Social Media Marketing Consultancy – 10 Factors to look before you hire a Consultant in Nigeria

If you’re reading this post, chances are that you are thinking of hiring a social media consultant in Nigeria for your business, but are unsure of what you should be looking for? There’s no doubt that building successful social media platforms requires having able hands on deck creating targeted social media strategies; creating and posting content. However, it is important that you do your due diligence before hiring, as this will ensure that you’ll end up with the right talent for your company’s social media needs. Read on to find out factors to look for when hiring a social media consultant for your social media marketing in Nigeria.

General Knowledge of the Business

It is important that any social media consultant in Nigeria you hire has a general understanding of various social media networks, especially the important ones. They should be knowledgeable about how they work; this way, they’ll be able to advise you when necessary on those to focus on and those to avoid. Except you want to focus on one social media network, you should get someone who has comprehensive knowledge of a number of networks, and not just an expert in one.

Track Record

I wouldn’t say you should rule out candidates just because they are young in the business. However, experience is most often to win in this kind of business in Nigeria. This is also not to say that you hire a social media consultant in Nigeria just because of their years of experience. They should be able to provide significant results achieved during their time of existence. You need to find out who they have worked with and for in the past, and what they have been able to achieve. This way you can be sure they will replicate such successes in your business.

Aligning with Your Business Goals

 There’s more to good social media marketing in Nigeria than just posting content and getting more followers. All these activities have to tie into your business objectives and goals. They should be willing to spend the required time to understand your unique business objective and goals before putting up any plan and social media strategy for your business in Nigeria. You want to avoid an agent or agency that boasts of having a one-size-fits-all solution for their clients. They should be able to be flexible and apply their expertise in ways that uniquely matches your business.

A Review of their Online Presence

In the first place, it will be insane to rely on a social media expert whose online visibility in Nigeria is fewer than yours. This is exactly what Guy Kawasaki declared in a HubSpot webinar. This implies that you must make the effort of knowing, to the best of our ability, the agent/agency you intend to hire. This is where Google comes in handy. If Google finds it difficult to show you anything substantial about them, that’s a sign they may not be a good fit. If they are good, their bio and profile should be easy to see and should have a significant presence online. If not, that simply means that they don’t have what it take to transform your brand or its visibility since they can’t even do so for themselves.

Matching your Brand Voice

It’s no news the importance of establishing a brand voice, as well as maintaining it. It is also important that your chosen social media consultant identifies with the tone of your brand and is able to run with it. This is true since you’ll be having them handle all of your social media dealings in Nigeria, from making post, design fanpages, and running sponsored ads. Whatever content is put out through your accounts should depict the same personality.

Strong Passion for their Work

You will agree with me that passion is an essential quality to succeed in any endeavor in Nigeria. Whatever results you manage to achieve in any endeavor is a function of how passionate you are about your work. It is essential to hire an agent/agency in Nigeria that is not only in business for the money, as they are unlikely to do needful in getting your desired results. Passion is what bridges the gap between mediocre results and great results.

Staying up to date with New Technologies

Social media, like any sector in the internet marketing industry  in Nigeria is ever-changing. There are new apps and networks created almost on a daily basis. Your social media consultant in Nigeria is expected to be desiring of learning about the latest networks and therefore suggesting them to you, if they’re appropriate for your business. You need to be certain that your social media consultant is proactive and easily embraces and adopts new things and new technologies as they surface. Simply put, they should have a habit of staying up to date with developments and news in social media field in Nigeria. This can be seen in the industry blogs and publications they read, the content of their blogs, and in the certifications they have in social media or digital marketing in Nigeria.

Understand Your Industry

With the crowdedness in the social media field lately, specialization is becoming really necessary in some sort. In fact, specialization is key. It is important to go for a social media consultant in Nigeria that specializes in your particular industry or niche. There are various specialized consultants for nonprofits, real estate, authors, small business, and luxury brands and so on. By specializing, it means they understand how your industry works and so can adapt your marketing strategy knowing the networks your audience are most active in and in a way that appeals to them.

Give Attention to Professionalism

Your social media marketing consultant in Nigeria will no doubt represent your brand is various ways. With this, it is very essential that you hire someone you can rely on and will ensure to handle situations in a professional manner. There are times when a troll online is going to try getting attention with posting negative comments concerning your brand. Your consultant should be able to gracefully handle such situations with the ability to demonstrate professionalism. This obviously impacts on your business.

Should Possess Related Skills

One way to which social media consultant in Nigeria to hire is in the related skills they bring to the table – both soft and hard. Off course their duties is not limited to planning and updating of your social media accounts. They are going to require loads of competence and skills. For instance, hard skills such as copywriting and data analysis and soft skills such as making connections and being organized are priceless. All of these skills will impact on how effective they are.