Avoid a Social Media Management Scam

This particular agency is clearly going for the “one size fits all” approach to social media. It assumes that Facebook and Twitter are the building blocks of a good social media program regardless of industry, but if you sweeten the pot they’ll throw in LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+, YouTube and even a blog. What a deal, right?

The problem with this philosophy is that businesses are not one size fits all.

They each have a unique corporate and customer culture, set of values, demographic target(s) and verbal and visual identity. A strong social media program does not start with social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, but with in-depth research and analysis into your company and its specific target market.

Next comes strategy. Notice, this agency has no mention of research or strategy development.

A comprehensive social media strategy should be an ever-evolving document that is well researched and professionally presented, with a clear vision for the direction in which the SM agency plans to take the company over the course of a year (at minimum) using social media as the vehicle.

Starting a social media program hastily has even proven to do substantial harm for some major companies.

The social media strategy should also show that the agency understands social media is an integrated effort that goes way past updating a company’s Facebook page each day.

Integrated social media – which this example plan clearly does not comprehend – means that social reflects your company’s other initiatives: campaigns, PR, branding, market positioning and messaging, sales goals and more. If these are not already established, it now becomes the job of the agency because you simply cannot move forward with social media without the basics in place! What’s worse, some of the most important features for creating integrated online marketing – email, press kit, review sites, geo-location sites and photography – are relegated by this example agency as one-time “Specialty Services”. That certainly doesn’t show a long-term commitment to your social program or business.

Integrated also means the messaging and use of each social media channel works together, and for good reason. Don’t let an agency fool you into adding Instagram because it’s part of the “full package” IF that’s not where your customers are. It is better to deliver a consistent message with a clear call to action on a few select sites that you can measure return on, than to feel like you need to be on all of them!

And this agency also seems confused about which platforms actually do have the most return. A business blog that is frequently updated and shared across social media pages is a must, not something thrown in with “the Platinum” package”.

And based on all of the above, would you also expect the blog posts delivered by an agency like this to be well written, relevant, search engine optimized and shared?

Similarly, although they have Yelp and Foursquare listed as “Specialty Services”, what about the hundreds of other customer review sites, search engines, online directories, and communities that build presence – not to mention SEO!

This company is also exploiting those with a lack of social media knowledge by offering completely bogus services like Twitter “hash tag management”. This is a huge red flag! Part of managing a company’s Twitter presence includes creating or embedding hash tags (#) to categorize relevant keywords or phrases within a Tweet. It’s like charging a customer for headlights when they’re buying a new car. Enough said?

If you see an “industry term”, ask questions or do some quick online research to make sure you’re not paying for something extra that is part of the agency’s job.

Lastly, I really need to call attention to the fact that there is no mention of reporting or metrics in this agency’s offering. Another, probably the biggest, red flag of all! First, the agency does not use high-performing social media monitoring and reporting software (or else they would have specified that weekly and/or monthly reporting was part of the ‘package’). This means they can’t show their clients true return on investment nor do they have a way of measuring successes and failures that should alter the social media calendar for the upcoming month or quarter.

Yes, social media for business might be relatively new, but it doesn’t mean agencies are exempt from being clear and transparent about their offerings and pricing.