I’ve heard more than once. “I pay you to keep up-to-date on social media. I don’t need to know any of this.” I’ll be honest: It’s one of my least favorite things to hear from a client. And any time I do hear it, I know it’s likely that this person will not remain a client for long.

So why is it so important that a client keeps up-to-date on social? And how could it benefit your social media program? Let’s dive in!

Understanding Client

The number one reason why it’s important is that you as a client need to have at least a basic understanding of social media. And with how fast the social landscape changes, what is considered to be basic gets more advanced just about every day. So that requires a bit of learning at least weekly.

What do you get with a basic understanding? It helps you look at reports and know what the numbers mean as well as whether you truly are tracking what’s most important to your particular organization. In other words, you’re better capable of keeping the social media program on task and not just trusting that your social media consultant is doing the right thing.

It will also help you understand the budget concerns. Social media is no longer “free” advertising. It never was, but there are more hard costs now than ever. Understanding those costs and why they are necessary will take your social media program further.

Enacting Client

Social media moves fast and that means fast actions are needed. Making sure you’ve removed any barriers that might come up before you’re in a crisis can make a huge difference. It could get you out of the situation unscathed. Understanding the ins and outs of what is possible is one barrier that needs to be gone. Then you can get that response out much quicker.

There is also the time that it eats from your consultant. The fact is that if you aren’t staying up-to-date and a consultant has to constantly explain and re-explain social media basics to you, then it simply takes more time than usual to work with you. A consultant would then of course charge you more. This is how two different clients could seemingly be getting about the same amount of work from a consultant, but one of those clients pays more. It’s just cheaper for your organization if you spend some time staying up-to-date on social media.

Creative Client

On the subject of having to explain and re-explain social media concepts to a client, that starts to weigh on a consultant. It’s much harder to be creative when you just can’t get past those basics. And when you’re choosing either a time-consuming explanation to get to that creativity or doing something simple to get it done, going simple is the right answer a lot of the time. Basically if you’re not taking the time to learn, you’re not always going to get the best out of your consultant. It’s just not possible.

And the best client-consultant relationships are when there can be a lot of bouncing ideas off of each other. That just can’t happen when one party has no idea about the tools or the trends. The client’s ideas do not take in account the reality of the networks. Or they’re chasing after trends that are long gone. So the consultant has to explain why they won’t work (once again, those explanations cost time and money). They can’t focus on creative solutions for the organization.

And you can’t get the give and take that’s necessary for a good relationship. That’s ultimately the worst part of not keeping up on social media: You just can’t build a great relationship that will get you the results you’re after. That requires a lot of respect on both ends. That means learning enough to be an active participant instead of talking at your consultant with little to no knowledge. That just won’t get you to where you need to be.

In the end, all you have to do is scan Social Media Today every so often or even take a look at PR Daily’s weekly social media round up. Or even include it in your contract that your consultant gives you a weekly update. Most good social media consultants will jump at the chance to give you the tools you need to learn. So don’t be shy about asking for that. It may just be what takes you from a good relationship to a great relationship.

Are you keeping up with social media updates as a client? Has it helped working with your consultant?