I’m going to hand you the questions that would disqualify a lot of my own industry, including, on a bad day, versions of me.
You don’t need to be an expert to hire well here. You need 9 questions and the nerve to sit through the silence after asking them.
1. Who actually writes my content?
Not the company. The person. Ask for a name, and ask whether that changes in month 3. At agencies the senior strategist often sells and a junior writes. That’s survivable if you know upfront, and a slow surprise if you don’t.
2. Where does my content come from?
This is the question I’d ask if I could only ask 1. Templates and a questionnaire produce content that could belong to anyone in your niche. Recorded conversations produce content that could only belong to you, because your stories and your vocabulary are the raw material. My whole system runs on a 26 question recorded interview for exactly this reason, and the day by day process is public here.
3. What happens before the first post?
If the answer is writing starts immediately, be careful, that’s speed dressed up as service. Positioning, research, and pillars should come first. In my process, week 1 has zero content in it on purpose, which surprises people and then makes sense.
4. What do you need from me every month?
A real number, in hours. If they say almost nothing, the content will show it, because it will be built from nothing. The honest answer sits around 4 to 6 hours a month with a system, and here’s exactly where mine go.
5. What do you track, and what do you send me?
Followers alone is a vanity dashboard. You want profile visits, saves, and conversations started, the numbers that move before revenue does. Ask to see an example monthly report with real client data, anonymized is fine.
6. What will you not promise?
My favorite question, honestly. Anyone who promises leads in 30 days is guessing with your money, because nobody controls buyers’ timing. The trustworthy answer names what they can control, consistency, positioning, quality, and what they can’t. The real results timeline is here if you want to calibrate.
7. Can I see 1 client’s work over 6+ months?
Screenshots of viral posts are easy. A body of work across months for 1 named or documented client is hard to fake. Ask for the boring proof: the cadence, the reporting, the arc. My 2 are public, a fire protection founder and a 60 year old cable manufacturer, numbers included.
8. What happens to my voice when you’re busy?
Capacity is the quiet failure mode of good solo operators and the loud one of agencies. Ask how many clients they run at once and what a heavy month looks like. A real answer has a number in it.
9. What do I keep if we stop?
The strategy doc, the topic bank, the interview recordings, the system itself. If everything lives in their heads or their tools, you’re renting a dependency. You should be buying an asset that survives the engagement.
What good sounds like
Across all 9, the pattern is simple. Weak providers answer with promises. Strong ones answer with process, names, numbers, and the occasional we don’t do that.
The silence after question 6 tells you most of it.