Social media, whether we like it or not, is here to stay. It plays an incredibly important role in our day-to-day lives and for business marketing, it can make or break it. Recruiting a social media manager can be tricky if it’s a new aspect of your marketing strategy. Here are a few things you might consider when it does come time to hire your first social media manager.
Get Them a Decent Computer
Social media managers often end up being a bit of a jack of all trades when it comes to managing your brand’s presence on the many different social media websites and platforms. They’re probably going to be responsible for creating posts, writing copy and making graphics and images for these posts, as well as running a few applications. Getting them a decent computer system or laptop is essential, and you should be prepared to spend a built more than you usually would on a computer for one of your staff. Look for something with a discrete graphics card, like Intel’s new Arc Graphics. Read more here about what Intel Arc can do for your computer.
Understand Their Needs
Social media management is about being creative and getting your message seen on social media, but it’s also about being responsive and managing both positive and negative sentiments when they arise. This means that your social media manager will likely need a few tools to be able to effectively do their job. These tools are generally not free, and thus you should budget for a monthly cost for essential social management tools like Hootsuite or Buffer. These tools are designed to offer social media managers a more central point to manage the many different social platforms and be more responsive to their audience.
Paid Media Competency
Organic social media is a great start because it doesn’t cost you anything to post and interact with your customers and audience, but at some point in your growth on the web, you’re likely going to have to make use of paid media. If you’re a smaller company and your social media manager is going to be doing most of it solo, it’s important that they have at least a general understanding of paid media and how it works. Getting it wrong and creating ineffective campaigns with low conversion rates can be costly without much return, so your social media manager should be able to show competence in paid media.
Current and Up to Date
Just like anything in the popular zeitgeist, social media platforms and formats fall in and out of popularity. Your social media manager should understand that and demonstrate that they’re able to be up to date on what the current trends and popular platforms are and how to use them effectively.
Social media is a tricky landscape to manage as a business, and often requires finesse when it comes to balancing all the different aspects required. Having someone on your team that is an expert in the field and can navigate it and the nuances it brings is essential.
