Over five billion people are on social media nowadays, so your business must be, too. If you want to meet your audience where it’s at and connect with it, you should leverage social media marketing. This type of marketing entails creating content for social media platforms to promote your brand and increase engagement.
Still, you shouldn’t go through it alone. With so many platforms and channels to cover, you need an expert to guide your efforts to success.
A social media manager can help you figure out the best channels to use and the type of content that will appeal to your audience. No matter the size of your business and budget, the manager can help you create a powerful online presence that’ll benefit you for years.
Before you hire a social media manager, use our guide to learn about their role and duties and get advice for navigating the recruiting process. We’ll also present MarketerHire, a platform that lets you connect with top-notch social media experts and other marketing talent within days.
What Is a Social Media Manager?
Social media management is a marketing branch that aims to build and maintain a company’s image on social networks. The goals of doing so are to spread the word about your business, boost customer engagement, and build trust around your brand.
Social media marketing involves publishing branded content and interacting with the company’s customers. The most common platforms brands use include:
- TikTok
Not realizing how complex social media is, many companies make the mistake of delegating social media management to inexperienced junior marketers or overworked marketing generalists. The truth is you need a dedicated expert if you want a sophisticated social media approach that brings consistently great results.
A social media manager ensures your content is impactful and your brand voice is consistent across different platforms. These professionals know which platforms you should invest in and when to leverage organic as opposed to paid social media marketing. They also know how to get your unique messaging across to the target audience.
Every social media platform has distinct requirements, and its algorithms constantly evolve. The manager keeps up with these shifts and adjusts the strategy timely to ensure the content performs well.
What Does a Social Media Manager Do?
No two social media managers are the same—their duties vary greatly depending on the company. For example, in a startup, the manager usually does all the work themself, including creating visuals and writing the content. In larger companies, they work with and manage various specialists, such as graphic designers and other content creators.
The duties that can fall under a social media manager’s scope of work include:
- Strategy building: The social media manager identifies optimal platforms and generates campaign ideas while considering the company’s brand image and preferred messaging. They create a strategy for follower generation, engagement, and conversion
- Resource planning: The manager decides how the social media budget will be allocated. This is especially important if you’re outsourcing content creation. They also craft the content calendar, defining when each campaign and post will run
- Content creation: In some cases, the social media manager is the one making the content. They have to follow trends, optimize the content using hashtags and location tags, and make sure it reflects the brand’s image and tone
- Influencer engagement: The social media manager identifies influencers and celebrities who can be suitable advocates for the business. They arrange collaborations with them to promote the brand and raise awareness
- Community engagement: From responding to comments to sharing relevant content, the manager engages with the followers using the company’s voice. The goal is to leave a great impression but also gauge their preferences and get valuable feedback
- Data analysis: To assess the effectiveness of their campaigns objectively, the social media manager tracks clicks, followers, and engagement. They use this information to improve future marketing efforts
When and Why Should You Hire a Social Media Manager?
Ideally, you should hire a social media specialist as soon as possible—before you’ve started advertising on social media. With their guidance, you’ll start on the right foot and ensure every penny is well-spent. Still, you can hire them whenever you need to and can afford it. A social media manager is vital when:
- You run a large company
- You don’t have time to manage social media yourself
- You’re on social media but lack a proper strategy
- Your content is inconsistent in quality or tone
- Your interactions and follower count are dropping
If your budget is limited, you can hire a freelance social media manager or an agency. Learn about the pros and cons of using different types of services below:
Another option is to hire a fractional social media expert. These professionals work for you on a part-time basis with flexible hours, and they’re ideal when:
- You don’t need full-time engagement
- Your budget is limited
- You have a temporary skills gap
- You want to test the waters before committing to an in-house social media manager
Benefits of Hiring a Social Media Manager
Once you’ve hired an experienced social media manager, you can expect the following benefits:
- Reach and engagement: By posting high-quality content regularly, the manager can ensure your company is more visible and appeals to your audience
- Brand consistency: The manager helps strengthen your company’s visual identity with carefully crafted on-brand content and messaging
- Rapid growth: With a solid strategy and organized execution, social media can quickly become a powerful stream of new leads and customers
- Return on investment: The value you get from hiring a social media marketer far outweighs the costs
What To Look For in a Social Media Manager
Pay attention to the following qualities when recruiting your social media manager:
How To Hire a Social Media Manager
Before you start looking for a social media manager, define your needs. That way, it’ll be easier to prioritize qualifications and choose the best candidate. Next, you should:
- Source: Post ads on job boards, freelancing sites such as Freelancer and Upwork, and social media platforms you use. You can also ask for referrals from other employees or your network
- Screen: Consider the applicants’ CVs, social media profiles, and portfolios. Shortlist those who have relevant experience and a wide range of technical skills
- Interview: Meet with your top candidates in person or via video to assess their communication skills and cultural fit. It’s advisable to ask them how they would approach your social media strategy and grow your audience
- Decide: Choose the candidate who has the technical know-how, shares your values, and has a promising plan for your social media marketing strategy
Limitations of the Traditional Approach to Hiring a Social Media Manager
Consider the downsides of the traditional, in-house recruiting process before you invest in it:
- It’s resource-intensive: To trust them with your social presence, you must screen the candidate thoroughly first, which can take weeks. Unless it’s handled by an HR department, the process will also take away from your primary work
- It’s risky: If you’re not a social media expert yourself, you can’t be sure you’ve evaluated for the right traits and selected a reliable candidate. The cost of a poor decision can be high—not only would you have to hire again but also deal with any damage the initial hire has done
That’s why so many businesses opt for marketing-focused recruiting solutions like MarketerHire. This platform can connect you with a pre-vetted social media manager within days, removing all the hassle from recruiting. It also offers free trials and rematching to ensure risk-free hiring.
Why Is MarketerHire the Best Choice for Hiring a Social Media Manager?
MarketerHire simplifies hiring by offering to match you with proven expert marketers, including social media managers, on demand. The platform has made over 25,000 successful matches so far. Among its clients, you’ll find household brands such as Netflix, HelloFresh, and Logitech.
MarketerHire’s white-glove approach allows you to hire effortlessly. Once you share your needs, the platform’s experts will handle the rest. You’ll also get a dedicated marketing manager to guide you through the process and check in on you afterward.
One of the reasons behind MarketerHire’s fast and spot-on hiring is its pre-vetting process. It’s rigorous, comprehensive, and run by industry experts. Only the top 1% of applicants end up joining the network, and many of them have worked with successful brands, so talent quality is guaranteed.
To ensure the candidate is not only skilled but also compatible with your business, MarketerHire uses a proprietary matching system called MarketerMatch. It leverages AI and human insight to pinpoint the most fitting candidate from the network.
There’s no risk of making a bad hire since MarketerHire offers free trials and rematching. If you’re not happy with your manager, you’ll get a replacement in no time. The contract is short-term and flexible, so you can cancel, scale up, or scale down as needed.
How MarketerHire Works
The recruiting process with MarketerHire goes as follows:
- Hop on a short call with your marketing manager to describe your company
- The MarketerHire team will zero in on the perfect candidate within 48 hours
- Your new social media manager can start working for you within as little as three days
In addition to social media managers, MarketerHire can help you hire various other expert marketers, including marketing analysts, Amazon experts, and fractional CMOs. It supports full-time, part-time, and hourly engagements.
In case your marketing, sales, or design team is bogged down by time-consuming and repetitive tasks, MarketerHire can recruit a full-time Expert Assistant to streamline your workflows.
Partner with MarketerHire to hire a top-notch social media manager and grow your business with a foolproof social strategy!
Other Hiring Resources To Check Out
You can find more marketing-related hiring guides in the table below: