Looking for a Social Media Manager? Here are 5 Tips
October 26, 2018
Social media was once thought of as just another way to communicate with friends and family, build online social circles, and post photos or videos of daily life. Now, businesses are beginning to understand its potential as a marketing tool and have begun using it to their advantage. Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and the like, provide an opportunity to connect with consumers, share products and promotions, and market your brand.
Operating a social media account has become such an integral part of business marketing that many companies are now hiring specialists to manage these sites for them. If you’re considering hiring a social media manager this year, here are 5 tips to get you the best person for the job.
1. A Multi-tasking Magician: Managing one social media channel might seem simple, but most brands choose to branch out and use multiple platforms. This means you should consider hiring someone who has the ability to multi-task well. Bouncing back and forth between Twitter, Facebook, etc., posting photos, using hashtags, updating the same information in the appropriate format for each site, answering customer comments, creating and managing promotions and contests all adds up to a very time consuming and mentally exhausting job which requires a knack for juggling.
Look for a manager who either has experience managing multiple departments or projects at one time or who has done the social media role before and has the examples to show you. This is a crucial element for the success of any social media campaign.
2. On Board with the Brand: Your brand is important; it’s taken time to build up a reputation and a personality for that brand. When you hire somebody to manage social media, you’re essentially hiring somebody to write as the face of the company. Think of your social media manager a bit like the employee at the front desk of your office. He or she is the first person consumers see and speak with and this leaves a lasting impression.
Write down some questions to test a potential candidate’s compatibility with the message of your brand. For example, maybe you want someone silly, light hearted and informal at the helm because your business is known for thinking outside the box. Maybe you want someone professional, well-spoken, and to the point because your clients are trusting you with money or legal expertise and you want your social media to reflect how seriously you take this. The individual you hire to convey the company message should fit in with that message to deliver positive results.
3. A Developed Online Presence: It isn’t enough to be well-written and on board with the company vision if a social media manager has no online presence to back up. You wouldn’t hire an office manager who had never managed anything before, so why put your company’s online image in the hands of a novice? A great way to weed out potential catastrophes from potential candidates is by visiting their personal social media accounts.
Are the accounts updated regularly? Do they have a lot of followers? Are people engaging and is the potential candidate engaging back? These are important questions to ask while surveying the social media scene. You can also ask to see an applicant’s previous work and determine whether their methods will work for you based on the types of posts and traffic they’ve created for other companies.
4. A Team Player: Your social media manager may be a department unto themselves, but to streamline your business, promotions, and overall vision, your social media manager will need to work with other departments. Coordinating marketing strategies, sharing ideas, and even drawing content from different areas of the business makes for a smoother and more organized outcome in your social media and in the company in general.
A social media manager who wants to go it alone, only use their own ideas, and not share information with the rest of the team could be a cause for drama, trouble, and a disorganized company image. It’s especially important for this role to coordinate with your other online strategists, including your blogger or website manager.
5. An Analytical Mind: Finally, it’s all well and good to be super creative, unique, and a good writer, but social media is about traffic. Your social media manager should have an analytical mind to watch the numbers of shares, likes, comments, etc., and improve upon poor scores. If they notice a subject isn’t drawing much attention, keywords are no longer popular, or your campaigns are no longer reaching their targets, an analytical thinker will take tally of these faults, restructure and improve.
Social media is about so much more than just sharing photos and videos; it’s about implementing strategic search engine optimization and similar marketing tactics while simultaneously uploading high quality content which is relevant to the brand and on focus.
If you’re in the market for a social media manager, try creating a list of the essential qualities you want in this employee. Perhaps your particular brand is looking for something fun, flashy, and enigmatic, or maybe you’re seeking a professional with a keen eye for facts and figures. Whatever your preference, having a clear understanding of these goals will make it easier to weed out the candidates who wouldn’t fit in, and land on a successful applicant who can improve social media standing for your company.