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Who's hired a SMM (Social media marketing) expert before? Reviews?

4 points by iamjonlee ↗ HN
I was talking to a friend today who recently invested in a nightclub near Santana Row. We talked about various things, and hiring a social media marketing expert was one of them. He claims that one of the main reasons why his nightclub was successful, that it wouldn't have worked without someone who had all the right connections to spread news about his business and promote to people over social media platforms.

Now my question is this: Have you ever hired a SMM to market your tech startup? I realize that incubators like YC automatically generate a lot of free traffic for your startup, so I'm more interested in startups that are just starting out with not many connections. How was your experience with hiring a SMM, if you did?

1 comment

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ActVen
I have worked with a number of social media consultants and have a couple things to mention that are worth keeping in mind. 1:Pay attention to how the "expert" talks about social media. They should be talking about how it is just a channel...not an end in itself. Granted, it is a powerful channel with some unique characteristics. They should be asking you questions about what type of value or messaging your customers might want to hear about in that channel. 2. Think about whether or not you can do this on your own. You would be surprised to know how much impact the owners of a business can have when they handle some of the social media strategy themselves. If you just focus on one or two channels it doesn't take any time at all. Once an owner or team member learns about how the channels work, they are the best ones to see the unique opportunities for their business.