Social Media Discovery Questions I Ask Every Potential Client
1) Difference (or positioning): What makes your brand different?
What it teaches me:
The story I need to tell on social platforms. The value proposition that matters most to your customers becomes the backbone of our content strategy.
Some questions I may ask to better understand point-of-difference:
- What makes your capabilities and services unique?
- Why do your clients choose you?
2) Current Initiatives on Social : What does your current social media marketing program look like? What platforms does your brand have a presence on?
What it teaches me:
Where you sit on the social brand road map. How successful have your efforts been, and where has it fallen short? It also begins to get you thinking about what your goals really are.
Some questions I may ask to better understand your marketing efforts:
- What have you tried? Share your experience across campaigns and channels.
- What’s worked/working, and what hasn’t/isn’t?
- Do you have a Facebook pixel installed on the site?
- What would you experiment with, if given the time?
- What’s the biggest barrier to social media marketing (or community management) success with your current program?
- What role does social play in your overall marketing and growth strategy (today, or anticipated)?
CLIENT BRANDING MOOD BOARD
3) Customers (and Audience): Who are your target audience segments and customers?
What it teaches me:
Once I know who I am looking for (in your words), it becomes a whole lot easier to find your audience. More importantly, it becomes easier to plan the content that you will care about. I will follow up audience discovery conversations with deeper research on audience size and behaviors broken out by social channel. Audience Insights and tools net us a lot of data. The more specific the answer, the better the insight.
Some questions I may ask to better understand target audiences:
- What are the backgrounds and demographic profiles of your target customers?
- Can you describe their interests, purchasing habits, and pain points?
- Where do they live? (And does that matter?)
4) Objectives: What are your specific, measurable goals for social media marketing?
What it teaches me:
In your business, it’s common for social media programs to begin without defined KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). Conversations about what success “feels like” helps me understand if you are looking to maintain a brand image, or drive double digital engagement growth quarter-over-quarter.
Largely, I am hoping to understand if success ties back to branding goals (awareness, recognition), direct response goals (traffic, leads), community engagement (audience growth, engagement), or a little bit of everything. More often than not, the answer is the latter.
Some questions I may ask to better understand goals:
- What are some of your specific, measurable goals for each social channel?
- What are other specific, measurable goals for marketing? Branding? Acquisition?
- How would you measure your brand’s social media presence a “success?” Both qualitatively and quantitatively.
REVIEWING THE FIRST DRAFT OF A WEBSITE REDESIGN WITH JASON MADDEN
5) Vision: Tell me about your brand’s vision?
What it teaches me:
Having us aligned with your internal vision is important for long-term success. To get to Point B from Point A, I need to first understand Point C (the end game).
A concrete vision helps us determine whether I am building a base for market domination and global expansion, or simply social media stability.
Some questions I may ask to better understand long-term vision:
- Where is the brand headed?
- What does the future (of your industry) look like, and what role does your brand play in it?
- What else should be known about your growth plans?
6) Expectations of our Relationship: What are you looking for in a social media agency partner?
What it teaches me:
Setting expectations is the name of the game. Your answer — let’s say, “Go above and beyond what I am capable of executing internally” or “Experiment with emerging channels” — helps me understand your true desire in a partner. I don’t like to make assumptions. Getting your feedback puts our programs into perspective.
Some questions I may ask to better understand how to structure an engagement:
- Which aspects of social media, digital marketing, or brand/community management would you like to own? Where would you look towards outside support?
