Are you ready to hire a social media marketing agency to help manage your social media accounts and integrate your efforts with your other marketing activities? You don’t just want any social media marketing agency. Instead, make sure you get the right one: one that will help improve your marketing efforts and help you attract more potential residents through your social media posts. Ask these key questions to ensure that you’re hiring the right social media marketing agency for your company.
Question #1: How Many Accounts Do You Manage?
You want a social media manager who has plenty of experience, but not so many accounts that yours is going to get lost in the shuffle. Check to make sure that potential social media managers have a few ongoing clients who trust them with their social media efforts, but that they don’t have so many clients that you’re going to struggle to get in touch with them to make changes or handle emergency posts for your facility.
Question #2: What Experience Do You Have With the Social Platforms My Business Uses?
What social media platforms is your business already using? Does your potential social media manager have experience with those platforms? Marketing and expectations vary from one platform to another. The posts you put on Instagram aren’t the same as the ones you want to put on Facebook–and a good social media manager needs to be familiar with how to adapt your posts based on the structure of each site and the expectations of the customers on it. Make sure, as you’re considering a social media manager, that you choose one with experience in the platforms you use every day.
Question #3: Who Develops the Content?
When you hire a social media manager, are you looking for someone to curate your content and fill in gaps in your content production, or are you looking for someone who will create most of your content for you? Do you want to offer them a topic list and regular suggestions, or do you prefer to leave them to take care of the content creation with little guidance? Talk with potential social media managers to learn how they handle content creation–and where that content comes from when they create it. Do they handle it in-house, or is it outsourced? Do they have trusted writers who handle that content creation?
Question #4: Can You Define My Voice?
Before you choose a social media manager for your business, you want to be sure that the company understands your voice so that they can recreate it. You want to maintain your voice across all of your social platforms, from Facebook to Instagram and Snapchat. Make sure that your potential manager can define and explain your voice so that they’ll be able to recreate it in your posts.
Question #5: Do You Have Experience in My Industry?
Social media needs change based on your industry. What a retail store needs in terms of marketing, for example, might look completely different from what’s required for a senior living community. If you’re considering a new social media manager, consider that manager’s experience in your industry and other related industries.
Question #6: What Social Media Platforms Would You Recommend for My Business?
Talk with your social media manager and discuss which platforms they think are important for your business. Do they line up with your expectations? Do their suggestions match what you’re already doing or encourage you to expand your marketing efforts? Can they provide insightful advice that will help you more effectively market your business? If so, you may find that this company offers an excellent partnership for your business.
Question #7: What Metrics Do You Monitor?
When you hire a social media manager, you want to know that they’re going to help increase your marketing success–but how do you plan to measure that success? Talk with potential social media marketing managers about your current goals, then ask them how they would measure progress to those goals. Make sure those metrics line up with your goals and will allow you to effectively track what they are accomplishing.
Question #8: How Would You Handle a Social Media Crisis?
Most people don’t think of social media as a place for a crisis, but it can happen! If your company is caught in the middle of a crisis, how would your social media manager handle it? Will they be on hand to monitor ongoing conversations on social media? How do they act to prevent crises before they start? You’re looking for a social media manager who will monitor the conversation about your business as well as the conversation actually happening on your pages.
Question #9: How Do You Stay Organized?
Ideally, an experienced social media manager will work with publishing tools to pre-schedule social media posts and keep them organized. They may also have calendars for content creation and other strategies that help keep them on track.
Question #10: How Often Do You Communicate With Your Clients?
When there are issues, does the social media manager reach out to take care of them quickly, or do they try to handle them on their own? Are they open to collaboration, or do they prefer to work essentially alone, without a great deal of communication? Talk with your potential social media manager to asses where they fall on that spectrum and whether it aligns with your goals.
Question #11: What Proof of Your Skills Can You Offer?
When you work with a social media manager, make sure they have a proven track record. Take a look at their past successes. Look at the clients they have managed in the past. Make sure that your potential social media manager’s past successes align with what you’re looking for in a social media manager for your business.
Do you need a social media manager who will help improve your posts, increase engagement across all of your channels, and help you connect more effectively with potential customers? If so, give us a call today at (844) 408-4081 to learn more about how we can help with your social media management.
