Ink Foundry - Social Media Marketing and Word of Mouth Marketing

You’ve heard it a zillion times and see it in numerous bios – visionary, guru, expert. But how do you tell the consultants or social media agencies who can help you achieve your objectives from the impersonators just trying to take your money?

We know you wouldn’t hire someone without experience, a client list, references and no proven track record, and finding the best partner agency of any type can can be challenging but especially perplexing if you are new to social media.

In the midst of helping one of our Sonoma County winery clients build its internal social media marketing department, we realized there are many unanswered questions about how to identify social media expertise.

We’ve created this list to provide a baseline that you can use to find qualified help for your effort and provide a better understanding of the multitude of elements that contribute to social media marketing success.

In addition to sharing our professional experience, we reached out to other respected agencies in the category to get their input and reviewed Social Media Group’s request for proposal template that they were generous enough to share.

However, before you get started looking for either a social media agency, consultant or building an in house team, establish your goals so you can identify the specific skill set that will help you achieve your objectives. Strategic planning? Content creation and strategy? Blog development? Tweeting? Robust Facebook presence? Use your marketing strategy to guide you to the pros who have the experience your winery needs.

At a very basic level, if you want to establish expertise it makes sense that the practitioner has mastered the tools. Dave Kerpen, CEO of theKbuzz, sums it up nicely, “If an agency isn’t practicing what they preach, how will they be able to help you with your social media strategy? Check out an agency’s Facebook Page, Twitter account, company blog and YouTube channel before committing to them.”

Below is a list of questions to help you establish whether an agency has the social media experience to help your wine label move the needle in the marketplace. In addition to the questions, ask for real life case studies, social media references and have them provide evidence of success.

1. What is your primary use of social media?
   • Unless you’re hiring an entry level person, if their primary use of social media has been for personal use, thank them for their time and send them home.
2. Give me specific examples of how you’ve used social media channels to market a brand?
3. What are some of the most important elements of a successful social media marketing effort?
4. What is the most challenging element of social media marketing?
5. Do you have an agency blog? How long have you been blogging?
   • If they aren’t blogging, they don’t understand the format. Send them home.
6. How should all of the social media channels work together?
7. How would you integrate our existing website, email campaign, other external communication efforts into a social media program?
8. How would you respond to a negative post on YELP or other SM channel?
   • Our recommendations for responding to negative social media posts are here.
9. How has your process of influencer engagement changed since the FTC blogger/brand disclosures went into effect?
   • If they don’t know, consider this a massive red flag that could cost your winery its reputation as well as lots of money.
10. What would make a social media program fail?
11. What percentage of your total business is dedicated to the agency’s social media practice?
12. How many of your employees primary function is social media?
13. Which clients on your client list do you perform social media services for?
14. How long has your agency provided social media services?
15. How much experience does your staff have with digital wine influencers?
16. Ask for links to senior social media staff profiles on social sites (i.e. Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook…)
17. How to you ensure both agency and client compliance with legal requirements?
18. What is your plan for monitoring the online conversation about our winery?
19. How do you assess which mentions require immediate responses and which do not?
20. How do you measure social media program success?
21. Do you offer social media training services for clients?
22. What internal processes do you have in place to ensure that your staff are kept current on social media innovations and best practices?
23. Please describe your experience working with brands on the following platforms and tactics:
    • YouTube or other video sharing sites
    • Blogs
    • Content Management System (CMS) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
    • E-mail newsletter campaigns
    • Facebook groups or pages
    • Facebook Apps
    • Other social networks and social networking tools
    • Twitter or other forms of microblogging
    • News sharing sites (i.e. Digg, Reddit, etc.)
    • Photo sharing (i.e. Flickr)
    • Other content sharing sites (i.e. Scribd, Slideshare, Delicious, etc.)
    • Social Media press releases (SMPRs)
    • Forums
    • Real world events such as wine dinners organized via social media (e.g. Tweetups)
    • Ratings/Customer service sites (i.e. Yelp, ePinions, etc.)
24. What is your process for identifying influencers within various social media channels?
25. What criteria do you use to determine and define “influence”?
26. What is your outreach process for engaging with digital influencers?
27. How have you integrated influencer outreach with traditional communications and/or marketing campaigns?

Let us know if you can suggest any additional questions.

- Carin

• Posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010
• 1 comments