11 Questions to Ask When Hiring a Social Media Consultant Online

questions to ask when hire a social media consultant

As your online business begins to grow, you need to start outsourcing some services. Another way to acquire valuable knowledge without hiring an expensive in-house team is having an experienced consultant.

Social signals are huge for search, but targeted social traffic do convert well and is worth your investment. Now, if you settle on hiring a social media consultant, you want to ensure that you get the right one on board.

As Freelancers and solopreneurs, we are used to doing everything all by ourselves. Before hiring someone, you may then need to know exactly what your expectations are and communicate them to your potential hirees before onboarding them.

If you are a social media consultant yourself, then I suggest you read our guide on starting a social media business. You can also use the questions in this article to add someone else to your team as your business continues to grow

Questions You Should Ask When Hiring a Social Media Consultant.

To examine who among your applicants will be the most suitable social media consultant for your business, you need to ask the right questions.

When doing the interviews, see through every answer for genuine replies and rehearsed phrases. You will settle for individuals who give elaborate, reasoned and though-out answers that are backed with examples from the field.

Let’s now jump right in.

1: How Successful Are You in Your Own Social Media Networks.

If you’ve worked as a freelance anything before, you know how important this is to clients. In this case you are the client. The logic is, if they are as good as they claim to be, then they should have applied some of their strategies in their own platforms and seen some growth.

Don’t be too demanding here. Your hirees don’t have as much budget to invest in growing their platforms as you do. However, they should show you a growth strategy that has worked for them.

You will of course do your due diligence to carry out a detailed background check to ascertain that they comply with the best social media strategies in their own platforms such as prompt replies and no account spamming.

2. Have You Explored My Industry?

Getting the best applicants is work half-done. The secret to this is knowing where to look and how to ask. You are not looking for a general social strategist, but rather someone who understands your niche.

When screening applicants, this is one question you need to ask. Ask them if they understand your market segment. Finding potentials who have worked with someone in your niche before is a plus. However, adequate knowledge of the industry and market segment is enough.

To gauge their knowledge, you can ask questions such as industry trends or age segments. Also enquire if they have written blog posts, whitepapers or any other content around your market.

3.  What are the Best Promotional Strategists Do You Propose for My Business?

Don’t worry. By the time your applicant is being interviewed, they have already researched your business and have proposals ready. By asking them this question, you are subjecting yourself to a ride that will help you explore your options.

Experienced social media consultants will give you detailed strategies backed with data and projected (and executable) results. Generic answers such as “will promote on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter,” will help tell apart those who have ability to grow your business and those who don’t.

They don’t have to show all their cards for free, but they should at least mention one elaborate strategy that is well thought-of

4.  Where Can I Find Your Portfolio

As a business owner, you are looking for a long-term consultant. Thus, accessing someone’s past track record is very important. Unless your applicant is starting off in the world of social consulting, they have their portfolio ready.

You can see examples of their past and current works and determine their eligibility. Here you want to examine campaigns that have been repeated and the impact they have had on the business in terms of the following”

  • Brand exposure,
  • Leads and
  • Sales

5. How Do You Measure ROI?

Your social media consultant should have a clear way of tracking the Return on Investment, which, is not equal to more likes or followers. You need strategies that boil down to conversion, either in terms of qualifying leads or sales.

Your consultant should be familiar with tools such as Facebook Pixel for marketing, Google Analytics, Insight tools (Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram Insights). They should also propose a way of tracking Twitter-retweet rates if you will be investing on the platform

6. Which Social Media Network Do You Specialize in?

I actually wonder whether this question should be included here. This is because, if you’ve got only one platform that you will be focusing on, then you don’t need to hire a general social media consultant. In that case, you are better off looking for a consultant in that particular network.

For instance, if Pinterest is huge for you, then hire a Pinterest traffic consultant. Same thing for Instagram and Facebook groups and Facebook ads.

Either way, it’s still good to know where the strengths of your social media consultant lie so that you can double down there, especially if they align with your market segment.

7. What is Your Reporting Process?

This is huge, not only for social media managers, but for social consultants as well. Unless you get detailed report on the performance of your campaigns, you’ll never know what is working and what isn’t.

Your consultant should commit to a detailed weekly or monthly reporting and proposed tweaks for the ongoing campaigns.

8. What Platform is Right for My Business?

You already have a clue what platform you should be focusing on, but an expert’s perspective will help you determine if you got the right person. Your applicant will back up their responses with a sound ‘why’. This question is for gauging their knowledge around your industry and market segment.

9. How Do You Handle Social Media Crisis?

Great campaigns may only be great on paper and during the presentation to your team. However, when it comes to implementation, they may accrue negative feedback. Social media crisis (Brand Reputation Crisis) is something that cannot be shoved down the trail, fingers crossed with hope that it doesn’t happen. It does happen, and your consultant should have a means to deal with it.

Consultants should have their own policies for responding to things like demeaning Facebook comments and negative tweets

10: What are Your Rates?

Working with consultants is not like having your own employee. They have their own payment terms and rates and you want to ensure that both of you are on the same page. Most consultants have specific models such as pay per project, per campaign, per hour or per a duration such as monthly. Make your own suggestion and see if you can reach an agreement and out it in writing if you end up hiring them.

11. What is the number 1 thing that a Social Media Consultant Should be doing?

This question will help you gauge their understanding of the job position you are offering. You will get diverse answers. You want to incline to those pointing to social listening, monitoring and evaluation.

Why Hire a Social Media Consultant?

Do you even need one?

Now listen, anyone can post on social media, but not everyone can get results. You need a working strategy, you need to know best times to post, you need to know the best platforms to use, best campaigns to run and when, best social media copy for your industry, you need to track metrics, evaluate and improve.

Now, that’s what only a social consultant can do. Besides, hiring one can help you achieve the following:

  • Increased revenue with optimized campaigns
  • A growing network and brand exposure
  • Generated leads
  • Growing fan base
  • High engagement rate
  • Maximum platform utilization
  • Increased social traffic
  • Improved search rankings backed by high social signals etc.

Where to Find a Social Media Consultant.

Okay, you are convinced and now ready to hire a social media consultant but don’t know where. One of the platforms I recommend is Fiverr. Here you can find an affordable consultant who are well versed with various markets.

Fiverr is still my big go to resource for outsourcing most services. Simply search for the following on Fiverr:

Other places you can find a social media manager to hire include Upwork, Facebook groups, Twitter search and other freelancing platforms.

If you are looking for a Pinterest Management service, then you can use our own Pingency service. Yes, you get to work with yours truly, Mysson to generate traffic to your own business. You can contact us here for any clarification Our Pinterest traffic strategies bring us 20,000 pageviews monthly from Pinterest alone.

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Last update on 2024-03-29 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Mysson
Mysson
As an SEO freelance writer for hire, Mysson creates compelling content in online business, SaaS, and Digital Marketing niches for clients just like you. Hire Mysson for powerful business storytelling, crispy copy for service business or insightful articles that spark online conversations, attract links and boost conversions. Connect on LinkedIn @Mysson
Mysson
Mysson
As an SEO freelance writer for hire, Mysson creates compelling content in online business, SaaS, and Digital Marketing niches for clients just like you. Hire Mysson for powerful business storytelling, crispy copy for service business or insightful articles that spark online conversations, attract links and boost conversions. Connect on LinkedIn @Mysson

Guestposting on The PennyMatters has since been discontinued. Do not contact us on the same.

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