If you’re thinking about offering social media management as a service and want to outsource the actual management to a company like 99social, there are lots of things that you will need to take into consideration.
Not only must you design a website that encourages people to sign up to your social media services and price competitively, but you must also ask the right questions so that, when they do become a client, you know how to handle their accounts.
Below, we’ve put together some of the most common questions we ask new clients – and questions we’d recommend you ask your own clients if you’re thinking about outsourcing to someone like us.
Read on to find out more, and don’t forget that we offer social media reseller packages to businesses like yours, who may want to add a new service to their marketing company without hiring a new member of staff.
Can you give us a quick introduction to your business?
Unless you’ve worked with this client in the past and know everything about their business, you should ask for a brief introduction to their organisation.
Of course, you should do your own research when onboarding a new social media client, but often small businesses offer more products or services than their website states, or their website is outdated and doesn’t accurately reflect their company.
Get to grips with who they are and what they do.
You don’t need to be an expert in every niche, but the more you know about them, the easier it’ll be to pass on information to a social media company, or do the work yourself when coming up with content to post.
How would you define your brand voice?
Brand voice is very important on social media.
A funeral director, for example, will likely need a professional and courteous brand voice, whereas a local building firm may get away with being a little cheeky.
You might be able to work out the company’s brand voice and attitude when you speak to a member of their staff, but it’s always good to have it in writing and adapt your style if and when necessary.
Some entrepreneurs simply don’t know their brand voice – perhaps they haven’t been posting on social media, or they don’t have a website.
In that case, create a brand voice and personality that you think best suits their organisation, or see what competitors are doing.
Who is your target audience?
Target audiences may at first seem obvious, but businesses often cater to multiple audiences and your social media campaign must be able to reflect that. You might assume that a recruitment agency would want to promote their vacancies when in actual fact their main target audience is businesses. Always get clarification and double check if you’re not entirely sure.
Hone in on their average customer, or customer types, and you’ll quickly be able to create lots of content to suit them.
What work have you been doing on social media so far?
It’s also good to ask what the company has been doing on social media so far.
Perhaps they’re entirely new to Twitter and Facebook, or maybe they worked with another social media management company in the past.
The more you know about their previous experiences, the better equipped you’ll be to offer a great level of service and post the type of content that they’re looking for.
Who are your biggest competitors?
Again, you won’t always get the most obvious answer when you ask this question.
If you’re working with a catering company, for example, then you might do your own research to see what other companies are doing in the local area, but perhaps they’re more focused on getting ahead of a competitor in a particular niche?
Once you know the competition, you can do some research and work out what works and what doesn’t. In an ideal world, they’ll have a couple of competitors who are performing well on social media, as you can use them for inspiration to give your campaign a head start.
What is your primary social media goal?
This one is vital. It’s all well and good promising the world, but you should understand what your client hopes to get out of their social media campaign before you get started.
Never overpromise or guarantee results, as it’s simply not possible to know for certain how well a company will perform.
Even with an advertising budget, the truth is that there are too many factors to guarantee growth or engagement, so always err on the side of caution.
What you can do, however, is set some clear and actionable goals and work with the business to make those happen.
Know for sure what they’re looking for, and be clear on what you can and cannot do.
Do you want to push any particular products/services?
A good social media strategy will involve some product promotion and general engaging content – but you should ask if there are any particular products or services they’d like to push.
Perhaps you’re working with a law firm, for example, and they’re keen to find new family law clients.
You can then tailor your content strategy to achieve those goals, and push particular pages and information to followers on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Do you have a content marketing strategy?
Social media and content marketing go hand in hand.
As a social media manager, it’s great when you work with a client that has a website jam-packed with useful resources that you can use for posts.
Not only does it provide you with endless content, but it offers reassurance and allows you to share the right information.
If they don’t have a blog that’s regularly updated, then suggest a monthly call to catch up on their business.
It’s important that you’re sharing new content and information with your followers, and if you don’t have anything ‘direct from the horse’s mouth’, that can be tough.
What industry blogs/news sources do you read?
Finally, ask about third-party resources like blogs, news outlets, and magazines that you can reference when coming up with social media posts.
An accountancy firm, for example, could share posts from AccountingWEB and BBC News, and a property development company could share news from interior design websites and news outlets like The Telegraph.
It’s good to get a feel for the type of content they want to recommend and share.
Some businesses may be uncomfortable with sharing blog posts and content from particular news outlets like The Sun, for example, or perhaps they want to direct all traffic to their own website?
Wrapping up
There are lots of things to take into consideration when onboarding a new social media client – and our list is just the beginning.
Whilst email is fine, we recommend calling clients or meeting with the face to face to get all of the necessary information on your project. That way, you won’t have to guess what the company would say, or endure endless back and forth emails to get the information you need.
Whatever you decide to do, we wish you the very best of luck and encourage you to get in touch with 99social if you’re looking to outsource your social media management to an affordable, reputable white-label provider.