Social media is the heart of your online image. The average US person spends 1 hour and 43 minutes on social media per day. No business can succeed without a strong social media profile. The problem is that most businesses don’t have the time to handle social media all by themselves. They may also lack the expertise to scale their campaigns adequately.
Hiring a social media manager can be the answer. They can help with social media brand building and they can turn your social media efforts into money. But hiring the right social media manager is far from easy. This guide is going to show you how you can make sure you hire a social media manager that will actually deliver results.
What are You Hiring them to Do?
It’s amazing how many businesses will hire a social media manager, let them loose, then promptly announce they have little idea what they hired them to do. Social media can bring up a wide range of goals. You need to know what you want to accomplish so the social media manager knows what they’re doing, otherwise you’ve essentially hired a glorified status updater.
Think about what you want to achieve and how that fits into the grand scheme of your business.
Do they have a Track Record?
Social media manager is one of those jobs that can be done by anyone, or at least in theory. It’s not difficult for someone to claim that they’re a social media manager. They may claim that they’re amazing at social media and so they should be hired. But there’s so much more to social media than posting content and spreading other people’s content around.
They have to research what’s trending and figure out how to relate it back to the business they’re working for. Ask any prospective social media manager whether they have any track record.
Not only should they have a strong track record but they should be able to back up their results with real case studies and real clients you can contact yourself.
Do they Repay What You Pay?
Your salary for a good social media manager should be gained back many times over by the good work you carried out. It’s easier than ever to track web traffic and conversions through social media. After a probation period you should know whether they’re actually worth the money you’re spending on them.
Some guesswork is involved because a lot of what you do on social media is paid back indirectly. It’s not something you can track, but largely you should know whether that social media manager is on course to repay what you’re paying them.
Is there a Plan?
As already mentioned, managing a social media feed involves much more than posting a few statuses. Whenever you talk to a candidate you like, you should ask them what they would do with your business’s social media profile. An experienced social media manager can take a glance at a company and already have a rough idea in mind of what needs to happen.
This should extend beyond merely creating quality content and reposting content from major industry influencers. There should be a firm plan in place dictated by the manager and backed up by facts.
Can they Give You Any Guarantees?
All social media managers are wary about giving any precise guarantees. But they can still give out general results, such as they can guarantee that they’ll help you increase your web traffic via Facebook. It goes without saying that they should achieve this if it’s what they were brought in to do in the first place.
On a side note, keep in mind that any social media manager who claims that they will give you huge results is probably lying. Only the inexperienced social media managers will claim that they can increase your revenues by 500% and that you’ll be a millionaire within six months.
Conclusion – Make Sure You Offer a Probationary Period
There are never any guarantees that the social media manager you hire will turn out to be a success. Limit any potential loss by offering only a trial period. Review their work after a month or two and consider whether you want to continue using them. This is long enough for you to tell if they’re making a noticeable difference to your brand.
The probationary period will help you to avoid spending too much time and effort on someone who isn’t good for your business.
What do you think is the best way to make sure that the social media manager you’re hiring is the real deal?