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25 Signs You’ve Got a Strong SM Consultant or Agency » The Buzz Bin
http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/2009/01/05/25-signs-youve-got-a-strong-sm-consultant-or-agency/

Advice to marketers on choosing social media consultants.

by Beth Harte (cross-posted on the Harte of Marketing) and Geoff Livingston Our original post Top 25 Ways to Tell ...

1) Believes in the generous web and practices cross-linking in their blog (example: Kami Huyse) 2) Highlights others’ work in their blog (example: Chris Brogan) 3) Integrates social media as part of larger marketing strategy(example: Razorfish) 4) Doesn’t pretend to be an expert in all things digital; instead simply focuses on what he/she/they do best (example: Common Craft) 5) Gives away best practices in an effort to educate, grow social media in general (example: Todd Defren/SHIFT Communications) 7) Will tell you that there is no magic bullet for determining social media ROI and that you need to go further to accurately monitor, measure and determine the effectiveness of social media. (example: K.D. Paine). 8) Understands that social media is an important part of the larger word of mouth marketing principles (example: Ogilvy’s John Bell) etc...

If your company, no matter how big or small, has hired a social media consultant to augment (or God-forbid, replace) your PR team, there are some things you should probably be sniffing out and identifying as red flags

"If your company, no matter how big or small, has hired a social media consultant to augment (or God-forbid, replace) your PR team, there are some things you should probably be sniffing out and identifying as red flags:" ... good checks on the hype here.