunderstandings.

Today I want to focus on hiring the agency rather than being a prominent marketer at one. Whether representing a healthcare professional in social, a lawyer, or even another agency; certain things should be addressed right from the start.

Social Media Brand Marketing

With over 900 million people constantly sharing their Facebook likes, tweets, and comments its safe to say that the vast majority of professions are on social media. That said, having a social media agency understand and digest what makes the client unique and engaging is critical in shaping their strategy.

This happens prior to creating accounts or running advertising. This happens in an intimate brainstorming session. If this happens over a few emails or an answering machine you’re probably not going in the right direction. They’ll ask questions such as,

What do you believe is appealing about your brand rather than your competitors?

Where are your weaknesses so we can define them and improve on them online?

Who are the type of people you want to interact with and should be interacting with you?

Be prepared with answers. You might as well answer those questions. I mean, its obvious those are the ones I would ask you. And I’m that guy.

Social Media Reward Metrics

I use the term reward metrics to define the key metric you care about above all else while utilizing social media for your brand. It can be the most active Pinterest campaign or an overall CTR rate on all social media for sales. This needs to be determined so we shape a strategy for the end game.

A great social media agency won’t stop there and just listen to what you want, but using their expertise in the space and the understanding of your brand they’ll be able to tell you which reward metric will benefit you the most during the campaign.

Creative Content Strategies

The brand has been fully understood by the social media agency and the reward metric has been determined. Now getting there can be outlined through a creative content strategy which attracts users.

An inside look with a CEO is a great creative content strategy

Finding a creative social media agency for this is a challenge as you’ll want content which is not only shared and encompasses the brand, but can invoke a communities response. The agency will handle community management, but in creating content that organic users can interact with themselves is key.

Understanding the Relevance of SEO

If the social media agency is successful on all of the above then you’ve struck gold. Congratulations. The next step is looking into a search marketing campaign and understanding SEO. The social media agency should understand the basics of this and can confidentially explain it to you as a client. If they can do it than you’ve struck platinum. It’s better than gold. Congratulations.

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