Enlisting the help of an outside firm to ensure that you are regularly posting to and monitoring your company’s social media presence allows you to focus on what’s going on in the office and can ensure that you’re making the most of what these platforms have to offer. But how do you evaluate their processes – especially if you’re not sure of social media best practices yourself. Here are a few questions to ask potential social media partners to determine if they are the right fit.

• Will you perform a baseline assessment of my company’s social media platforms?

  Before jumping right into posting for your company, your social media partner should review your current social efforts, identify what has been working and what needs to be tweaked, and provide you with a report detailing its current state. At Technology Therapy, we perform social media audits for each social client before we begin any work on their platforms.

• What is the collaboration process like between our internal team and yours?

  You want to ensure that the process they take is compatible with how your company operates. Do you need to approve all posts before they are made live or are you more hands-off? Will meetings be weekly, monthly, or as needed? We work with our clients to develop a process with which they are most comfortable, tailoring the approach to their needs.

• Which social platforms should my company be using?

  9 times out of 10 if a company is trying to sell you on using every social platform under the sun, you should run in the other direction. Be wary of firms trying to upsell platforms that aren’t right for you. They should have a clear explanation for why each platform is recommended AND they should detail why others are to be avoided.

• How often will you post on my company’s behalf?

  You should know exactly when to expect to see posts on your company’s pages so you can check and make sure that everything is being kept up to date.

• Does your company have a standard review process?

  In order to greatly reduce – or hopefully eliminate – the amount of mistakes made on your social media platforms, your partner should have an internal review process where one person creates the list – or deck – of posts for the week and another proof reads it. You can also request that the deck be sent to your team for review prior to posting.

• How frequently will you monitor my company’s social platforms?

  You want to be sure that this company will be looking at your pages throughout the week, not just when they schedule your posts. They should be responding to posts and messages from your customers and interacting with other users on a regular basis. In the event that they cannot answer a question or comment, they should send it to someone on your team in a timely fashion.

• Does your company incorporate SEO bet practices in your social media approach?

  Social media doesn’t operate in a silo. What you post there can have a great impact on your search rankings. Your social partner should regularly post links back to your site and incorporate your keywords into your posts – two best practices that we follow here at Technology Therapy.

These questions are essential when assessing a potential social media partner and will help you determine both if they adhere to social best practices and if they are a good fit with your company’s needs and personality.

Are you ready to get help with your social media? Reach out for a free consultation to discuss our approach!