Girls In Tech

I’m thrilled to announce that earlier this month I launched Social Muse Communications, a social media marketing consultancy firm for food/beverage, travel, luxury, technology, and lifestyle brands in Los Angeles. While bringing my social media expertise to traditional PR agencies over the years was incredibly fulfilling, it was time to branch out on my own. I’ve already been successful in building up my client list and am consulting brands seeking ways to integrate social media within their overall marketing programs and providing guidance, expert advice and strategic direction for participation across various social networks such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, FourSquare, MySpace and LinkedIn.

Social media “experts” are popping up left and right and many business owners ask how they can know they are hiring the real deal instead of someone who’s here today and gone tomorrow. First of all, anyone who says they’re an expert is kidding themselves. This industry is too new, and changing too fast for anyone to truly be an expert. Those of us who have experience with social media are all learning together, and frankly, the reason why I’m so passionate about social media, is that we each have the ability to contribute to the direction this new medium takes – and that gets me excited. PR, marketing, advertising – those industries have been there and done that and are established. While that’s great, what gets me going is helping to create the parameters and guidelines that most make sense for my clients – instead of being told “this is how it’s been done for 30 years.”

Below are three things you should do (at the bare minimum) before hiring the social media consultant for your brand.

1. Check the person or agency’s online presence. If I had a dollar for every time a PR agency said they have a social media “expert” or new media department, and then went online and found their Twitter profile hasn’t been updated in the past 6 weeks, well, I’d be very rich. Look online – check their Facebook and Twitter profiles – how often are they updating, what’s the QUALITY of the content they’re populating their profiles with? Do they have a blog? Is the blog updated at least once a month? Does it offer value? If a person or agency can’t maintain their own profiles and blog posts on a consistent basis, what makes you think they’ll be able to do it for you?

2. Case Studies: While social media isn’t a 30+ year-old industry, there are many of us who have been involved with it since its inception – we have experience, stories, and case studies about what works and what doesn’t work online. Always ask for that information.

3. Client Profiles: Always ask to see the online profiles that the person or agency is currently updating for existing clients – right now. Sure, they might have had a fun online campaign idea from three years ago but what are they doing for clients today – how often are the client’s profiles being updated? What kind of content are they being updated with? Take a critical look at all these things.

Christine Kirk is founder and principal at Social Muse Communications, a social media marketing consultancy firm for food/beverage, travel, luxury, technology, and lifestyle brands in Los Angeles. She also holds the position of PR Manager for the Los Angeles chapter of Girls in Tech. She can be reached via e-mail at christine@socialmuse.com or on Twitter @luxuryprgal.