We’ve all seen Twitter profiles with a bio that says “Social Media Expert”. How can there be so many experts out there in a field that’s really only a couple years old? Well we’re here to tell you, a Twitter page and Facebook profile do not a social media expert make. But since many organizations are recognizing the need for a full time, professional social media manager, we wanted to provide some pointers that will help weed out the wanna-be social media managers who may do nothing more than derail your long term marketing plans.

1.    Current Resume or CV: While the typical resume consisting of a degree of some sort may be nice, it is actually not the determining factor. One of the most important attributes to look for on a resume is actual hands-on experience and success stories. A good social media expert will have a list of recent successes which are easily accessible from any computer.  It may be as simple as an example of how they marketed themselves through social media; the point is that when searching them using certain keywords, there is a proven result.

2.    Demographic Knowledge: Many businesses searching for a social media consultant operate on a local level or have a specific target demographic.  Choosing a social media expert with knowledge of the type of business, whether it be medical, professional services, or a local eatery is very important. This enables the expert to tailor their social media marketing efforts to current seasonal or regional trends.  A social media expert must have the knowledge of your clientele’s need and wants. Without that knowledge, social media marketing efforts may fall on deaf eyes and ears.

3.    Accessibility: A social media expert may not be an “in house” employee. Often times, companies seeking a social media expert are interested in only using their adverting budget and can not afford to bring a social media consultant in on a full time basis.  On these occasions, it is important to know how accessible your prospective social media expert will be to you.  Are there a set number of hours they will dedicate to your social media marketing?  How will the hours committed to your social media marketing be documented?

4.    Accountability: Businesses are results driven.  Without a profit, no business will be around for long.  A good social media expert will be able to document their ability to execute a long term social media marketing plan.  The plan would set short term and long term milestones that the social media consultant should easily attain. While long term success is the goal, it’s the short term milestones that tell a business that their marketing efforts are taking hold and gaining momentum.

5.    Familiarity: When hiring a social media expert, you are looking for someone to perform a task for you. It may not be your job to know the task at an expert level, but you should be familiar with social media marketing in general terms.  Be familiar with the keywords that will promote your business. Be familiar with the time frames, analytics, search engines and the social media websites that are pertinent to your success. It takes more than 30 – 60 days to secure your online social marketing efforts. Your familiarity with the basics will help you avoid being misled by promises of grandeur that sound great on the surface, but are not realistic.

The social media marketing wave is poised to crash on the shores of successful businesses. When you are searching for the perfect social media expert to help your business achieve success, knowing these points will help your sort through the many applicants and choices available to find the right social media consultant for you.

Richie S is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments. WriterAccess is powered by ideaLaunch, a full service content marketing agency serving hundreds of clients and thousands of writers since 2000.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 17th, 2011 at 10:01 am and is filed under Tips and Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.