CLIENT: I want to hire someone who is good at social media and not just another pretty Facebook?
MANAGER: That is great, so what would you like to Tweet about today?
CLIENT: Well, I just wanted to let you know how I stumbledupon your company.
MANAGER: Oh, so tell me! Or should I say, share with me.
CLIENT: I was on Linked In, when I found a link to your other social media accounts. I wanted to learn as much about you as possible before I lost Pinterest.
MANAGER: Got it, I understand. Too many networks. It can get complicated.
CLIENT: I just wanted to mention that — or give you a mention.
MANAGER: Right
Social media is not rocket science. It is good if you learn how to use the basic platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to promote your business. The problem is that if you hire an outside company to do your social media, they don’t understand your business (probably) and also rarely know how to create content. A double negative. So, what do you do with this type of company? Ask questions and see who doesn’t fall on their face.
CLIENT: I run a widget company. I want to know what type of content you would put on my Facebook account.
MANAGER: Hmm, that is complicated. We are not familiar with your industry
CLIENT: That is what the last four companies I talked to said which is why I didn’t hire them, but am/was considering hiring yours.
MANAGER: Well, we have never had a client in the widget business. We could familiarize ourselves with the industry though.
CLIENT: Hmm. Instead of continuing this conversation, it would be more interesting to me to give you a little time to browse around our site and the web, and come up with specific ideas of what you would post about. Otherwise, I would not have faith in hiring your company. I need some type of guarantee of competency and results to enter into any type of business relationship.
MANAGER: Hmm, we can’t really do anything like that without a contract.
CLIENT: Well, I can’t sign any contract until I am sure about you. It is sort of like marrying a woman before you sample her cuisine. But, she refuses to cook her tequila korma until you marry her. It is a very dangerous catch-22 and not worth the risk.
Big business people often advise that you are always ready to walk away from a deal. If a deal seems to have question marks of any sort, it is probably good to walk away unless you swear by the individuals who you are dealing with after knowing them for a decade. Even if you have to say no to one hundred companies in a row — do so. Hire the right company who you feel comfortable with.
If the companies you interview are completely useless and unwilling to budge an inch without a contract, outsource your social media to yourself. Learn how to do it and then hire your own people, or find someone inexpensive in India who will follow your instructions rather than getting ripped off by signing a contract that guarantees the transfer of money to the company, but doesn’t guarantee any quality of work for you! I also recommend that any contract you sign should ideally stipulate results like how many unique new visitors you’ll get to your blog, or how many total relevant followers you’ll get. Your host company will probably not be willing to sign such a contract because they are only interested in taking your money and don’t care about results.
At least, you could have an opt-out clause if they fail to meet objectives stipulated. Protect yourself. There are a hundred ways to get ripped off in web business, and very few ways to succeed. In the long run you need to be the expert yourself instead of relying on others who are very weak in their knowledge base, and not looking out for your best interests — to guide you.