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Nowadays, outsourcing your company’s Facebook and Twitter profiles to a social media agency is an increasingly popular option, thanks to reduced costs and increased flexibility. But what should you consider when picking an agency to work with? We look at four ways that top customers are using to choose an agency to work with. Do They Understand Your Culture And Vision? Making sure your chosen agency understands your company culture and vision is of critical importance. The social media agency will be representing your brand online, so they’ll need to know your brand inside out. However, rather than expecting them to know your brand and industry perfectly from the outset, as the client it’s your role to ensure the agency sticks to your brand values and vision. When appointing an agency, ensure they understand your brand by teaching them through a workshop or seminar. Are They Skilled Communicators? Platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are all about communication, so your agency will need to be able to communicate concisely and coherently to ensure your brand’s values and reputation are projected accurately. The successful social media agency is one that is staffed by skilled communicators. Digital marketing managers often come from a wide range of roles focused around interaction with the public, for example PR roles, customer service or journalism. Your agency will likely contain a mix of people from these backgrounds, which is a great benefit over tasking one person in-house with your social media, who may only be skilled in one area. The Right Methods One of the most important ways of differentiating between one social media agency and another is through their methods. You need to be sure the agency is using up to date methods that generate results. To do this, you yourself should keep up to date with social media industry resources like Mashable or Social Media Examiner. You will then be able to accurately audit agencies on their potential effectiveness and question them on methods you are unsure about. One common way of comparing agencies is through case studies. Make sure you ask when these campaigns were conducted, as even as recent as one year ago, digital marketing trends for business were different, and businesses had different objectives on social networks than they do today. How Do They Measure ROI? This leads on to the final thing to consider. As digital marketing trends continue to evolve, and even as recent as six months ago, social objectives were different, and so was the method of measuring an ROI. In 2013, social media ROI is all about the effect it has on the bottom line. Fortunately, tools have become popular that seek to measure this. One great benefit for clients is that a modern social media agency tracks everything it does using the same metrics used everywhere else in your digital marketing arsenal. Thanks to clever tools like Google Analytics, it’s possible to track your customers from their first contact with you right through to the eventual sale, even across multiple days. Make sure your chosen agency has the know how to deeply integrate your social platforms into your digital marketing in this way to reap the full rewards of social media.
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