I see a lot of job postings online for 'social media managers' but beside it says 'unpaid' or 'internship only'. This is an obvious sign of a company not believing in the power social media has, and basically tells me you want any kid off the street to handle it for you. Just because someone comes to you and says, 'I have 3 thousand followers! Let me run your social media pages!', does not mean they can run a business page. There are so many things more than buying a few thousand fake followers for $10 and posting a picture every three days.

Social media is a gateway to millions of potential clients and can be one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies if done appropriately. Business pages, with sales posts and ads, can be shown much lower on social due to algorithm changes earlier this year. These changes are to persuade business owners to spend more on social advertising rather than having completely organic traffic. Talk with your potential social media manager about this. Some questions to consider;
What is your approach to managing a business account on (insert specific platform here)?
Name a time you helped a client (or your own brand) increase engagement.
What do you find is the most successful social platform to advertise on and why?

Why is it so important to hire a qualified social media manager? Paying someone minimum wage to watch my feed would be easier!Not exactly. The only way to have a 'feed' on your company's pages is to have people going to your site. Unless you recently got on the news for something controversial, tens of thousands of people won't just 'appear' on your Facebook page. Having a qualified social media manager will help your company excel online and bring in new clients. Someone who can create content but also keep with your company's voice. That is one of the major things I see businesses over-look when hiring for this job opening. This manager needs to understand the company's voice, style, and image. Be straight forward with what you want your brand to exude online. Do you want a snarky, back-talking voice like one major food chain, or do you want a professional voice with a hint of humor? Same goes for the content created. Do you want all photos to have the same font style or background image? Be sure to ask your potential employee to send rough drafts of content they would create for your business before you finalize the hiring process.

Keep in mind, the best social media managers will work around the clock. It is not your normal 9 to 5 career path. People wanting to take on a company's social presence need to be ready, at almost any hour of the day, if something goes awry. They need to be able to post outside set work hours to keep up with engagement rates and consumers. Even when scheduling posts for later in the day, the manager needs to check in on the status. What comments are we seeing? If there are no comments, why not? Is this post not relating to our online consumer's demographics? What makes this post different from other more successful posts? Social media marketing has left a bad taste in many people's mouths, unfortunately. This is all because people do not see the depth of what social marketing entails, or has given lax attention to their profiles. Many small and medium size businesses I have worked with have the general manager running their social campaigns on top of their other daily chores. As a business owner, look into the profitability you could achieve with a proper social presence. Do not find the nearest college freshman to take on this task for you. There is so much more than posting a quote today, a joke tomorrow, and a company photo the following day. Sit down with your marketing team and see how social can benefit your company. Keep in mind, 77% of the US population in 2018 has a social media profile. Be sure to show them your company's best side digitally.
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