When thinking about whether or not you should hire a Social Media Manager ask yourself these questions?

• Do you know which platforms your business should be visible on?
• Do you know who your target audience is, and which social media platforms they use?
• Do you know the best time of day to reach that audience?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, your business would probably benefit from hiring a social media manager.

As a business owner, you have a never-ending list of responsibilities, so posting to Twitter or Instagram won’t be at the forefront of your concerns. Having a dedicated social media manager will take the responsibility off your shoulders, allowing you to focus on your business. They can implement a strategy, finding out who your competitors are, who you want to target and how best to do it.

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Why can’t we just get the intern to do it?

It’s something every social media professional has heard a million times before: “we’d rather keep it in-house because we need someone who really knows the business”. Or it’s handed over to the intern because they, apparently, know all about it.  Your employees may know your business inside out, but do they know how to properly create and implement a social media strategy?

Social media is constantly evolving and shifting. A trained professional will keep themselves up to date with industry changes and know when to make the necessary adjustments to your strategy, always keeping the campaign objective in mind.

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Could you plan and implement the correct strategy?

Navigating the world of social media isn't just about posting the odd picture here and there.

Laying the groundwork takes time and for a strategy to be effective, you need to spend time figuring out who your target audience is, which platforms they’re on and what time of the day they use social media. Once you’ve cracked this, then you need to work out what content appeals to your audience. What’s going to catch their eye and pique their interest? Do they have any “pain points” you can provide solutions to?

Much of the process comes down to trial and error. This can be tedious, but it is vital in creating an effective plan. Any decent social media strategy requires a mixture of curated and created content. It’s important to take the time to find relevant content to share with your audience, while also creating content which reflects your brand.

The ultimate goal for a social media manager is to boost brand awareness. They will be able to utilise social media to its full potential and bring new ideas which are relevant to your brand and audience. They will know the optimum way to represent your brand online and how best to attract new customers. They’ll be able to ensure that your business’s brand is well represented on each social media platform.

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Dedication is what you need…and engagement!

Social means social. It’s not just about advertising your product or service. It’s about engaging with your audience and customers.

Customer service is expected to be provided and handled on social media platforms. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of businesses actually deliver it, with most complaints going unanswered. How you deal with feedback on social media can have huge repercussions for your business and not responding to negative feedback could lose you customers.

Staying on top of customer messages can feel like you’re spinning plates – something is bound to slip. However, just like engagement, customer service will be one of the top priorities for a social media manager, so any complaints on any of your social channels will be responded to in a specific amount of time.

This is where regular, daily engagement is important. Good customer service through social media will see retention of existing customers, an increase in customer satisfaction, and ultimately, an increase in new customers.

Social media is the best way to deal quickly with customer complaints, with the added bonus that potential new customers will see how you respond to and handle a complaint. Showing that you deal with each query or concern on social media will highlight that your business values its customers.

While retaining your existing client base is important, your business will always be looking to attract and retain new clients. You need to spend time getting to know people and having conversations.

Having dedicated time each week to spend engaging with your audience will help build relationships. To create relationships with your audience you need to engage with them on a regular basis. A social media manager will prioritise building and maintaining customer relationships which will go a long way in helping attract new customers and clients.

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Measure, track and refine

The only way you can tell if your campaign and strategy are performing well, is to track the results regularly and see what is and what isn’t working. A professional social media manager will know what to look out for in terms of platform performance.

With the ever-changing landscape of social media, what worked one month might not work as well the next. Each platform has a different approach to make the algorithm work to your advantage. This in itself is constantly evolving and a social media manager will know which campaigns aren’t working as well as intended and should therefore be stopped, and which campaigns should be optimised. If a campaign is more successful, then a social media manager will be able to identify relevant ideas to capitalise on.

This is also a more cost-effective approach as your social media manager will be able to ensure you are getting value out of your budget, instead of wasting it on underperforming campaigns.

Obtaining a report at the end of the month will give you an insight into what kind of content was posted, how well it performed and how the platforms perform on a month-by-month basis. This is all invaluable in running an effective campaign and ensuring you get value from your social media manager.

Social media is constantly evolving, and small businesses can’t afford to not use it to its full extent.  Hiring a social media manager means hiring someone who can view your brand objectively and can build and implement a strategy that reflects that brand. They will prioritise customer engagement and brand awareness, leaving you to focus on your business.

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