How to pick an expert social media consultant

Posted by Joe Franscella

Media designed to be made available quickly and easily over the Internet to anyone with a Web browser and Internet connection is typically referred to as “Social Media.” Commonly used social media types include videos, blogs, photos, PodCasts and remarks made on social media publishing communities, blog reply fields and platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and WordPress.

Well-known and heavily-patronized social media publishing sites and platforms and modern Internet search engine functionality has made it possible for individuals and businesses to interact on topics of mutual interest through social media at breakneck speeds and on a massive scale.

Social media interactions are so popular and easy that businesses recognize that with it, they can enhance brand recognition, win new customers and manage existing customer relationships. Well-known technology suppliers such as EMC are taking the power of social media so seriously that they are actively recruiting manager-level employees to fill full-time positions in the practice.

It seems as if new ways to penetrate customer bases via social media interactions spring up daily. Change takes place at such a rapid pace that many newcomers end up throwing in the towel before they even get started. Statements such as, “We haven’t yet seen the value of social media,” are often defense mechanisms that really mean, “I haven’t got a clue.”

To compensate for a lack of understanding on how to best utilize social media for customer interactions, organizations are increasingly relying upon their marketing, communications and PR agencies to integrate social media communications elements into their marketing strategies. Unfortunately, many agencies are as clueless as their clients.

CMOs, marketing VPs and directors that need to rely upon an agency to establish social media interactions can quickly cull through the morass of service providers and determine which actually provide “expertise” by checking them against a set of “expert” criteria.

Once you have identified an agency that can provide expert strategic leadership within traditional marketing arenas, you can then judge its ability to provide expert social media execution by evaluating  it against these seven-criteria:

1. Agency employees participate in social community interactions through the use of various social media formats
2. Agency employees have established, regularly used accounts on popular social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube
3. Agency employees have established, regularly updated blogs
4. Agency employees have been recognized as active social media participants by recognized social media icons
5. The agency utilizes social media as a way to market its service offerings
6. The agency has secured tangible metrics as a result of its social media activities on behalf of clients or itself
7. The agency can demonstrate thorough knowledge and understanding how to raise search engine rankings through the use of keywords, meta tags and other SEO techniques

There really is no room for a missing check box when it comes to your evaluation. Just like college students must demonstrate that they have fulfilled all the requirements of a degree prior to having a diploma granted, an agency must also fill all requirements prior to earning “expert” status.