How Can You Tell if an Agency Says it Specializes in #socialmedia? Here’s my Answer… #PR #marketing

A question posted on LinkedIn today prompted this blog post.

Here’s the question:

“How to tell if an agency that says it specializes in social media really does? What criteria should we be using to judge? I’d like to hear from agencies that say they are social media experts.”

Here’s my response which I hope will be an educational and good read:

This is such a great question and one that is highly relevant as I see clients and prospects always wanting to know what is the true measure of a “real” social media savvy agency or service.

You say you want to hear from someone who says they are a social media expert. I, however, am not an expert. Despite the fact that I live and breathe in social web stuff daily for a variety of diverse clientele, the last thing I am is an expert I am learning every day because this arena changes hourly with new tools, services and trends cropping up even as I type these very words here.

I am not an traditional agency … I own and operate more of a digital marketing and social media shop. And i have to tell you I know a lot of peers and folks, as well as agency and non-agency types, that claim social media marketing fame. But there are many folks, companies large and small and services, etc. (it’s scary to see just how many) that I personally know say they are experts or offer these kinds of services BUT sadly, they are not … despite their well intended claims.

Without throwing specific folks or organizations under the bus, here are some real-world examples of social media boasting that are *really* happening, folks …

* A self-described digital marketing agency claims it has social media expertise yet all it does is mass autoposting and broadcasting the same message to different social network accounts
Mass autoposting and broadcasting the same message to different social network accounts is not social media engagement. Neither is opening up a handful of twitter accounts that site idle for weeks and weeks or throwing a bunch of photos up on Flickr. Social media marketing and engagement requires much more creative, target-relevant and conversation-rich juice than merely mass broadcasting or opening up multiple profiles/accounts.
* An elite, highly visible tech organization with industry prestige assembles a social media committee … yet none of the committee members are socially engaged or have much presence, engagement or experience in social web circles.
* An interactive agency with millions of dollars in revenue claims they are social media experts … yet the most they have done for their clients is open up social networking profiles. They offer no strategy, no direction or guidance or really provide any value to their clients on HOW to maximize social web awareness and engagement.
* A freelancer who has developed a strong reputation for social media savviness but is not out there on the social web very actively (they’re more “passive” than they are engaging) or blogging true, original content on a routine basis.

From my extremely little humble spot on planet Earth, I see this kind of thing happening every single day … and many innocent prospects and folks get duped because they just don’t know how to really vet social media marketing folks beyond believing the hype or being swayed by huge follwer numbers (equating that to intrinsic value, wisdom and influence).

Bringing it back to your question, then, you as the prospect of ANY vendor — be the vendor a freelancer, a company, an agency, a small or large digital marketing shop — needs to do some homework because the reality is that just about everyone who’s anyone is claiming social media talent and capabilities.
You will need to become a very savvy and informed prospect and look for the following:

–> Is the vendor (agency, freelancer, etc.) practicing what they preach?? It’s easy to tell clients what they need to be doing on web 2.0 but is the vendor doing this for themselves? It’s easy to tell a client they need to actively blog or post comments on other blogs or tweet X times a day or respond / participate in conversations related to topic A, B or C, etc. but someone who is instructing clients to do these things really should have some proven experience of doing it themselves. Clients need to see examples of how it’s done from the very person/agency/organization that is instructing them to incorporate these tasks into their marketing own folds.

–> Are the vendor’s clients using social media/web 2.0 to their fullest advantage and maximizing their own online presences? Go look at the agency’s client roster and side step if you can any agency-scripted case studies as they are purposefully written to sound successful. What you want to see is the agency’s client own social media presence. What is that agency client doing or not doing? How active or passive is the vendor client in web 2.0? Is the vendor’s client doing some cool stuff on social web arena or more keeping it more conservative? I personally know of 2 specific agencies who have several social media case studies on their sites that sound fabulous … but the reality is that in both counts, the social media work has been done by someone else and not the agency of record. Trust me, this happens.

–> Review any articles, white papers, blog posts, etc. being authored by the vendor and determine, with your own intuition and knowledge, if the information being published online by the vendor is accurate, in line or counter current trends, highly opinionated one way more than the other or even-keeled in their messaging. Based on all your vendor-authored readings, you can easily begin to get an idea of what kind of vendor a vendor is or isn’t.

The above activities (which are far from being all inclusive in so far as criteria but do provide a good starting point) will not guarantee that you won’t end up kissing a frog. However, when a prospective client takes the time to do dig deeper than usual and do some independent homework to get to “The Truth” about any specific vendor or service, the likelihood that you’ll find a stud rather than a dud increases significantly!

Keep an open mind and remember that while there is no perfect agency or service … there is a perfect social media marketing match out there for you. Sometimes, you just have dig a little and not get seduced by big numbers, pretty graphics or wooed by glamour, fluff or hype. Look for a proven track record, for a service that practices what they preach and overall look for someone who not just understands the many tools but who can also “manipulate” the tools to achieve more targeted and relevant ways of connecting. Mostly, you want to find a service that can take all these social media efforts and integrate them smartly into your existing marketing endeavors.

Good luck!