How to hire a social media consultant as part of your marketing strategy

This is a guest post from Chris Street, aka Bristol Editor. With many of our clients struggling to find time to do the doing on social media marketing for their small business, we asked Chris what he thinks a client should be looking for if they choose to outsource this to a social media consultant.

Chances are, if you’re a marketing agency director, PR agency account director, solo entrepreneur, or marketing director of a small to medium-sized business, you’ll have been dipping into social media platforms and hopefully getting engaged by now.

One of the biggest issues I regularly come across for those involved with, or looking to get involved, with social media for business usage is that of not having enough time to do it thoroughly, or not having enough expertise to get engaged effectively.

Agencies, in particular, are having trouble providing powerful social media services for their demanding clients – as they are so busy doing the daily stuff, many have been left well behind the curve on blogging, social media, and micro-blogging developments.

Solution? Hire a social media consultant. Well, yes, but the starting point should always be from the position of having a full marketing plan in place. Executing a social media campaign without the appropriate marketing strategy in place is tantamount to commercial suicide.

With a solid marketing plan in place, it is often advisable in the early stages of executing social media messages on behalf of your company, your products and your services shouldn’t be a daunting task.

Hiring in the right social media consultant to guide you through, however, can be a fraught experience if you’re unsure what to look for.

Here’s a few tips from me on how to hire well – or, to put it another way, my…

6 P’s of things to look for when hiring your social media consultant

Remember, it’s their job to make you look absolutely brilliant online, and draw attention to your door:

1. Passionate
Is the social media consultant passionate about social media? Are they passionate about getting you results on social media platforms? Can they demonstrate their passion for social media? I give all new clients full access to my social media profiles.

2. Professional
Is the social media consultant professional in their outlook to social media platforms? Have they delivered professionally for other businesses and agencies on a variety of relevant social media platforms? Is their own social media presence professional? My social media presence is consistent across a number of social media platforms.

3. Prompt
Is the social media consultant prompt in the social media presence? Are they blogging, tweeting and adding powerful content promptly, consistently and with a proven track record? Is their social media promptness provable for other existing clients? I’ve been blogging since 2005 and engaging businesses across the social media environment ever since. I tweet daily and blog weekly – without fail.

4. Personable
Is the social media consultant personable? Is it apparent that they have a social and professional personality which will translate well for your business or rosta of agency clients, if you put them in front of them? Is their personality appropriate for social media engagement on your behalf? As an editor of more than a decade, I’ve interviewed and worked with pretty much every personality type you can imagine. And, yes, some of them were a nightmare. The majority, however, were fantastic.

5. Practical
Is the social media consultant a practical deliverer? Can you see a track record of ‘sleeves rolled up’ by them? Are you confident that they will work hard, consistently and diligently on your behalf on social media platforms? I always deliver personally, not via a team abroad. My charges are based on a personal, practical, 1-to-1 working relationship.

6. Price
Now, although we’re all looking for a bargain, is your social media consultant too cheap? After all, if they charge peanuts, what do you think the results will be? Are you looking for a cheap, non-effective social media presence, or have you allocated a workable budget for your social media consultant to deliver on your behalf? I usually charge a (reasonable) set day rate and take it from there. It’s not cheap, but it saves the client time, energy and effort they can then spend more profitably elsewhere.

With a solid marketing strategy in place, hiring an effective social media consultant should be a painless, time-effective and productive addition to your contemporary marketing ix.

But remember – none of this acts in isolation. Nothing beats an integrated, multi-channel approach to modern marketing. Relying on social media mediums only is limiting the success of your potential marketing reach.

Ensure that your products and services are working across multiple marketing channels. Monitor and measure them all, and ensure your social media consultant is working alongside your overall marketing aims and objectives for the campaign or campaigns you have in place.

With the right consultancy, social media should prove to be a powerful weapon in your ongoing marketing arsenal for 2011 and beyond.

Chris Street has more than 12 years’ experience delivering within online and offline media, and worked as a features editor and business editor for Northcliffe Newspaper Group at the Bristol Evening Post offices in his early editorial career. Previous projects have included editing business magazines, Managing Editor for a Bristol-based publishing firm, launching online portals for corporates in the City, managing blogs for businesses since 2005, delivering media relations strategies for companies including Apple and Mitel Networks, copywriting for firms such as NFU Mutual and Calor Gas, as well as launching social media service divisions for digital marketing and PR agencies nationwide. You can find out more about him at www.bristoleditor.co.uk.