I received a phone call I always love. Someone saw me speak and connected with me. They wanted to hire me as their social media consultant as soon as possible. Considering I connected with them as well, I was beyond excited.

The problem? They only wanted to hire me for a week of work. They entered an online contest and wanted to do their best to win. So they decided to bring me in to make sure they won.

After going back and forth in my head, I declined. I really wanted to work with this client and have some fun with them. But I wouldn’t have enough time to craft a plan or to know them well enough to make a huge difference. All I could do was give them some generic ideas that have worked for other brands. That’s not really what they needed to stand out for a contest. So it was best for both of us that I didn’t do the strategy or the execution with my limited knowledge of their brand. So I gave them a bit of free advice and told them I’d love to talk to them in the future if any other opportunities popped up.

Did I do the right thing? Unequivocally yes. I might have ruined a budding relationship if I had taken this on.

But I wish more clients realize that social media is not a quick fix, so I’m not asked about jobs like this in the first place. So let’s take a look at why you should be going long with your social media consultant.

Social media requires a lot of front work

When I take on a new social media client, I look at their past analytics and content. I go through their website from top to bottom, as well as research everything I need to know online. This is on top of talking to the client about their organization, as well as their hopes and dreams for social media. I then create a strategy using all of this information. This is not exhaustive, because each client requires something different, but regardless, I have a lot of work to do before I can even create a first post. And unsurprisingly, my clients have to pay for that work.

If you hire a social media consultant for just a week’s worth of work, they have to do about a month’s worth of work ahead of time to even be ready for that week. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for either side.

First off, I doubt any client would want to make that kind of investment. It’s a lot of money and time for a very short term project. I guess there could be cases where that might be worth it, but there aren’t any that I would want to work on.

It requires an emotional commitment

I also invest myself emotionally in clients who require my posting. I dive head first into all of it and make myself fall in love with everything. Honestly, if I know I will only be in love with them for a week, it’s not a choice I will make willingly. It’s like choosing to have someone I consider the love of my life only around for a week and never seeing them ever again. That’s just not for me, and it’s really not for most social media consultants.

And that’s just in the content and community. There is also the personal commitment to the people behind the client. I have to get to know them and how they work, because everyone is different and my systems have to be adapted for that. And I have to get them to trust me. That means so many different things to different people. I never know what’s going to get someone to trust me enough to get them to collaborate with me. That means a lot of trial and error, plus time. It just doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s more likely to happen after the posting begins.

Even with research, posts are experiments

I can do all the research in the world an still not know a new community enough to know what they will react to. Each post becomes an experiment to see if that is what they want. And you refine your guesses with each post until you get to a good cadence, timing and content. It takes a lot of posts to get to that kind of comfort with an audience. I usually tell clients six months of posts get me there, although it’s usually much sooner.

So when I come into a new client, I don’t know as much as I need to when I push publish on that first post. The client is more likely to be an audience and subject expert at that point. So for a very short-term project, it’s likely in the client’s best interests to keep that in-house. No one will be more of an expert than they are at that point.

There are better ways to work with a social media consultant in these cases

If you need help with the technical skills around social media and you only have the budget to work with a social media consultant for a very short time, there are other ways to work with them rather than have them do the posting.

Depending on your budget, I personally have three different products that I would recommend in this situation. The first is my coaching product. That is weekly assignments that allow a client to discover what they need to know about social media and content creation. We go through the process together with the client doing the heavy lifting. Then they know how to do it again in the future. I have a version that includes weekly meetings and then a cheaper version that does it all over email.

If you have a group of people wanting to learn or if you just want to learn one specific aspect of social media, then I recommend a training. We meet up virtually to cover a particular topic with time for questions as well. It doesn’t provide the depth that coaching will. But we can set up a series of trainings to get your staff on top of what is going on in the social media world if that’s needed.

And for someone who has very little budget or just wants some quick feedback, there is my Ask Me Anything product. It’s one hour where I can answer any of your questions. I won’t do any prep work for this. So it’s really just me looking at everything for the first time and giving you my quick thoughts on it. It’s super useful for organizations who just need a little direction to get to where they need to be.

I am also open to creating something just right for a client, but these tend to cover most client situations.

The bottom line is that there are a lot of ways to work with a social media consultant in the short-term. But the best and most fulfilling way to work with one is long-term.

Do you prefer working with a client or social media consultant long- or short-term? Why?