Hiring a Social Media Agency?

A quick Google search for Social Media agencies near you will yield hundreds and thousands of results. So how do you really hire the best? The best in the world may not necessarily be the best for you for their prices might be higher, or their experience might be limited to working with well established brands and may have little inclination to work with SMEs like yourself. Nevertheless, these 5 questions should help.

1. What distinguishes you from your competitors?

Almost all agencies will claim to "The BEST" at what they do. Then how do you determine the social media agency which is going to give YOUR brand a real boost? A simple question to the agency should clear these doubts.

What sets your agency apart from the thousands of other agencies out there?

You should do some basic research such as the agencies track record, current and past customers, what these customers have said about th

e agency. The kind of technology these agencies employ.

A good social media agency is invested in the success of the client and creates a strong brand equity for them!

2. Do I need to be on every site?

This question will help you understand how honest your agency actually is. There are various popular social networking sites. However, not ALL such platforms help your business. Firstly, you need to know your OWN target audience.

Pinterest for example, has roughly 70-80% women users who are highly educated and earn well.

Hence, if you are a company that sells mostly men's products, this platform is unlikely to help you get leads or business, or the marginal income derived will not be worth the investment. A nefarious social media firm will encourage you to be present on every site as they would charge you based on the number of social platforms they manage for you.

3. What is your process for content development?

Content is King... How many times have you heard that? Indeed it is, and no social media agency worth its salt can operate without providing quality content for its clients on a regular basis. Content creation requires research and imagination. A solid agency will provide you with a clear vision and strategy of what should work for you, and have quality control checks in place and be flexible enough to alter the strategy should they not provide you with your desired results.

Stay away from agencies which promise to create "Viral Content" for you.

These do not require your time and effort. The results are generally NON ORGANIC. They will charge you a bomb and pay a paltry amount to other agencies to get thousands of likes/impressions/clicks on your content which in NO way help your business.

4. What is your process for reporting?

Measuring the success of your ad campaigns and social marketing efforts is critical for you. Through regular monitoring of your campaigns, you can assess the success or failure of your social media agency and they should be held accountable.

Reporting tools are vital to check your marketing efforts.

Your social media agency should provide you with regular updates on how your social media campaigns are performing. These include reporting for impressions, likes, shares, website clicks etc. If your agency fails to or neglects to send you reports at least twice a month, its a sign that they are hiding something.

5. How do you measure success?

Brands that invest in social media and a social media marketing agency must have a clear goal in mind at the beginning of the process.

Brands should demand that any potential agency have a set standard when it comes to watching available metrics such as engagement, click-through-rate, web traffic, organic reach, paid reach, and conversions.

One of the benefits of social media is that strategies can be adjusted in real time based on the data being collected. As brands and agencies learn more about the target audiences and new technological options, goals can evolve as well. While there is no “right” answer for how to define success, having a clearly vocalized goal can create a focus on accountability for the agency partner.