19 Oct Social Media RFPs: 5 Questions to Ask Instead of Issuing an RFP

It’s the end of the year, and social media RFPs are coming out fast and furious!

What is an RFP? An RFP is a request for a proposal and is typically a written document that outlines a brands’ criteria for agencies to respond and bid against. However, that is pretty much where the commonality ends.

A social media RFP is supposed to be an organized and methodical way of gathering bids from agencies you are interested in working with. However, more often than not, brands leave out critical information. This makes it difficult for agencies to create a thoughtful and thorough response. Also, the questions in a social media RFP can be redundant and lengthy.  Before you get started, it is important to know what information you need to provide to the agency and what information you need to gather from the agency to make the best decision for your brand.

To help, we have created a template composed of 5 simple questions that a brand can and should ask agencies rather than issuing a lengthy social media RFP.

1. Can you briefly audit our channels and tell us 3 areas of opportunity and/or improvement?

2. What is one (1) trend or larger opportunity we should consider in the next year based on this audit and our business objectives?

3. Tell us about a client most similar to ours that you drove results for. How did you connect social performance results to business metrics that resonated with their executive leadership team?

4. With a budget of [insert your budget] annually, what social media efforts would you prioritize to maximize our ability to drive our business objectives?

5. Fast forward a year from now – what metrics, KPIs or anticipated results would you have to showcase the value of this partnership?

This approach will help you:

• Understand the gaps in your current strategy and efforts, and what opportunities you may want to consider.
• Understand and ensure an agency has relevant experience driving meaningful results.
• Standardize the process and review answers comparably to help narrow the list of agencies.
• Speed up the process in an organized and transparent fashion.
• Understand the services and level of service an agency can provide within certain budget parameters. If you do not have a fixed number, do not panic or leave this blank. An approximate or budget range can work just as effectively.

Download our free social media RFP template here and customize it for your organization!

All things considered, some of our best client relationships are those where we have become part of the client’s team. This is very difficult to gauge from issuing an extensive RFP. If you must issue a more traditional RFP, go ahead! Here are a few tips to make that process easier as well. Either way, make sure you ask meaningful questions that help you understand an agency’s approach and the team that you would be working with. This approach will be more valuable than the time you will spend reading lengthy RFP responses.

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