As the social media gold rush has accelerated over the last two years,a lot of marketing consultants have signed up for a Facebook account, launched a Twitter stream and declared themselves to be social media experts. But knowing the basics of how to use the tools is nothing like knowing how to create and promote engaging content that attracts the constituents you need and deploy it in the right places.

Social Media Group of Dundas, Ontario (near Toronto) was creating social media campaigns long before they were fashionable. Founder Maggie Fox (right) is one of the sharpest strategists I know in this area. You don’t sign up clients like these unless you know your stuff. That’s one reason I asked her to contribute an essay to my latest book.

Last week, Social Media Group delivered a document into the public domain that any organization that’s evaluating marketing agencies in this realm should read. The Social Media Request for Proposal (SMRFP) template lists questions you can ask prospective agencies to separate the brains from the bozos. An important part of the template asks about experience with specific social media channels. This is important because client organizations increasingly need to spread their activities across a range of platforms in order to reach customers and business partners where they already live.

I’ll admit my eyes bugged out a bit when I first looked at this document. It’s exhaustive. But I don’t think the point is to bend an agency over a barrel to answer every single question. Choose the questions that are most relevant to your situation because nearly every possible question is here.

Any agency that fancies itself to be a social media expert should get to work answering these questions now. I have a feeling that they’re going to keep seeing them in client pitches for some time to come.

Maggie did a good interview with Shel Holtz last week explaining the purpose of the template. There are no licensing terms. Grab it and go.