| With the strong emergence of social media
in the internet marketing world, every Tom, Dick and Harry has come out saying they are
social media experts. They are feeding on the desires of entrepreneurs who do not have
time to dedicate to developing their social media presence effectively. If you do not ask
the right questions you may wind up spending thousands of dollars and get no results.
That's why I created this guide to help you choose the best social media consultant for
your company.
5 Questions You Must Ask Before You Hire Your Next Social
Media Consultant
1. When engaging in social media marketing will you keep my
targeted audience in mind?
Most social media companies will focus on making the
connection. They do not care whatsoever who that connection is. What good is having
thousands of connections if they do not become prospects, new clients, referral sources or
possible JV partners. When I help my LinkedIn clients, I focus on their target audience. I
research each individual potential connection to see if they could be a future prospect,
referral source or joint venture opportunity. I focus on the quality of the connection,
not the quantity because my clients do not care how many people I connect with them. They
care more about how much money they are making from LinkedIn and their social media
efforts.
2. Do you create a system to take the online conversation
offline?
Many consultants do not take the most crucial step of any
online social media connection -- They fail to take the online conversation offline. If
you think you are going to sell high-end products and services just by having a social
media presence, then I have a Brooklyn Bridge to sell you. You need to have a system in
place that consistently gets your website and information in front of your prospects. You
need to engage with them on many levels. And, you need to find ways that you can get them
to take the next step in your relationship - and have a phone conversation with you.
3. How engaged are you in social media conversations?
Anyone can post content to groups - a five year old can
even do that if you show them how. If your social media consultant does not understand
direct response copywriting techniques that encourages conversation, then it's time to
move on. If your social media consultant does not regularly monitor the conversations
that's happening online every day, then move on. The person you choose to handle your
social media needs to know how to assess the conversations and find ways you can
contribute. I spend time every day, scanning the LinkedIn Q & A boards and the
different groups that my clients belong to. I look for opportunities that my clients can
add value. I look for ways to spark healthy debates. That's what effective social media
marketing is all about.
4. When focusing on social media profiles do you focus
strictly on keyword optimization and being found first for you niche?
If you go to LinkedIn and do a search on internet
marketing, you will see the number one person has only 145 connections and the number 2
person has 154 connections. Now internet marketing is a popular key phrase. In fact, the
search gets 487,100 results for that phrase. So imagine how many people check out their
profiles. One has to wonder why they get so few connections. It is because the person who
handles their profile forgot, if you want to create a connection, you need to have
prospect focused copy within the profile. You cannot just have it stuffed with keywords.
Your profile has to show me why I want to connect or do business with you.
5. How can you ensure that my social media messaging stays
consistent with my branding?
One of my clients, Adam Hommey, Founder of Help My Website
Sell, started to create content that dealt with how to work effectively with your website
team. How does that relate to a brand that is heavily focused on increasing website
conversions? Most companies would have distributed his article on their social networks
without any concern. But I pushed backed and told him that this did not match his brand
and this should not be sent out. I asked him point blank, how does this relate to website
conversions and how will this persuade legal firms, management consulting firms and
corporation (his target audience) to want to connect with him? You need someone who will
keep your brand in check and work to reinforce it through social media.
By asking these 5 questions, you will avoid the mistake of
hiring the wrong social media consultant or company. |
