Social media is an unproven discipline. It’s forever changing. A lot of people are jumping into the mix right now, so I’m sure you’re going to start getting bombarded with marketing offers.
The truth is, there’s no magic bullet. If I was to walk in and start shoving Twitter down your throat BEFORE I even knew what you sold, I should be escorted out. Simple as that. But if I were to come in and start by asking you a couple simple questions like what you do and who’s your target market, chances are I am the right person for the job.
Here are 5 things your social media guy/gal should know from the start, without you having to say anything:
- How to pitch bloggers
Blogging is a conversational medium. If you can win over several influential bloggers, the battle is half over. Being that high powered bloggers are in the Internet spotlight, they get incredible amounts of email.
Pitching bloggers requires more of a relationship than anything else. Over the years, I have made a lot of good friends on here. Unfortunately, I don’t get to talk to all of them as much as I would like.
A good social media guy is going to have a strong network of bloggers and probably be a blogger themselves. It’s not required, but relationships are what matters in pitching the blog world.
- How to monitor social media campaigns
Monitoring social media campaigns isn’t like loading up Google Analytics and printing out a couple reports. Once the campaign goes live, it takes on a life of its own.
Your social media expert shouldn’t be looking at Google Alerts for social media monitoring. If they’re reasonably adept, they’re at least going to be tying into the various API’s of the services. They might be getting TweetLater keyword monitor emails.
The really good ones are going to be using Radian6. Radian6 is social media listening software that does a great job of monitoring and letting you react to conversations. We have used it for some of our client’s campaigns and it rocks.
- Strong personal profiles
Strong social media profiles are like portfolios for web designers. If your expert doesn’t have a strong presence online, they aren’t going to get the job done for you either.
The flip side of that is larger social media profiles are going to come with a larger price. If you’re requesting the best of the best, it’s safe to say your marketing budget is going to be severely drained!
- No Ghostwriting
Your expert shouldn’t be willing to write for you. The point of social media is personality and brand awareness. Unless you are going to employ the social media marketer full time and train them up on your culture, he shouldn’t be writing for you.
No one knows your brand better than you do. Why jeopardize that with a silly ghostwriter?
Social media is about bringing you closer to your clients. If you have a ghostwriter do the work, it’s like having a proxy that filters your Internet traffic – you won’t be receiving all of it.
- Social Media Training
This is perhaps my biggest pet peeve. The social media guy should be able to train you. They should show you where to get the tools you’ll need to integrate social media into your work life. If they can’t, they shouldn’t be doing the job.
Whether the training is online based or in person, their should be education in there. If not, they’re simply creating a job for themselves and when they’re all gone, so are your social media profiles!
If you’re looking for some free social media training, click the link. We also offer a free e-class through t
his site too!
Let me know what additions you would make to this list! I’ll be happy to edit the post and give you a link back to your site!
Jason,
Really love how concisely you've outlined this here. I think a theme across so much of what you've spelled out is that social media consultants and advisers need to be the training wheels for a company, put together guideposts, and get out of the way. There's no substitute for hands-on in social media, and a great consultant will know and empower their clients to not only embrace the medium, but do it authentically and for themselves.
Thanks so much for the shoutout, and for the common sense approach here.
Cheers,
Amber Naslund
Director of Community, Radian6
@AmberCadabra