11 Questions to ask your social media consultant - before hiring them

I recently came across an article on socialmediatoday.com that suggested that
any company looking to hire a social media manager should ask themselves
this:
How do you weed out the social media flops from the experienced social
media managers that can actually help you grow your business? Asking
the right questions during the interview process is the easiest way to find
the best talent. However, most companies are hiring a social media
manager because they don’t understand how to best use social media
and they don’t know which questions they should ask. The following are
eleven questions that an experienced and qualified social media
manager should be able to confidently answer on the spot.
I agree with 100%. Too many companies are trying to hire a social media
guru/rockstar/ninja and they end up hiring someone who know absolutely
nothing other than how to get more cows on Farmville.
So I decided to take those 11 questions and create an ebook of my answers for
you. Let me know if you have any questions…
Q: What social media monitoring, analytics, and publishing tools do
you use?
A: While there are many options, I use both Hootsuite
(Hootsuite Certified Professional)and SproutSocial as my primary
monitoring, analytics and publishing tools. It is also important to
use the analytics tools of specific platforms as well as Google

analytics for tracking the impact of your social campaigns on your
website traffic.
Q: How do you use and leverage the benefits of both LinkedIn Groups
and LinkedIn Pages?
A: The power of LinkedIn pages is that it gives companies the
ability to converse with potential clients on a platform that is
considered more credible due to its professional reputation.
While there are many valuable aspects to Groups, two that I find
useful are the ability to engage with your peers and with potential
clients. For example, I am a member of several social media groups
where I am able to keep up to date with the lat est trends and
discussions that are happening. I am also able to join groups that
cater to my market segments and I try to establish myself as a
thought leader in social media.
Q: How do you measure the success of a social media strategy? (just
having a lot of followers is not enough!)
A: What you measure depends on what your objectives are at any
given time. I focus my social media strategies on 3 areas; brand
awareness, relationship building and conversion.
When working to build brand awareness, likes/followers are a
primary measurement. But you also want to see other people

mentioning you in their social media postings as well. This shows
that they are aware of you and hopefully, they like what you are
sharing with them.
When working to build relationships, you want to see your followers
engaging with your content. On Facebook you are looking for likes,
comments and shares. On Twitter, the direct tweeting of your
content or the ReTweeting of your post. On Pinterest, you want to
see a lot of repins. On YouTube shares, comments and embeds of
your videos. I think you get the idea.
Never forget that the ultimate goal of a social campaign is to drive
people to your website and convert them to leads and eventually
customers. This is where your CRM comes into play. It will tell you
how many visitors come from the social side and get converted.
Q: Does social media affect SEO? If so, how?
A: YES! At a basic level, social media helps your content get indexed
faster by the search engines. High levels of social activity also show
the search engines that your content is fresh, authentic and
valuable to your readers. If this doesn’t convince you, then this new
study will: SEO Ranking Factors – Rank Correlation 2013 for Google
USA show that 7 of the top 8 factors for where you rank on Google
are most highly correlated to social factors. These factors include:
Google +1’s
Facebook shares

Facebook total
Facebook comments
Facebook likes
Pinterest
Tweets
Sites that had more of these factors than their competitors were
more likely to be ranked higher than their competitors.
Q: Explain the value of both targeted and large audiences on social
media. Is one better than the other?
A: A targeted audience is a small, narrowly defined subset of a
large audience. For example… say I am a real estate agent
and I have a home to sell. I want to target my campaign to as
many people as possible. However, if this home were on a golf
course, I might want to target my posts ONLY to people on
Facebook who indicate they like golf. This would save money
and increase the chances of finding someone who has an interest in
a golf course home.
Both types of audiences are important. You need a broad audience
to build brand awareness and targeted audiences to improve ROI.

Q: What is your approach to monitoring comments and brand mentions
on social media sites?
A: Social monitoring is a critical component of any social media
strategy. I set up listening accounts for your brand and your
industry. When you are mentioned or someone comments on your
post, I either engage the person in an appropriate fashion or notify
my point of contact at your company to do so.
It is critical to reply to these engagements in a timely manner. If
someone asks you a question on Twitter, you cannot wait 3 days to
reply. At that point, any chance of engagement has passed and you
have created a negative sentiment with the person who posted.
Q: What social media pages or profiles have you managed in the past?
How were they successful?
A: Client: Small Business (ongoing)
Increased Facebook average post reach by 500% in one
month
Increased Facebook average viral reach by 4900% in one
month
Increased Facebook average post impressions by 437% in
one month
Increased Facebook average post engagement by 300%
in one month

Client: Chamber of Commerce (ongoing)
Increased Facebook average post viral reach by 15,000+%
in five weeks
Increased Facebook average post engagement by 155% in
five weeks
Increased Facebook average post reach by 376% over
four months
Increased Facebook post impressions by 85% over four
months
Client: Small Business (ongoing)
Increased targeted Facebook likes by 355% in 2012
Increased targeted Twitter followers by 145% in 2012
Generated 40% of business leads via Facebook, Twitter
and LinkedIn in 2012
Q: What is Facebook EdgeRank, and why is it important?
A: EdgeRank is the algorithm that Facebook uses to determine what
stories end up on your newsfeed. They use three factors: affinity,
weight and time decay.
Affinity is measured by the engagements and interactions a user
has with other content creators. For example, if I frequently like,
comment or share posts from the Keizer Chamber, then I will have
a higher affinity score with the Keizer Chamber. This is not,

however, bi-directional. My frequent interactions with their content
has no impact on them seeing my content.
Weight is affected by the type of story, for instance, whether it is a
photo upload or a comment on another person’s status. Facebook
tends to value rich media content(photo’s and video’s).
Time decay is the measure of how old the content is. The newer the
content, the more value it has.
Q: What do you think of our company’s current social media efforts,
and what sites do you think we should be on that we are
not? (shows that they have done their research!)
A: Obviously, this is not a question I can answer here. What I can say
is that if you are doing a lot of product/service selling types of
posts, you are not making any friends. In fact, many of your LIKES
may have blocked your feed from their timeline. And no, you may
not need to be on every platform. Each platform has its own unique
persona and not all of them are a good fit for every type of
business.
Q: How do you identify brand advocates?
A: The social media management platforms I use allow for the tracking
of those who are engaging with your content. There are also stand
alone software programs that will identify who your most active

and advocates are as well. Or you could simply ask followers how
likely they are to refer your brand to their friends and peers. Those
that are tend to be great brand advocate candidates.
Q: How do you stay current on all of the latest shifts and innovations in
social media?
A: Keeping up with industry news and trends can literally be a
full-time job. Not only am I following the latest social media
industry trends, but I also follow platform specific trends and best
practices as well. If that wasn’t enough, I also follow social media
trends/best practices for each industry my clients are in as well.
Each industry has specific nuances in how you develop a social
media strategy. It’s good to stand out, but not for the wrong
reasons.
I kept these answers pretty simple as some of them could be 10 page ebooks
themselves. If you have any questions, or would like to discuss these topics in
greater detail, please let me know.
Owner, Pinson Digital LLC

THANK YOU FOR READING
Email me: mpingree@pinsondigital.com if you have any questions or
to get started on your social media plan.