You should be selective when hiring someone to assist you or your business with your social media content and management. Why? Because your reputation is an asset.

Whether you like it or not, your customers create or assume a reputation about your business. This status may or may not have been thanks to social media. So if you’re contemplating of hiring someone to assist your business with your online presence, you need to find someone who understands the importance of building or maintaining your number one asset – your reputation.

Here are 3 things to consider when hiring a Social Media Marketing Manager:

1. Experience & Skills

Today, anyone can claim they can create content and post on your platforms. So ideally you’re looking for a Social Media Marketing Manager who does more than that.

They should be able to demonstrate ideas and concepts, have experience with branding and running marketing campaigns, and very familiar with the platforms you want them to manage for you.

Are they good story tellers? The art of being succinct is important for Social Media Marketing Managers. They have to be able to convey your message in a short space that triggers a response from your audience.

Ask for examples of their work that you are considering them to produce for your business.

2. Understanding of Your Industry

Anyone can follow the people and things that interest them on social media, but a Social Media Marketing Manager knows how to follow conversations and content online that matter to your business. They should be able to find effective content and ideas that is useful for your business or industry, aiming to be at the forefront of new trends and not be afraid to suggest and try new things.

3. Ask them how they would manage your business

Understanding how they would plan your business’ online presence will give you insight into their strategy side.

Ideally they’ll review your company’s current content planning process and make suggestions on where improvements could be made.

Don’t allow your business to be sold short by candidates who wow you with their social media technical skills but have little to offer on the strategic side.

They need to provide reporting and analytics to prove business value in an easy to understand way. Understand what metrics they’ll be working to perform towards to see if this aligns with your business’ performance measures.

If you do decide to hire a Social Media Marketing Manager, it would be silly to assume they are now solely responsible for your business’ online presence. Don’t forget this is your business’ reputation they’re looking after, so don’t think you can drop the ball and expect they will do it all. But the right Social Media Marketing Manager will assist, be proactive and work collaboratively with you to create a remarkable online presence.

If you’ve been contemplating of getting help with your business’ online content or outsourcing the management of your social media platforms, reach out to us by filling out our form here and let’s have a conversation about your digital marketing needs and see if we’re a fit.