Social media client questionnaire for onboarding new clients (+ FREE template)

Starting every new social media client relationship with a clear, organized client onboarding process is essential if you want the partnership to last. The onboarding process helps you set clear expectations and define communication habits with your new client, helping you proactively manage client expectations moving forward.

It also lets you gather all the information you need to create content and shape their social media strategy. When you sort this out early, you avoid scope creep, reduce back-and-forth, and keep everyone on the same page.

A solid onboarding workflow builds trust, helps you deliver consistent results, and protects long-term retention. Strong onboarding helps both sides get aligned before work starts—and a strong onboarding process starts with a client onboarding checklist.

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What to include in your social media onboarding questionnaire

Your social media onboarding questionnaire should break down everything you need to know about the new client into clear sections. This helps you gather all the right details without overwhelming them. Instead of chasing missing pieces later, your questionnaire walks them through each area in a logical order that builds a full picture of their business and expectations.

Here are some core sections you'll want to include in your questionnaire:

Client business overview

Start your questionnaire by getting a clear picture of the client’s business. This isn’t just about collecting basic details like their business name or industry. It’s about understanding what they stand for, how they describe themselves, and the types of reactions and engagement they want to drive from their social media audience. This helps you create a client-centric strategy.

When we're onboarding a client, we ask what their KPI's are, then we ask them to help us connect their accounts to our system. We show them what we're going to track, how we're going to track it, and what they can expect.

Rubin Roel, President, Investigator Marketing

When clients share their mission, values, and priorities in their own words, you learn what matters most to them and where they want their brand to stand in the market. Clients want to know their social media manager understands their world before they start creating content or shaping a marketing strategy. When you anchor the relationship in who they are, and not just what they sell, you set the groundwork for a long-term partnership.

Business overview questions to include:

• Provide a short overview of what your business does.

• What products or services do you want to highlight?

• What problems do you solve for your ideal customer?

• What do you want your audience to understand about your brand?

• Who are your top competitors?

• What makes your business different from your competitors?

• How do you describe your brand’s place in the market today?

• What’s your mission or long-term vision?

• What core values guide your business?

Goals & KPIs

Use this section to lock in what the client actually wants to achieve on social media and how you’ll measure progress. Without defined goals, your team risks producing content that looks good but doesn’t drive business results. Clear KPIs also protect the relationship. They give both sides a shared framework for client success, so conversations about performance stay objective instead of subjective.

This is also where accountability takes shape. If a client wants to grow audience engagement, increase qualified traffic, or support sales conversations, knowing that upfront helps you shape the content strategy and choose the right social platforms. It also helps you show your agency's value over time. When KPIs tie back to real outcomes, you demonstrate your impact in a way clients trust.

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Goals & KPI questions to include:

• How does social media fit into your overall marketing strategy?

• How do you define success across your social media accounts?

• Do you want to focus more on awareness, engagement, or conversions?

• What social media actions do you want your audience to take?

• What are your primary social media goals for the next 3-6 months?

• What long-term goals do you want social media to support?

• Which KPIs matter most to you when reviewing social media performance?

• Are there specific campaigns or initiatives we should prioritize?

• What milestones should we track during the onboarding process and beyond?

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Ellen Hedley, Co-Founder, Vida Creative

Contractual and legal details

It's essential to establish these details, because they're the guardrails for the entire relationship. This part of the questionnaire is where you confirm what the client agrees to, what falls outside the scope, and how both sides plan to handle approval processes, revisions, and communication.

Even if these details already appear in the contract, collecting them in the onboarding questionnaire helps you surface any misunderstandings before work begins. It also protects your team—clear terms reduce scope creep, prevent delays, and set clear expectations around turnaround times, responsibilities, and ownership of content. When both sides understand the rules of the engagement, you avoid friction later and keep the partnership focused on results instead of cleanup.

Contractual and legal detail questions to include:

• Are there legal or compliance guidelines we need to follow?

• Are there topics, claims, or phrases we must avoid in content?

• Do you have standard brand disclaimers for social media posts?

• What’s included in your current scope of services?

• Are there any tasks you consider out of scope?

• What turnaround time do you expect for content reviews and approvals?

• Who is the primary decision-maker for social media?

• Who approves content before it goes live?

• How should we handle urgent requests or last-minute changes?

Target audience & platforms

Your questionnaire should help your team understand who the client wants to reach and where those people spend their time. Without a clear understanding of the client's target audience, you risk crafting content that misses the mark. When you know the audience’s motivations, challenges, and behaviors, you build a social media presence that speaks directly to what they care about.

Platform choice matters just as much. Different social media platforms reward different styles of content, posting frequency, and brand tones. The way you approach Instagram is very different from how you show up on LinkedIn or TikTok. Use this part of the questionnaire to map the audience to the right platforms and clarify what role each one plays in the client’s overall marketing strategy.

Target audience & platform questions to include:

• Who is your ideal customer?

• What have you learned about your audience from past performance?

• What actions do you want your audience to take after engaging with your content?

• What problems or needs motivate them to engage with your business?

• What types of content does your audience respond to most?

• Are there audience segments you want to reach more effectively?

• Which social media platforms do you want to focus on?

• How do your audiences differ across each platform?

• Are there platforms you want to deprioritize or avoid?

We go beyond just the marketing ask–we want to understand their company culture, how they treat customers, and their internal processes.

Ryon Gross, CEO, Local Leap Marketing

Branding & content preferences

This section shapes how you show up on the client’s social accounts. Brand voice, tone, and personality guide every post you create, from captions to visuals to how you respond in the comments. When you understand their brand vision and the emotional response they want to spark, you're able to create social media content that drives that audience engagement.

It’s also where you clarify what the client likes (and doesn’t like). A client's content preferences influence your social media strategy, approval processes, and how you maintain a cohesive brand presence across channels. Getting this sorted out early saves time in content creation and helps your team create assets that feel true to the client.

Branding & content preference questions to include:

• How do you describe your brand voice and tone?

• Do you have visual guidelines or brand assets we should follow?

• What phrases or messaging points should we use consistently?

• Are there topics or angles you never want us to cover?

• What personality traits should come through in your social media posts?

• What feelings do you want your audience to have when they interact with your content?

• What brands or creators inspire your content style?

• What types of content do you want us to prioritize?

• Are there content types you want us to avoid?

• How polished or informal should your content feel?

Tools & access

Sort out tools and access during onboarding so you’re not scrambling later. Social media work moves fast, and the last thing you want is to prepare a full month of content only to realize you don’t have permission to publish, can’t open the client’s asset folder, or can’t track performance because you’re missing admin rights. This slows the workflow, adds avoidable back-and-forth, and creates unnecessary tension.

Getting this locked in early keeps the content creation process smooth and predictable. It also helps you understand the client’s existing setup: where they store files, how they organize approvals, what communication channels they use, and where their social profiles live. When everything is accessible from day one, your team works faster, your client feels supported, and your onboarding process starts on the right foot.

Tools & access questions to include:

• What access do we need for your social media accounts?

• Who manages admin permissions on your social platforms?

• What tools do you use for communication and approvals?

• What tools do you use for content storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.)?

• Where should we store and share content moving forward?

• Do you have existing brand folders, templates, or asset libraries?

• Do you use a scheduler, or prefer we manage scheduling?

• Where do you currently track performance or analytics?

• Are there security or compliance steps we should follow when accessing your accounts? (Put this one last so they've already listed all the tools and can reference them easily)

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Downloadable social media client onboarding template

Our client onboarding template rounds up all the questions outlined in this article in a simple, easy to copy and paste questionnaire. Adapt it to fit your workflow and use it to streamline your client onboarding process and gather all the information you need upfront:

Tips for using this questionnaire with clients

This questionnaire is a starting point, but it's not the blueprint. Every new social media client has different goals, expectations, and levels of readiness, so your agency will need to adjust the wording and flow to fit your process.

Here are some tips to help you customize it to your needs and get the most valuable insights from new clients:

• Tailor the order: Rearrange sections based on what you know about the client or the unique services you offer. For example, if you know the client relies heavily on Instagram, you might opt to lead with platform and audience questions.

• Remove basic questions they’ve already answered: If your account manager covers certain details in the sales process, remove those from the client questionnaire (or pre-fill them for client approval) so the client doesn’t have to repeat themselves.

• Use examples to guide their answers: Add short examples beneath open-ended questions to show the level of detail you expect. This helps clients give you actionable insights instead of vague statements.

• Share it before the kick off call: Send the social media questionnaire with your welcome packet so you show up to the kick off with context. This lets you dig deeper instead of collecting surface-level info during your introduction.

• Match the template to your workflow: If you create social media assets inside specific tools or use structured folders, update the questionnaire accordingly. This helps clients share files in the right place from day one.

• Make platform questions specific: Ask about each of their social media platforms separately. Clients expect clarity here, and this helps you understand where their target audience lives and where to adjust your content strategy.

• Revisit their answers after onboarding: Use the onboarding questionnaire as a reference during your first month. Compare your client's expectations to actual performance and refine your strategy as you learn more, and keep up client engagement as the collaboration grows.

Final thoughts

A strong social media questionnaire sets the stage for a smooth client onboarding process, and a successful client relationship. It helps you gather the context you need to build a strategy that fits the client’s goals, and define how you communicate and collaborate with a new client from the outset.

Now that you know what to include and how to use it, you’re ready to create an onboarding flow that’s clear, efficient, and easy for clients to follow. Use the template, tailor it to your workflow, and let it guide your first steps with every new social media client. Good onboarding builds trust—and gives you the foundation to deliver great work.