Do you enjoy doing your own social media? Some people think that if they hire a social media management company they will give over total control to the social media management company. Not true. You can still post to your own accounts, in fact, that is encouraged, to keep the authenticity of the account going. You don’t have to do that, but if you want to, you can. And your agency can help you improve your posts, if you would like, so they and the content the agency shares will work great together to create an irresistible social presence. But how do you get started hiring a social media agency to help you take Twitter, Facebook and all the other platforms by storm? Follow our checklist and get ready for people to Like, re-tweet and share your content – brand visibility and a ringing cash register await!

1) Your agency will be able to find the social platform(s) that your audience likes best. It might be great to post to six social accounts but the time and resources to do that can get costly. It’s better to find the one or two platforms that your audience prefers and use those as the vehicles to build customer relationships.

2) An agency lives and breathes social media marketing services so they will know how to get your message to the people you want to engage. Do some informational interviewing and find the agency that can create an effective social media campaign for you. Their approach and your goals need to synergize. Ask them to explain their strategies and then go with the agency that has the experience and vision to help you reach your goals.

3) The social media management agency will know what content works on social media. For example, if you are conducting a trade show and can provide dozens of photos and other materials to your agency during the show, the agency will know which ones will elicit the best response. This is an invaluable skill that will save you time and help build your brand.

4) Your online marketing firm will share your content at the optimal times of day. Through their research the agency will know what times of day your audience likes to interact with your content. They will use tools to push that content out over social media at the appropriate times when audience response is most likely to occur.

5) Your agency will know how to integrate social media with your other marketing efforts. For example, email marketing and social media marketing go together like peanut butter and jelly. They complement each other well because when people see a great offer, like you can create in an email newsletter, they want to share it with their friends. Your agency is aware of this affinity between email marketing and social media and will position your campaign to take advantage of it.

6) Innovation on social media can make your audience take notice. Ask your social media management company for examples of their creativity in campaigns they have managed in the past. There’s a fine line between innovation and a social media #fail so see if the agency’s approach to creative marketing is in line with your brand’s identity.

7) The agency will be able to report to you about your campaign’s progress. The agency definitely has a vested interest in reporting because they want to prove their worth and they want to use that data to keep the campaign’s success growing. You will see what your audience enjoys and how your agency is creating more content like that to delight them.

As you can see hiring a social media management company can not only save you time, it is one of the best commitments you can make that offers a definite return on investment. Every day you can reach thousands of people who want to buy what you have to sell. We haven’t even scratched the surface of what advertising on social media (such as with Facebook and Twitter ads) can accomplish. That is another facet of social media content management that you can take advantage of. Keep our 7 points in mind and ask your agency about advertising, too. Soon you may be surprised that social media has become one of the top customer referrers to your business.