How To Hire A Social Media Manager
Hiring the right social media manager for your business is arguably one of the hardest roles you will need to fulfil in your business. The role is the gateway to your online audience, which for most businesses, is the biggest audience pool out of any medium you’ll adopt within your marketing strategy. We get asked a lot how to scope the job description for a social media manager by our clients - what skills do they need to possess in order to do the job well? Here’s what we suggest:
Do you trust them?
A social media manager is the voice of your business to the digital world. They will be largely responsible (or at least have access to) your entire online audience. Having full and explicit trust in them is essential. Of course, you can (and absolutely should) cover yourselves legally, but should your relationship with said person ever turn sour, you want to rest safe in the knowledge that they will do no public harm.
Look outside the recruitment pool
The role doesn’t have to be filled by someone who is a “trained” social media manager. Use your listening skills on your channels to find an online voice within your industry that YOU actively engage with and approach them to join your team. By doing this, you’ll have first hand evidence of their communication skills and it’ll be someone who you can already see is active part of the online community you want your business to be involved with. Many influencers also take on social media roles on the side for example because they are utilising the channels day in, day out for themselves and they have an exemplary understanding of it.
Can they write well?
Many people make the mistake of hiring someone solely on their understanding of a channel but your social media manager MUST be able to craft captions and effortlessly capture your tone of voice in everything they post on your behalf. Whilst it seems obvious, you should never get sucked in by someone who is solely good at the visuals - the words are far more important! Their writing should be dynamic, engaging, personality-driven and a replica of your brand’s tone of voice. Good grammar is also an essential!
Are they creative?
Whilst they are unlikely to be wholly responsible for producing the photography for your feed, you do want them to have a creative eye in order to curate the imagery available to them. You also want them to take strong photos (on their phones is fine) whilst out and about of things that may be relevant (for example at trade shows or at events etc). They should have a basic understanding of graphic design for this.
Can they see the bigger picture?
Social media is, of course, just one part of your marketing strategy and it needs to compliment other activities at all time. Your social media manager needs to be able to integrate well with other areas of your business in order to dig out the stories happening inside your business that might make good content for social. Understanding what else is happening within the business will help them set goals that are in line with your wider business objectives too! Spoiler alert: if they’re chasing vast amounts of followers as a goal, they’re not doing it right!
Have they got any customer service experience?
Whilst social media is a communication channel, the direct level of contact with your customers mean that your social media manager should have a good understanding of your approach to customer service and be able to handle anything that comes through accordingly.
Do they know their numbers?
There is no point in putting effort into social media without analytics to see what’s working well. Your social media manager should have a solid understanding of Google Analytics and be able to use the native tools (as well as any third party tools you have) to communicate what’s driving traffic to your website through your social activity.
Things you need to give them to do their job well:
Training - they need to be able to grow with the channels and stay on top of any of the updates. Give them a good training budget for the year for this!
Access to all the team - they need to be able to grasp the brand voice quickly and spending time with the decision makers and top layer of the business will get them inside the head of the company. Give them that access!
Flexible working plan - you want a social media manager to be out and about at relevant events and locations so don’t chain them to a desk. Give them flexible hours and working locations.
Clear insight into your business goals - without this they can’t tune the social media content to align with them. Let them in!
Respect - social media is too often regarded as an add on instead of a necessity. Social media is essential. Give your hire respect for their role!
Budget for third party tools - social media can be a 24hr job and your social media manager is likely to put their all into it. Give them the tools to be able to do their job better. The likes of CoSchedule, Later, SproutSocial, Hootsuite, Buffer are all an essential bit of kit for the success of their role.
Last but not least, make sure you have a solid understanding of social media yourself. Whilst you don’t need to be able to do it yourself, you need to be able to understand the landscape. We’re hosting a social media masterclass to help explain how it all works. Want some 1:1 training? Our consultation packages can help you unpick what you need out of social media to get you ready for the hiring process!
