It can be hard to hire a social media manager since most businesses need a social media expert to grow their online presence and interactions with customers. A brand’s account on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn may be the first place where potential customers see the brand.
Hiring A Skilled Social Media Manager
Social media managers need a wide range of skills, such as experience with content and design, strategic and analytic thinking, and knowledge of marketing. These experts are the backbone of any social media team, which means that they often need to be good at managing people.
Here are some rules and ideas for how to hire a social media manager.
Clearly Define the Social Media Manager Role
The first step is to describe what this role is all about. Here is a list of what most social media managers do to get you started.
A social media manager is in charge of a business’s social media strategy. The goal is to increase brand awareness, bring in more traffic, and get people to like the products. As was already said, this person will probably be in charge of teams that are in charge of making and publishing content and keeping in touch with user communities across multiple platforms.
Some Possible Tasks for a Social Media Manager Are:
- Reporting on the success of different social media strategies by using digital analytics and media tracking technologies
- Working with the marketing and public relations departments inside the company to help them do their jobs.
- Make sure the brand or company’s message is consistent and build a lively social media community.
Also, before you hire a social media manager, you should think about whether you need this person to help you launch a new product, grow your audience, or find new employees.
Amy Mangan, vice president, and branch director for Robert Half’s marketing and creative solutions group says it’s important to figure out how much of the work will involve writing, community management, or planning and strategy. She says, “Knowing what you want this person to do every day will help you find a social media manager candidate who meets all of your business’s needs.”
Look for These Skills When Hiring a Social Media Manager
On paper, you should look for certain skills, but the candidate’s relevant, hands-on experience should be a big part of your final decision. In general, someone who wants to be a social media manager should have at least three years of experience in social media marketing and management, as well as a degree in marketing, communications, business, or a similar field.
Look for applicants who have worked with popular tools like Buffer, Falcon, Google Analytics, Iconosquare, Klear, Loomly, Sendible, TweetDeck, Hootsuite, and others, as well as with popular social media networks. Search engine optimization (SEO) skills and familiarity with Adobe Creative Suite are also good to have.
But if you want to hire a social media manager, you need to look for more than just technical skills. For this job, you’ll need someone who can work with different teams in the company, like marketers and executives. So, you need to be able to talk to people very well. Also, social media managers interact with the public in a place where almost anyone can get to it. So, they must have patience, tact, an understanding of the language of your brand, and a real interest in and passion for customer service.
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Ask the Right Interview Questions
After making a list of the best candidates, the next step in hiring a social media manager is to interview them.
Be sure to ask candidates about their social media experience and how they usually create, implement, and evaluate a strategy. Ask them to give specific examples of past projects that worked and projects that didn’t. Ask them what they’ve learned from the experience.
When you hire a social media manager, you should also use different types of interview questions to learn more about the candidate’s skills, personality, and possible work-related answers. Think about asking things like:
- What methods have you used in the past to get leads?
- Tell me what you know about SEO and what it has to do with social media.
- What kinds of social media do you use now or have you used in the past? Why would you want to learn how to use these tools?
- What do you think are good ways to measure the return on investment (ROI) of a company’s social media efforts?
- How do you deal with negative comments when the brand’s reputation is in trouble?
- What are some of your favorite ways to deal with unhappy customers?
You could also ask the applicants which brands they think do a great job with their social media networks and why. Their answers can tell you what they think is important about social media marketing and how they might handle the social media manager job at your company if they were hired.
Ask candidates about their ideal work environment and arrangements, like whether they want to work from home full-time or part-time if that’s an option. This could help you figure out how well they will fit in with your current team and the culture of your company. These kinds of questions can be very helpful in making sure you don’t hire bad people.
Do Some Extra Digging
Here’s another important reason why you should hire a social media manager: Check out the applicants’ social media profiles before you meet with them. If they’re going to be in charge of your company’s social media accounts, they should use social media themselves. Look for people who have strong profiles and are part of several important networks.
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Offer a Compelling Package
You will need to move quickly if you want to make a competitive offer to a person you want to hire as a social media manager. “In this competitive market, if you don’t move fast enough, you risk losing the prospect and wasting valuable time and resources on a long interview process or, even worse, a failed search,” says Mangan.
What sort of pay should be given for this job? The most recent Robert Half Salary Guide gives an idea of how much a typical first job pays. Think about the fact that if you want to hire a social media manager with a lot of skills and experience, you will need to offer a really good pay package.
If your budget doesn’t allow for salary flexibility, try giving top candidates other benefits that don’t involve money. Sometimes, bonuses and benefits that are desirable could make up for a slightly lower wage. Many professionals today look at things besides pay when deciding on a job, especially if they have more than one offer. The way your company works can also be a big factor in whether or not a candidate wants to work there.
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Conclusion
If you want to hire a social media manager then you can actively look for social media managers and post your job opening on websites like Upwork, Freelancer, and The Social Media Manager Market. You can reach out to the freelancers and business owners listed on these directories and career websites instead of waiting for the right person to find your opening.
Hiring a social media manager for your business should be a lot more fun if you have realistic goals and a clear idea of the skills and level of experience you’re looking for.
