We’d all like to think our social media consultants — any of our consultants, actually — know what they’re doing, and have our organization’s best interests at heart. But there are times that, despite all the good they promised, things don’t go the way we had hoped or were led to believe.

Too often, organizations don’t realize they were sold a bill of goods until after the campaign has ended, and they try to figure out what the ROI on the entire project was. That’s when they have the horrible realization they just spent thousands of dollars on a project and got almost nothing for it in return.

Measuring ROI is important, even in the middle of the campaign. But about a month after your campaign has kicked off, start asking these questions:

• Does your social media consultant avoid using Twitter or other social media tools? Ask what they think about these tools. If you hear “I don’t use _____ because I think it’s stupid” or “because no one uses it,” ask them for data to back up their statement, and a better explanation than “it’s stupid.” The question is not whether they think it’s stupid, it’s whether your customers do. If your customers are on there, then it doesn’t matter what the consultant thinks.
• Who are your social media followers? Are they your target audience, or are they filler followers? (Filler-wers?) Some disreputable social media consultants will fill a company’s follower ranks with spammers, high school students, or offshore account holders, none of whom are your target audience (unless you’re selling stuff to spammers, high school students, or offshore outsourced workers). Pay close attention to your followers, and see if they’re the kinds of people you normally do business with. Ask yourself the likelihood of being followed by several hundred high school students, when you normally sell stuff to their parents. Or by computer experts from the Philippines, when your customer base lives within three miles of your store.
• Does your social media company have a strategy, a look, a campaign that is unique to you? Or does it look exactly the same as everyone else’s? Does it involve some new thinking and challenges for you, as a way to reach a new audience, or is it just an online version of what you’re doing offline? While a social media campaign won’t reinvent the wheel, it shouldn’t just be a retread of your old campaign. It’s also a good idea to avoid the “everyone else is doing it” type of program, like free giveaways to site visitors. While that may bring in visitors, they may not really be potential customers (see the previous point).
• What do you know about the business or the people at the business that you have entrusted with the reputation of your company? What is their reputation around the community? Do they hold to your business ethics, or do they do some things that you disagree with? While you can expect some disagreements politically — that sort of thing just happens, and is a poor excuse to not do business with someone — you should make sure that the person’s personal brand and reputation matches your own. For example, would you want an avid hunter representing your animal rights organization? Should a mixed martial arts fighter be a spokesperson for your pacifist organization? And do you want someone who tells racist or sexist jokes to represent your third world relief organization? You can find things like this on someone’s Facebook page or blog, and they should be a serious cause for concern.
• Would you hand your social media consultant a microphone and let them tell the world they are representing you? In essence, are you comfortable saying, “this is our employee. We trust her enough to give her money and speak on our behalf.”

  If you’re having problems answering the first four questions, the answer to this question, I hope, is “no.” Your consultant is an employee, albeit a temporary, part-time contract employee, but they are your representative nevertheless. And if you can’t trust them with little things like not hiring a bunch of offshore freelancers to create hundreds of fake social media accounts, you can’t trust them with big things, like telling members of your community that you hired them.

I realize I’m picking on my own industry, but it’s necessary to be proactive, and to point out some of the scams and poor practices that exist. Most real social media professionals do everything we can to help our clients, and do what we promised them in the spirit of the agreement, not just the letter of the agreement (that is, when we say we’ll grow their network, we grow it with likely, real customers, not people with a pulse).

We make sure we do it ethically, and that our own personal and corporate brand is something another company is pleased to be associated with.

So it’s incumbent upon the social media industry to police ourselves, so charlatans and snake-oil salesmen don’t ruin it for those of us who are actually doing it correctly. All it takes is for one person to smear the industry’s reputation by totally screwing a small company out of thousands of dollars. Then the honest professionals suffer for it.

If you find you’re being given bad information by your consultant, speak with another social media professional you trust, and get a second opinion. Find out what questions you should be asking, and what answers you should be getting. Then, double-check your information, speak to your hired consultant, listen carefully, and be prepared to cancel the contract if need be.

Yes, it’s harsh, but it’s your organization’s budget, reputation, and brand on the line. They’re counting on you to not tell anyone else about it, so they can continue to leech off your community or your industry. Protect yourself first, and make sure you’re getting what you should be.

About the Author: Erik Deckers
Erik is the VP of Operations & Creative Services for Pro Blog Service. He has been blogging since 1998, and has been a published writer for more than 22 years. He has written humor newspaper columns, business articles, radio and stage plays, and is currently working on a novel. He helped write Twitter Marketing for Dummies, and is writing two other books on social media and networking. Erik frequently speaks on blogging and social media.

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