The more businesses move towards a social media presence, the more they reach out to consultants for help. As with any new trend, “consultants” pop up like the weasels in some carnival game and the clients go around trying to whack them away. While there are many great social media consultants out there, there are more who are simply taking advantage of the fact that you don’t have time and they have logged on to Twitter before. Here are a few signs that the social media consultant you hired isn’t the right man/woman for the job.
They forgot to talk to you about strategy.
As with any marketing campaign, a social media presence must be rooted in strategy. Companies find success by doing more than pushing out content. It really does matter what content you share, how you share it, when you share it and how all of that ties into your organizations goals and mission. If you aren’t having regular conversations about all of this, you are getting bamboozled!
You don’t know what they are really doing.
Getting you to understand social media is not really a priority of your social media consultant. Why? Probably because the more you know, the less likely they are to keep their job. If you aren’t receiving updates about their work and you aren’t seeing the leads flow in over time, step up and request this information. You need to know what they are doing, how long it takes them and what the results are.
They say that social media is not measurable.
Any one who tells you that there isn’t a way to tell if social media is working is a liar, or a cheat, or both. While the metrics are certainly different from a print ad campaign you can track things like engagement. You can also set goals. How? Ask them. If they don’t know, find a new company that does.
They outsource their work to kids.
Contrary to popular belief, not all college aged kids are the best social media marketers. Because, going back to point 1, just because you know how to do something does not mean you know why. That’s like saying that all older people are the experts on retirement. Just because they got old doesn’t mean they figured out how to do it well. You wouldn’t hire a homeless 90 year old to run your portfolio so why would you give the same treatment to your social media presence?
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