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How to evaluate a social media consultant

Page history last edited by Axel 14 years, 9 months ago

This is a collaborative effort to help customers evaluate social media consulting resources.

This is just a start - Inviting everybody; Consultant or customer to add / prioritize

1) Check the companies presence in the social web: LinkedIn Group, Facebook Group, Twitter account

2) Read their blog posts and post history

3) Get references and call them. Identify their customers in their own groups. If that doesn't exist - RED FLAG!

4) Make sure they have a robust assessment process - how else would they know where your customers are and how to connect with them

5) Ask for experience in helping companies with "business processes" (be sure somebody is not a dreamer but knows how a company actually clicks)

6) Check the consultants own social graph - connections, contributions to the social web, participation, knowledge sharing and the feedback thereof.

7) Understand how that consultant makes money - if it is just for the "greater good" you run the risk that the guy or gal is all of a sudden off and gone.

8) Check if the consultant is a "Marketing Only" guy or whether they have a comprehensive understanding about the implications social media has to a business.

9) Check if that consultant can help you create a strategic social media engagement plan that is actually created WITH your customer, partners and other constituencies of your business ecosystem right from day one. Make sure it is not just yet another marketing plan.

10) Ask for METHODS. Ask what methods are used to do reporting, ROI calculations, competitive analysis, trend development etc.

11) If they have a certification, ask who certified them and what they had to do to get the certification.

12) Make sure the social media consultant-company is following smart people and those people are following smart people. Using social media for business is new and evolving and no one comapny or consultant can keep up with these changes.

MOST IMPORTANTLY get your arms around the field yourself. YOU CANNOT DELEGATE SOCIAL. You may need to hire some social media resources but ONLY YOU should decide what capacity you need.