Choosing the right social media agency to manage your social accounts is extremely important for your business’ marketing efforts. Selecting the wrong company could cost you money, time, and growth opportunity. To avoid picking the wrong social media agency, we’ve laid out some of the most important questions to ask and things to consider during the social media agency hiring process.
You may be thinking, why should I even hire a social media agency in the first place? Today, most businesses realize the benefit a strong social media presence can have for their brand. When you take on social media for your company, gone are the days of posting a random, unplanned photo on Facebook. For these reasons alone it is important to consult an SEO agency. There is an incredible amount of strategy behind a business’ social media presence to not only create a brand image but also to produce ROI.
Many businesses try to run their social media marketing internally, but this can drain time and energy from other areas of the business. Hiring an agency takes this work and puts it on the plate of a professional with the capacity to turn social media into revenue for your business.
Before asking the tough questions, first assess your business’ skills, experience, and capacity. Is there anyone internal with experience in this department? Is there room for expansion to create a position for this need?
Additionally, assess tools that may help you grow your social media accounts without the need to hire an agency. There are various types of tools for planning, scheduling, organic Instagram growth, and analytics to assist you in your social media marketing needs.
Finally, before asking an agency all your burning questions, assess your knowledge or familiarize yourself with some popular social media tools to aid in your social media growth efforts. Keep reading to hear the best questions to ask before hiring a social media agency.
- Ask About the Agency’s Previous Work
When looking to hire a social media agency, first review their case studies or current clients. A social media agency’s track record says a lot about the types of clients they handle and their overall work performance. Some agencies specialize in different industries, so it is important to find out this information upfront. If they are unable to provide you with case studies or client examples, consider looking elsewhere.
Dig deeper than the surface and ask about wins and failures with past clients. Inquire about specific challenges they turned into opportunities for a client. Knowing this information will give you an idea of the level of detail and care the agency puts into their work. Also, ask about accounts or campaigns they worked on that were not successful.
You’ll want to choose an agency with results that align closest to your business goals. The company that has similar success to what you’re looking to hire is the company you should work with at the end of the day.
- Ask About the Best Social Media Platforms for Your Business
Social media is one of the cheapest forms of marketing and the return on investment grows more and more every day as each platform evolves and grows in popularity.
When hiring a social media agency it’s important to discuss which social media platforms are best for your business. The professionals at an agency should know which platforms will benefit your company the most.
It’s no surprise Facebook is one of the top social media sites for your business. The platform has 2.41 billion daily active users making it the most widely used platform. Facebook will likely make the most notable difference in driving website traffic, lead generation or online conversions. Additionally, Facebook advertising (which now also controls Instagram advertising) is the most developed of all the social channels.
Instagram is another obvious choice for businesses. With a specific business account option, Instagram provides the tools you need to track post analytics, target ads towards specific audiences, and check your insights to compare post success. Instagram is a great option for businesses with and without an advertising budget, because you can organically grow your followers, and reach of your profile.
Pinterest is an incredible tool to drive traffic to your website. Because Pinterest is essentially a visual search engine, creatives are able to post clickable pins that drive users to their websites. Whether your business falls in the food, lifestyle, wedding or fashion industry, Pinterest can help complete your overall social media marketing strategy.
Twitter is great for engagement through its use of hashtags. Similar to Instagram, Twitter allows you to search for hashtags to find consumers or other companies.
Finally, Linkedin is not only a way to find potential employees, but can also be a popular engagement tool for your brand. Today, people are sharing more long-form stories and tips on Linkedin similar to marketing strategies used on Facebook. Linkedin allows you to showcase your products and services, leverage LinkedIn groups and boost your company’s SEO.
- Ask About What Tools They Use
Next, inquire about what types of tools the social media agency uses. Do your research beforehand to familiarize yourself with scheduling platforms, growth tools, and analytics tools that social media agencies use.
Popular tools social media agencies use tools are:
- Kicksta – To drive sales and growth to their clients brands, products, and services
- Sprout Social – To managing and monitoring multiple clients in one platform for engagement, measurement, and reporting
- Hootsuite – Planning and scheduling social media posts ahead of time
- Ask About Their Content Strategy and Development Process
In today’s media-focused world, it’s crucial to pay attention to how different companies identify themselves. Some companies are more social media marketing focused, while others focus on their blog content as the center of their marketing strategy.
Next, ask if they outsource content or do them all in-house. Many agencies don’t have the capacity to hire an in-house copywriter, so they use freelances services like Upwork and Writer’s Access. This may appear to be a red flag at first because they can’t find the time and therefore quality control the pieces of content created, however, there are many advantages to outsourcing.
Many people freelance full time for a living and are able to give the time and effort to effectively create amazing content for your brand. These experts can bring new and big ideas to your team. Sometimes it takes time to find writers that fit your brand but, once you do, this resource can be an incredible asset to your overall content strategy.
- Ask About Their Reporting Process
Next, ask about the company’s reporting process. There’s no point in hiring a social media agency if they can’t provide a comprehensive report proving that their social media strategy yields results.
Ask for proof of past reports. An effective report will prove the value and ROI of their campaigns. Identify which channels bring the most engagement and see how their previous campaigns performed on these platforms.
- Ask About Collaboration Requirements
Does the social media agency you’re looking to hire have collaboration requirements? Many agencies like to take full control of the publishing, community, management, and reporting while others are willing to delegate certain aspects to your brand to handle. Depending on how much you are looking to outsource to an agency, it is important to find out how much the agency is willing to handle.
Take full advantage of the shared asset library. Whether you use Dropbox, Google Drive or Sprout Social, collaborating through shared pictures is an easy way to share content for your social content.
- Ask About Pricing and Scope of Work
Finally, ask about pricing and scope of work. The social media agency’s experience and client load will affect their pricing. When you’re searching for an agency it can be easy to lean towards the company with the cheapest prices. With this being said, low pricing can indicate issues like lots of outsourcing, unhealthy work/life balance or inexperience. It is crucial to ask the questions above to see what the company is all about.
Have you ever heard the phrase, “you get what you pay for”? This phrase holds a lot of importance when choosing a social media agency. The cheapest option will likely yield unimpressive results.
Conclusion
If you ask all the above questions you’ll be set up for success to work with a social media agency. If chosen correctly, hiring an agency will take an incredible amount of work off your plate, yield amazing results and elevate your business to a level you could never accomplish on your own.