How To Hire a Social Media Manager
Time and time again I’ll hear someone say something to the effect of, “Well, I know I need to have a social media presence, so I’m just going to hire a college kid to do it.” Or, “My son or daughter—they’re young, they can do it.”
Newsflash! Just because someone is young does not mean that they know how to be a social media marketing professional!
It’s the same with everything—you can’t generalize by age. Just because someone is older doesn’t mean they’re good at handling finances, does it?
You need an expert, or a professional, in this space. I’ve seen, and read about, several horror stories about putting your accounts in the wrong hands. Plus, even if a young college student or intern is good, what happens when they move on? What happens to your social media strategy then?
That’s enough about what not to do. I want to give you four things to look for when you are looking for a social media professional or agency.
1. Check their social media.
The first thing is, check out their social media! Would you ever hire an out of shape personal trainer? Probably not! Would you hire someone who works on vehicles who drives a consistently broken-down car? Probably not! Would you hire someone to handle your finances who wasn’t investing and had tons of debt? No! So it’s the same thing here. If they say that they’re great at handling social media—check out their social media! See for yourself if they’re able to keep it up to date, if you’re happy with the content, etc. I always urge our potential clients to check out our Facebook page and Twitter account, etc. I don’t know about you, but I’m not hiring an out-of-shape personal trainer to help me get in shape!
2. Check references and reviews.
I always practice what I preach for our clients, and I always ask for reviews. If you go to our Facebook page you’ll see several reviews from happy clients. Remember, no matter what your industry is, people never want to be your first customer or your first client. They want to know that people have used your services before, and loved you.
It’s the same thing when you’re interviewing someone to do your social media. You want to find out, who have they worked with? Do they have raving testimonials? Can you call a couple of references, to check the quality of work from their point of view?
3. Understand their game plan.
You want them to be able to sit down with you and explain to you what they’re going to do to gain more customers. More importantly, you should be able to understand the game plan. You don’t have to understand the technical side, but you need to know what’s going on with your account on a daily basis, to make sure that your company is represented properly. So make sure they’re giving you a concrete strategy and game plan in person, and in a written proposal. I always do this for our clients. We only work locally, so I always like to meet with my potential clients face to face to make sure I understand their business, and they understand my strategy.
4. Ask if they’re industry exclusive.
Let’s say that you do landscaping, for instance. If you hire someone to do your social media and they do social media for five different landscaping companies in the local area—that creates a conflict of interest when they stumble upon leads or run ads in different campaigns. We here at Market With Mario take pride in the fact that we only serve one business per industry. Sometimes I have to refer to some of my colleagues because we already have that industry in place, and to me it’s not fair to my client to bring on someone in the same exact industry.
So that’s something you want to check out, to make sure you don’t have someone working for you who’s also working for someone else who does the same thing you do in your area.
I hope this helps in your search to find someone to manage your social media. If you hear of someone saying, “I know I need to be on social media, but I don’t know who to pick to do it,” please share this with them! Thanks!