Twitter’s first and foremost value for every employee, professional and chic consumer is as an information resource for the ubergeeky of every professional niche – the people who are sharing about their business (your competitors) on Twitter are more more connected and up-to-date than people who rely on much slower traditional media

after six months of conversing & connecting with the social elite of your community, you’ll know easily when your agency understands social media and Twitter or not… does the agency use social media as part of a new business development strategy they can tell you about in detail to illustrate you how social media is used to engage clients & prospective clients (and word of mouth, referrals) with valuable, relevant, content you provide to them on the agency specialty

any 10-year old can set up a Twitter account, and if you ask your agency if they can, of course they will say “Yes!” – they’ll happily set up a Twitter account with no knowledge of how it can be used, because at the very least they get the sweet deal two ways:
1. they’ve convinced their client for a little while that they “have Twitter covered”… I’m sorry to say that in the long run, these agencies are actually damaging and costing your business a LOT this month, quater, year in unrealized relationships, translating to more trust with the community and more customers/revenue
2. they are protecting their ‘territory’ your account budgets for themselves, they just don’t want the new digital agency or social media consultant in town to be stealing away their budgets (your money)

some agencies actually are able to provide their clients proper social media monitoring (listening to people.. whaaa?), integration and campaign strategy, campaign execution and ROI benchmarking – but how do clients identify them???