When and How to Hire Someone for Social Media

Hiring a social media manager or assistant is often a difficult choice. People often try to do their own social media for as long as possible, even when it’s clear that it’s not the highest leverage way possible to use their time. For one reason or another, even managers and business owners who’re keen on outsourcing everything else often insist on doing their own social media.

But at some point, this can become a real bottle cap. Once your social media activities reach a certain threshold, it really becomes a full or part time job. You can’t run your business and run your social media any longer.

So how do you know when you reach the point where you should hire a social media manager? And how do you choose an “A Player” social media specialist? Let’s take a look.

 

When to Hire a Social Media Manager

When is it the right time to hire someone to take on your social media responsibilities? Here are a few common signs.

 

• It takes more than 2 hours a day. Once you get to the point where you’re spending 3 or 4 hours a day on social media, it’s time to look at outsourcing.
• You feel stressed and overworked because of social media. It stops being fun.
• You’re prevented from launching major initiatives because you don’t have time to manage it. For example, you can’t launch a social media contest because you don’t have the time to run it.
• You find managing social media distracting. It affects your productivity and prevents you from performing at your best.
• Your revenues reach the point where your time is more valuable than the person you’d hire’s. This can happen sooner than you realize in a business.

When you hit one or more of these issues, it’s probably time to make the switch.

What to Look for in a Social Media Manager

 

First off, it’s important to realize that you can hire a social media manager part time. If you don’t have full time needs, don’t feel pressured to hire a full time manager.

Second, realize that you don’t have to hire someone who brands themselves as a social media specialist. A web savvy, driven and passionate hire who’s able to learn quickly can often do just as well as a social media specialist at a fraction of the cost.

All that said, here are a few things to look for when you’re hiring a social media manager.

• They’re passionate about social media. They use it in their spare time. They love everything about interacting with other people online and being an online connector.
• They’re familiar with multiple platforms. They should know and understand how to use LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, Twitter and so on.
• They love to learn and they learn quickly. Part of the job will often involve them learning new skills. In order for them to pick up those new skills quickly, they have to absolutely love learning.
• They need to be able to write articulately and take on different voices. They should be able to write in both professional tones and humorous tones.
• In addition to the people side of social media, they should also understand the analytical side. They should understand metrics, understand tracking and understand analytics.

Finding a great social media manager shouldn’t be too difficult. The trick in many cases is finding someone you absolutely love to work with.

 

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn – Where to start?

Start Ranking Now will establish your online presence by creating social media profiles with links back to your main sites. We will then proceed to build out your profiles and enter into the conversation by posting updates to your profiles on a regular basis.