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Social media is something that businesses can’t ignore anymore. Many have and many will continue to, but eventually they’ll realize the effects of doing so. Because of this huge demand and immense growth of various platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and others, there’s quite a few people who offer services to help out.
When looking for the right person for the job, it pretty much goes without saying that they need to actually know what the hell they’re doing and have the experience to back that up.
Often and not just in the social media industry, you’ll find people who have the knowledge, but not the experience. Not to hurt anyone’s feelings, but taking a social media certification course or reading some social media blogs means jack squat if you’ve never implemented any of it.
Secondly, is the person a good fit based on A) Caring and B) Passion. Both may seem similar, but there’s a difference. Someone can care about doing a good job, but they can lack the passion. Obviously they care because if they do a horrible job, they don’t get any dinero.
Passion is definitely a big factor because passionate people go above and beyond the call of duty.
Back to exhibit A, you want someone that doesn’t care solely for the paycheck, but cares about your business and you being successful. A caring and passionate person understands that by helping you be more successful, they become more successful as well. Those are the kinds of people you want on your team.
Thirdly, do they understand the business side as much as the social media side? Many will fool you into thinking that it’s about engaging and sharing amazing stuff and while that’s partially true, that alone is what causes many campaigns to go downhill.
Social media is a long term investment, but not solely a hug fest. You’ve got to actually be able to create a strategy and plan and implement to generate business.
Quite frankly, a good percentage of Social Media Managers aren’t able to do that. Engagement and creating high quality content is great, but that alone is not enough for a successful social media presence.
Lastly, are they go getters or simply get by? This brings us back to being passionate. A lot of people will simply do just enough so they keep getting the paycheck. This is why many companies are facing declined productivity which in turn decreases sales. You want a Social Media Manager who is ready to work and consistently work. Someone that is honest and truly wants you to be successful.
If you’re looking for a Social Media Manager, click here to view a case study and if you’d like to chat further, simply fill out the form on that page.
1. The social media manager should understand your audience and be able to speak in the language of your audience.
2. They must be willing to offer consultation and coaching to get others at the company thinking about how they can contribute to social media (but that could come back to passion, I suppose).
3. Creativity is just as important as passion. Nothing goes viral without it.
I'm a publicist who has grown more and more involved in social media as the tradtional media is, erm, imploding. I wonder how long before the two job descriptions merge entirely.
@Karma Bennett Great tips to add Karma (awesome name by the way). I think it's just a matter of time before the two positions do. As Bob Dylan says, "times they are a changin".
