Hiring someone for any position is usually no easy task, especially when bringing on a social media consultant to guide your company through the wild world of social media marketing. But don’t fear, it’s not as difficult as one may think and I’m going to give you a few tips to guide you in the right direction.

First of all, it’s imperative to search for experience as opposed to the best deal. The reality is that an experienced social media consultant will be in high demand and his or her prices will likely reflect such. On the other hand, you can hire an inexperienced consultant with limited ability for a lesser rate, however you’ll be selling yourself short. For most businesses it’s worth paying more to hire a true expert.

Secondly, don’t just look at what a social media consultant can offer you moving forward, but more importantly what they’ve done in the past. Have they produced results for other companies? What companies have they successfully guided? Are they known in the industry? These are very important questions to ask.

Thirdly, you must find a social media consultant that fully understands your business and its target markets. How is someone going to guide you if they don’t  definitively know where you should be headed? Test potential hires to gauge their knowledge before cutting a check.

Good luck with your search and please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions.