10 Questions For Your Social Media Consultant

 1. What’s your background? Hiring a tech geek isn’t enough—your consultant should know branding and business strategy. “You don’t want someone just to teach you how to use online tools,” says Jacob Morgan, founder of Chess Media. Seek a consultant with success helping companies similar to yours.

 

2. Who are your partners? Lots of people call themselves social media consultants—all it takes is a Twitter account and a knack for web design. To evaluate a consultant’s credibility, check out his or her partners, who will often provide their services more affordably for his clients.

 

3. What’s your process? The hipster who does all his work between 2 and 5 a.m. may be a web genius, but will he meet deadlines? Make sure your consultant has a clear method.

 

4. How will you help me reach a wider audience? A social media consultant should help you get your message not just to your target audience, but to all the communities that influenceit, says Albert Maruggi, founder of Provident Partners.

 

5. Will you hand over the reins? Some companies, particularly those that take a hands-off approach to PR, outsource all social media work. But your web presence will more closely reflect your corporate message if you handle social media in-house, says Chess Media’s Morgan. If you do go in-house, work with your consultant to create a timeline for transitioning web responsibilities.

 

6. To tweet or not to tweet? If you’re a small company or one that prides itself on transparency, you may welcome public interaction and encourage employees to blog and tweet about their work. Companies that use social tactics but have a traditional marketing strategy stick to a more rehearsed message and typically don’t allow comments on their sites.

 

7. What’s our contingency plan? If you plan to embrace social media, be sure to ask this question. Although the rewards can be great, so are the risks. Make sure you have a plan for responding to customer complaints and pulling the plug if they spiral out of control. “Whether it’s a staff of lawyers or an intern, you need someone to act as a watchdog over your sites,” says Albert Lash, president of web consulting firm Savonix.

 

8. Should I be a first mover? Being one of the earliest adopters of a new technology can increase your credibility among tech connoisseurs. But since it’s difficult to predict which sites and technologies will take off, you may devote lots of time and resources to an effort that doesn’t produce. How tech-savvy is your target demographic and how much do you value being ahead of the curve?

 

9. How will we measure success? You and your consultant should set clear targets. For example, you might focus on share of voice (making sure your company is more talked about than your competition) or sentiment analysis (increasing brand loyalty). Whatever the focus, make the results measurable.

 

10. How will you help me make money? Buzz and brand recognition are swell, but how will your web strategy increase profits? Set explicit expectations from the outset.

 

For more information, contact

 

Albert Lash at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 617.413.8259;

 

Albert Maruggi at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 612.293.7640,

 

or

 

Jacob Morgan at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 818.442.3579.

Curator