Naturally, like any other client and customer, since it’s your hard-earned cash that’s on the line, you seriously need to ask the following questions before hiring a social media agency to handle your internet or social media marketing campaigns. Should they even leave one question unanswered or unsatisfactorily unanswered, go to the next agency, please.

How long have you been in the business?

This is the question to establish credibility. Some internet marketing agencies may have actually been in the business since the ’90s or early 2000s. When they tell you this, the next question you should ask is what year did they really start doing social media marketing? You need to be careful because some SEO marketing firms, or virtual assistant firms are suddenly shifting their wares since SEO and virtual assistant online work is facing some crises. You need a social media agency that has been with social media since its inception and knows all the ups and downs and evolutions of social media and has created initiatives for all its clients. These are the agencies that can honestly recommend what really works since they’ve played the game long enough to learn from their mistakes.

How many people work at your agency?

Take a close look at the agency’s website and look at the actual services being offered. If they offer other services outside of social media marketing, now ask how many people work there. Next, ask them to honestly tell you how many are really working on social media marketing full time. If only 3 or 4 employees are dedicated to this, what happens if they have more than 4 social media marketing clients? What if one or two suddenly call in sick or goes on vacation?

What is your employee’s resume background?

Some companies who delved into SEO or virtual assistants in the past are suddenly finding the going difficult and have suddenly shifted to social media marketing. Or the social media agency hired former traditional marketers and set them up with social media thinking that this is just another method of marketing. Technically, would you have a web designer handling your technical support work? A real social media agency should have true and experienced social media marketers handling social media marketing.

Does my company need to be on every social media platform?

If they answer “yes” or something similar like, “yes, we can do that,” then it’s time to walk out the door. Even Forbes 500 companies don’t need to be on all social media platforms. It really depends on the type of company, the company goals, the product or service, and how important customer service is for sales and profits.

May I take a close look at your past and present client list?

A legit and honest social media agency will never be afraid to give you their customer list, and even proud to do so. Check out a few at random and look at their social media accounts. If you can get in touch with them, ask their honest opinion about the social media firm.