Deciding that you want to hire the services of media agency may well be one of the best decisions you could make for your business.  However, choosing a particular agency should not be a decision that you make lightly.  There are some important things that you should consider that will help you choose the best media agency that will work best for and with you.

Participation In Social Media

Given that social media is one of the most powerful forms of marketing and that most media agencies will undoubtedly have a social media strategy, it is important that the agency you choose to work with actually is active in social media themselves.  This can easily be found out either by browsing the agency’s website or running a quick check for their name through Twitter and Facebook.  You’d be surprised at the number of companies that claim to be media and social media experts that do not have active accounts on these types of sites.

Portfolio/References

Although most media agencies won’t be able to tell you everything about whom and what they have worked on, they should be able to show you some examples.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a client who has given them permission or a former client, ask to see some work that they have done in the past and ask about how successful those particular projects were, as this will give you an indication of the standard of work that they produce.

Education

Because things like social media are changing, it is important that media agencies stay on top of their game and keep learning about new trends.  Although there is no official and formal school or course that agencies can learn about what is current and what is not, they should be staying up to date with trends and doing lots of reading, watching and learning to fine tune their services.

Do They Understand Quality Over Quantity

The point of this is a competent media agency should know that having 15,000 likes on Facebook and 20,000 Twitter followers is not much use to a business, unless there is actual interaction between a company and its followers.  You should be wary of agencies that offer large numbers in a short length of time.  It takes time and effort to build up a fan base of followers.

Content

It is a well-known fact that good content is king when it comes to things like social media.  It is important that you hire an agency that has individuals who are good at creating interesting content that will draw your followers in and want to interact with your company.  With regards to content, you should also ask to see some examples of content they have generated for previous clients, which they should be able to do without giving away who or what it was for.  It is also essential that they know the rules of content creation on the various websites and social media platforms, as they are all different from each other.