Small Business Guide to Hiring a Social Media Manager

A social media manager is responsible for creating and monitoring your social media content. Here’s what to look for when hiring one.

Social media is an important marketing tool for small businesses, but many organizations find it difficult to manage their social media strategies on their own. Social media marketing has grown from a hobby to a full-blown industry, and small businesses often find themselves in need of a dedicated professional to handle the high demands of social media.

Before bringing someone on to your team for this role, it is important to understand what a social media manager does, what to look for in a social media manager, and how much you should pay them.

What is a social media manager?

A social media manager is responsible for producing, managing and monitoring content on all of a company’s social channels. They help shape the brand’s voice by creating social posts on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, where they also respond to comments and organize campaigns.

What does a social media manager do?

The responsibilities of a social media manager vary by company, though their duties are often more complicated and in-depth than many people realize. You might be inclined to think that overseeing a business’s social media presence is no different from managing your personal profiles, but it’s far more complex and challenging. Social media managers must align their marketing efforts with your overall business plan, create a voice unique for your business, and manage multiple profiles at once.

These are some of the key responsibilities of social media managers:

1. Implement a marketing plan. This the first task a social media manager will often undertake, as it defines the scope of the rest of their work. A marketing plan addresses how each one of a company’s social channels will be used, the company’s goals for each social network, and the types of campaigns that will run on each.
   
2. Determine posting schedules. A large part of social media management is knowing when and how often to post on each channel. A social media manager creates a specific schedule for each platform that determines how many posts will go live each day.

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