How to hire a social media marketing consultant?

Hurray! You've experienced business growth and are ready to hire a contractor to manage your social media company to elevate your brand. 

You've gone down the rabbit hole of asking friends for referrals and Googling local companies and are ready to start the interview process. 

As a social media marketing company and consultant in Bend, Oregon -- I'm grateful to be on the other end of the interview process every week.  

After being in business for five and a half years, here are some of the things I encourage business owners to do before they start the process. 

It would help if you considered some critical things when outsourcing your social media marketing. 

What are the goals of hiring a social media marketing consultant to take over your social media? 

This is a question I ask on my intake form. Yes, I'm interviewing you just as much as you're interviewing me. I need to know if I can be helpful and if you have a killer website, marketing plan, brand guide, and budget for social media strategy. If you don't have those items, my team can create those at an extra cost. 

If your goal is sales from social media marketing, it can be done, but I remind the potential client that social media at its core is brand awareness. Sales come from consistency in your posts, messaging, various content types, and the latest trends in social media, which are constantly changing. Sales from social media marketing can be a long game.

Many companies we talk to are craving brand consistency and the latest trends. 

If video isn't on the radar, we educate the potential client on why they need video and why they need to play an active part in the video making due to social media being a direct line to your customers. 

Is the social media agency active on social media?

Stalk their social media profile. Are they sharing content related to social media marketing? Are they doing what they ask you to do, such as showing up on video in Reels & Stories, posting on-brand templates, and having consistent social media categories?

Does the social media marketing agency have a website?

You'll be surprised how many social media companies don't have a website. In my opinion, this is a sloppy tactic. Also, that was me for the first nine months of my business. No one took my business seriously, but once I spent time on a website and educational content (that helped my search engine optimization), the leads flooded in.  

Ask for their portfolio.

It would be best if you saw their work so ask for links to the client's social media profiles or PDF form. The portfolio should feature their experience and client before and after with stats and metrics. Please don't get too caught up in follower counts of the consultant or the companies their working with. 

For example, companies we work with are regional and can only take customers within that region, so the online communities are smaller and more niche, equating to smaller follower counts.

Regarding metrics, we often bypass follower counts and video views for helpful insights like accounts reached and engagement. These are vital areas where we can tell if your account is growing and reaching your targeted audience. 

 If you're looking to jump into outsourcing your social media marketing, email marketing, photography & or videos, feel free to contact me for a 15-minute discovery call.