Are you interested in hiring a social media marketing consultant but aren’t exactly sure what qualifications you should be looking for?
Fear not, because it’s easy to get lost when hiring a social media consultant. There are so many of them out there, each of them with a range of experience and expertise that might make them suitable for specific clients. But you don’t care about what a consultant can do for someone else as much as what they can do for you, right?
Trying to decipher which consultant will be the right choice for your business can be tough. When prospective clients come to us at SocialSellinator, there are a few criteria that we look at to determine whether or not we would be a good fit for their business. We encourage all companies that are evaluating social media consultants to evaluate these three traits first and foremost to determine fit:
Would you trust a social media consultant that can’t seem to get their own social media ship floating? If they have fewer followers than you (or seem to get very little engagement on the platforms they are active on) that should be a huge red flag, signaling that they might not be the best person to work with.
By that same token, they should be able to provide you with a proven track record of results for their clients as well. There are a million so-called “social media experts” out there claiming that they can generate returns for their clients, but how many of them can actually prove it? So many prospective clients come to us having been burned by other consultants.
Have they been able to drive business results for their clients? How about website traffic originating from social media? Look into their published case studies. Ask for references. Ask about their experience. Make sure that they can deliver what they claim they can and can verifiably prove that they have done the same for other companies.
For you to have an ideal outcome from working with a social media marketing consultant, it is important that both parties have a full understanding of what success from the engagement actually looks like. It’s important that expectations are outlined and in alignment before the engagement begins.
A good social media marketing consultant will be able to recommend different strategies for different goals. For instance — a company that is more interested in baseline sales would be more likely to need a Facebook ads service than a service that will drive organic engagement over an extended period of time. A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work unless that one-size fits with your business goals perfectly. Always insist on a custom-tailored strategy.
It can’t be overstated how much an understanding of your industry will help a social media marketing consultant devise a strategy that generates a return. Social media is a crowded field. Specialization gives you a leg up by ensuring that the consultant you choose to work with has a deep understanding of your customers. They should know how the industry works and how their strategy will work to your benefit, based on their experience working with companies similar to yours.