15 Questions To Ask Your Social Media Partner
To make an informed decision before hiring a social media agency or consultant, there are several questions we think you should ask. Your prospective social media partner’s responses will give you a strong understanding of exactly what they will provide, what your involvement will be and how the two of you will work together.
1. Who Will Manage My Social Media Accounts?
When you talk to an agency or firm about managing your business’s social media marketing, make sure you know who will manage your accounts. Here are a few questions you can ask to get more insight into the specifics:
- Will you have a dedicated team member focused on my company, or will you have a few people working on it together?
- Who do I contact if I have questions or new information about your business?
- Do those involved with your business have experience managing these types of social media campaigns?
2. Do You Develop A Social Media Strategy? How?
It’s important to have a social media strategy in place before you begin your campaign. This provides a roadmap for which platforms you’ll focus on, how often you’ll update those pages, when updates will go live and what type of content you’ll be sharing.
If you’re talking to a social media expert who doesn’t create a strategy or can’t provide a brief overview of how they create one, move on to another potential partner.
3. Do I Need To Provide The Content?
Find out who will provide the content for your social media campaign before you hire a social media partner.
It’s important to establish what exactly you’re responsible for providing during your social media campaign. Will the firm or agency provide images or video for your social media accounts? Do you need to send relevant industry news, or will they find it for you? Their answers will give insight into what the demands on your time will be as you begin working together.
4. Is The Social Media Content You Create Unique To My Company?
So many social media agencies out there use the exact same content for all their clients – or even themselves! In fact, many subscribe to third-party vendors that create content for them and other firms.
If you want your business to stand out in the sea of social media, it’s important your pages share unique content. If the potential partner you’re considering can’t provide this, it’s time to talk to someone else.
5. How Do You Develop Social Media Content?
This question will provide you with some insight into the agency’s process. Do they have a team of graphic designers creating content for all their clients, or will you have a dedicated team member crafting images and updates based on their first-hand knowledge of your company?
6. What Types Of Social Media Content Will You Post?
Although you’re using social media to promote your brand, not every update should be promotional. Remember, the key to social media is being social. Would you be interested in following a page that only talks about itself all the time?
Instead, your social media partner should strike a balance between updates that provide value to your followers (such as an interesting article, inspiring quote or funny meme) and updates that are directly promotional.
At Three Girls Media, we subscribe to the 80/20 rule, which means 20 percent of the updates are about your business, and the remaining 80 percent share news, images or videos that relate to your industry, but are not specifically about your company.
7. How Will You Integrate My Brand’s Voice Into The Social Media Content?
A social media expert should learn your brand’s voice.
This goes back to ensuring your social media content is carefully crafted to reflect your business – and only your business. Any social media expert you hire should have the ability to learn your brand’s voice (or personality) and craft every piece of content to fit within that voice.
8. Will I See Updates Before They Go Live?
Before you hire a social media partner, establish clear expectations. While some businesses may prefer not to spend time reviewing updates before they go live, it helps ensure quality control. By spending a few minutes looking over the content before it goes live, you can make sure it’s accurate for your industry and your brand.
9. Will You Post Different Content On Each Of My Social Media Platforms?
While some subscribe to the “one and done” approach – in which you share the exact same update on every channel – this is a poor strategy. Each social media platform has its own culture. Your updates should be crafted to make the most of the network’s capabilities, as well as the “language” of the channel.
10. How Will You Set My Brand Apart From Competitors?
This is a fantastic question to ask to find out how much research your possible social media partner will put into your account. Will they take the time to see what your competition is doing well or not doing well? Will they use what they see to inspire creativity on behalf of your brand?
11. Will My Social Media Followers Know It’s Not Me Posting The Content?
This is a question we hear all the time at Three Girls Media. On some platforms (such as Twitter and Instagram), you’d share the login information with your social media manager, so they can post on your behalf. On others (such as Facebook and LinkedIn), you’d give them access to your brand’s page, so they can post updates as the brand. On these channels, you might see who shared the update based on the admin data, but you can rest assured your followers will see the update coming from your company.
12. Who Responds To My Followers On Social Media?
Determine who will monitor your social media accounts for engagement before hiring an agency.
This is another important expectation to establish. Will the social media agency you hire monitor your account for interaction? What will they do if you receive a question, comment or message? Will they expect you to respond, or will they take care of it for you?
13. How Much Will My Social Media Audience Grow?
Before your campaign begins, it’s important to establish clear expectations and measurable goals. A lot of your growth will depend on a variety of factors, such as how often you’re updating the page or if you’re running an ad campaign at the same time. Still, take the time to ask this question, so you can establish reasonable expectations with your social media partner.
14. How Often Will You Review My Social Media Analytics?
It’s important your social media manager takes the time to review your analytics regularly – at least every 4-6 weeks. This provides them with helpful data to tweak the strategy and make it stronger.
Before you begin your campaign, make sure you’re clear about how often they’ll review analytics, which data they’ll focus on and how they’ll use that to revise the strategy. Make sure they know if you want to be involved in this process, too.
15. What Other Digital Tactics Would Complement My Company’s Social Media?
Social media is simply one facet of content marketing. In addition to investing in social media, you may want to consider blogging, email marketing and social media advertising. Ask your potential social media partner if these are services they provide as well and if they can cross-promote your content across these channels to make the most of your investment.
Contact Us!
Do you still have questions about marketing? Contact us today for a complimentary, no-obligation consultation with our CEO, Erika Taylor Montgomery. She would be happy to share other content marketing and public relations strategies that can be beneficial for your business!
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