How to choose a social media agency: what to check before the call

Most people pick a social media agency on the sales call.

That is the weakest place to do it. The call is the one hour where the agency is performing and you are not checking anything.

So here is the list I would run before the call, from my side of the table.

There is a problem with me writing it. I run VALORAE Media, which means I sell one of the options you are about to check.

Worse, one of these checks is one that two of our three tiers do not pass on paper. I will come back to that at Check 3.

For now, the checks, in the order I would run them.

Check 1: Ask how they will get into your accounts

Send one line before you book: "What access do you need to post for us?"

The only right answer is a delegated role. Meta Business Suite has them, YouTube has channel permissions, LinkedIn has page admin roles, TikTok has business roles.

A role sits next to your own login and your two-factor authentication. You can see it, and you can remove it yourself from your own settings.

A password is different. Once it is shared you cannot tell who is using it, and taking it back means changing it and hoping nothing else broke.

If the answer is "send us the login", stop there. You do not need the call.

I wrote the platform by platform version in never give your agency your password, and the ownership side in who owns your social accounts.

Check 2: Get what each tier includes in writing

"Social media management" means whatever the seller needs it to mean on the day.

So ask for the tiers as a list, with every deliverable named. Which platforms, what gets edited, who writes the captions, who posts, who answers comments.

Here is the VALORAE Media version as the worked example.

Edit is editing only. Manage is Edit plus titles, captions, scheduling and posting on one or two platforms, with a monthly report. Full Page is every platform, the calendar, strategy, repurposing and comments.

Notice what that list does. It tells you where each tier stops, and the stopping point is where arguments start later.

If you are unsure which level you need, Edit, Manage, Full Page: which one you need works it out by asking who is on the hook when nothing posts.

Check 3: Find out which prices are listed and which are quoted

This is the check I said we fail on paper.

Full Page is listed at $2,000 to $3,500 a month. Edit and Manage have no number on the site. They are quoted on the call.

When I first drafted this list, Check 3 said "prefer agencies that list their prices". Then I read it back and saw I was telling people to prefer one of our tiers over the other two, for no reason except page layout.

The listing is not the point. The point is whether the number ends up in writing before you sign.

A listed price tells you the range before you spend an hour. A quote is fine too, as long as three lines follow the call in an email: the monthly figure, what changes it, and what ends it.

So the check has two halves. Before the call, write down which of their prices are public. After the call, make sure every price you were quoted has become a sentence in your inbox.

If a quote never turns into writing, it was never a price. I laid out the method in one price is listed, the other is quoted.

Check 4: Ask who approves posts and how fast

Every agency has an approval step. Few say who sits in it.

Ask three things: who on your side has to say yes before a post goes out, how long the agency waits for that yes, and what happens when nobody answers.

The last one matters most. An agency that posts after a silence is taking a risk with your name, and one that waits forever will blame you when the calendar slips.

Neither answer is wrong by itself. You want it named before the first week, not discovered in the third.

Then look at your own side. If the only approver is you and you are on calls all day, the bottleneck is you, and approving content without becoming the bottleneck is about fixing that.

Check 5: Ask to see a monthly report before you buy

Ask for a sample report with the client details removed.

You are checking two things. That a report exists at all, and that it shows numbers a business owner can use.

A page of follower counts and impressions is a report written to look busy. You want to see what was posted, what each post did, and what the agency plans to change next month because of it.

Our Manage tier includes a monthly report, so ask to see one on the call.

Which social numbers a business owner should look at covers the lines on a report that deserve your attention.

Check 6: Read the terms before the call, not after

Ask for the contract or written terms before you speak. Most people see them after the price is agreed, when they are least likely to push back.

Read four things first: the term and notice period, what happens to the price when you want more, who owns the finished videos and the raw files, and what happens to account access on the last day.

If any of those is missing, write the question down and bring it to the call.

I went through the clauses one by one in seven clauses to read before signing a social media agency contract.

Check 7: Ask how you leave, with your content

This is the check nobody runs, because nobody books a call planning to leave.

Ask it plainly. If we end this, what do we get, in what format, and how do you hand back access?

A good answer names the files and the order: finished edits, project files if they are part of the deal, the calendar, the captions, and removal of every delegated role.

A vague answer tells you the exit has not been thought about. That means it will be thought about when you are angry.

How to switch social media agencies without losing your content has the full handover order.

Check 8: Run the list on the person writing it

Run the first seven and you will know more about an agency than the call will tell you.

It also settles the problem I started with. I sell one of the options, and our tiers are not all priced the same way.

But every check here can be run on us exactly as you would run it on anyone else, by email, before booking. The quoted tiers pass Check 3 the day their figure lands in your inbox, and not before.

That is the test of the list. If it only worked on competitors, it would be a sales page.

And if what you need is clips cut from a podcast rather than a channel run end to end, that is a different company in the group, and the VALORAE comparison page shows which one fits.

The short version

Ask what access they need, and walk away from any request for a password. Get every tier's deliverables as a written list. Turn every quoted price into three written lines: the figure, what changes it, what ends it. Name who approves posts and what happens when nobody answers. Ask for a sample monthly report before you pay for one. Read the terms and the exit before the call, not after.

VALORAE Media runs Edit, Manage and Full Page, and you can send us all eight checks at support@valoraemedia.com.