So how do you find the real, bona fide experts in a sea of applicants? Avoid these five red flags and you’re off to a good start.
“It’s All About How Many Followers You Have”
Of course you want to reach as many followers as possible. More followers mean more clicks and eventually more sales, right? Wrong. You need the right kind of followers: the people who are your ideal customers. Even if every human being in the world followed you, you wouldn’t have a better social media campaign than if you had just a few thousand people who want what you’re selling. Why spend your valuable budget on a bunch of followers who don’t want what you have to offer?
Instead, Ask, “What Are The Demographics Of My Followers?”
Ask your social team to provide a demographic break down of your users. What are the genders, age, income, location, and likes. This data can highlight a lot of helpful information, the first being are your fans your target customers? Without these details your social team’s strategy can struggle to reach your ideal users negating the value of social media.
“Let’s Focus On Getting You Lots Of Likes”
There’s so much talk out there about getting people to like your posts. Many marketers mistakenly believe that getting lots of Likes is a sign of a healthy campaign, but that’s not necessarily the case. The truth is, a Like doesn’t really mean that much. Sure, more of them can mean your followers enjoy your posts, but of all the types of engagement (including shares and comments) Likes are the quickest, easiest, and possibly the most mindless one. In fact, when Facebook’s algorithm decides how many of your followers to push a post out to, it weighs shares and comments more. The number of Likes you get isn’t likely to correlate to revenue either.
Instead, Ask, “What Other Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Are You Measuring To Track The Success Of Each Campaign?”
Look for KPIs that give you a better picture of your social media return on investment (ROI), such as overall improvement in clicks, traffic, and conversions. You can measure how long and what the cost of converting a social user into a sale or lead. If you have 10,000 followers, but none of them turn in to customers you need to reevaluate your strategy. Using attribution modeling you can also uncover at what point your social visitors turn into customers. This can help to uncover if your social team is working to nurture potential needs and how long it takes to retain them, which can change your strategy and budgets,
“I Can Get You Followers, Likes, Shares, And Comments – For A Price”
Can you pay for followers or engagement? Sure. But if your social media marketing isn’t hitting the mark, gaming the system won’t help. Any member of your audience can unfollow you at any given time. What keeps them in your audience is their personal desire to be there. They feel a real connection to your brand. They engage with your posts because they want to be a part of your community. If you have to pay them to do so, they’re not your ideal customers. This includes anyone working for your social media manager, either directly or indirectly. Customers are supposed to pay you, remember?
Instead, Ask, “What’s Your Strategy For Getting Followers And Engagement Organically?”
Paying for followers or engagement is like fudging the numbers on the scale. Sure, it looks good on paper, but you’re not actually losing any weight. It’s important to note the difference between buying engagement and promoting posts or running ads. The latter is a great way to reach new relevant customers and should be a part of any social strategy.
“I’ll Post X Times Per Day/Week/Month”
Many social media experts ask for payment based on the number of services they provide. The problem comes when the number of posts becomes the focus of a campaign. The “right” number of posts varies from campaign to campaign, network to network, and audience to audience. That number should also vary depending on the time of year, important events, and themes. There’s no one-size-fits all solution.
Instead, Ask, “What Is Your Overall Strategy For Reaching My Social Media Goals?”
Posts aren’t the goal. Engagement, traffic, and conversion are, right? Beware of any social media professional who focusses too much on how often they’ll be posting, and not enough on overall campaign strategy. They should develop a goal, a plan to reach that goal, and an overview of what strategies they will be using to implement it.
“Don’t Worry About Pay-To-Play Advertising”
Social networks are free advertising, right? Wrong. Let’s set aside the fact that social networks are first and foremost about being social (not about plugging your latest sale), and focus on the part where they’re supposed to be free. The reality is, social media marketing isn’t free and hasn’t been for some time. Your social media manager’s rates prove that. Even if you handle all your accounts in-house or with your own ten fingers, it’s an investment in time, energy, and skill. And with many platform introducing paid advertising, budgeting for social media is now a must.
Instead, Ask, “How Will Your Strategy Maximize My Advertising Budget?”
But guess what? Those extra costs come with some pretty sweet benefits that you social media strategy should take advantage of. Pay-to-play advertising isn’t just about getting your ads or posts in front of more users. It’s about getting them in front of the right users. All those Likes, Shares, Comments, and profiles users spend time creating tell the folks at Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and others a lot about their users. Social networks are a gold mine of user demographics, and when you pay to play, you get to specify exactly the kind of users you want viewing your marketing so you can maximize your budget.
Conclusion
If you’re ready to step up your social media game, hiring an expert could be just the investment your business needs to get the best results for your budget. Unfortunately, there are many so-called experts who don’t really understand what makes a successful campaign, much less a dynamic strategy that improves your ROI. Ask the right questions, however, and you’ll be able to suss out those who just aren’t right for your business.
