We’re living in a social-first, video-forward world. As Bryna Corcoran states in Hubspot’s Global Social Media Trends Report, “The digital landscape is bustling.”
In just a few years, brands like Stanley have leveraged user-driven social media content to grow its annual revenue from $70M to a whooping $750M while Duolingo scaled to 13.4 million followers on TikTok, up from 8.2 million last year.
But these kinds of results are not earned overnight and more importantly they’re hard —if not impossible— to achieve with a one-person team. The challenge with building a full-fledged team though, is that experienced talent is difficult to find. You either struggle to accurately assess candidates or you don’t know the specific roles you should hire to effectively execute your social strategy.
We’re here to help. Whether you’re starting from scratch or restructuring an existing team, we’ll show you how to build and organize a thriving social media team for 2025.
Roles and Responsibilities of a Social Media Marketing Team
With a dedicated social media marketing team, you’re distributing the marketing workload and creating a deeper sense of ownership for your top social media goals.
Here are the essential roles you need to have on your team:
Social Media Manager
A social media manager functions like a manager in any other team with the primary responsibility of oversight and team coordination for social media platforms. They are there to establish the brand voice, determine the content types, set internal deadlines, and manage communication with key internal stakeholders.
A social media manager should have strong people management skills, creativity, and a solid understanding of social media management tools.
Content Creator
Content creator is an umbrella term that describes the creative crew involved in producing social content. These roles include content writers, graphic designers, videographers, photographers, and copywriters. They are responsible for creating visuals and copy to educate or entertain your audience while aligning with brand tone and strategy.
They possess diverse skills, including writing, editing, design, storytelling, and the ability to stay ahead of trends.
Community Manager
According to HubSpot’s report, 60% of social media marketers say their company invests in building communities and has a dedicated community manager. A community manager will help you convert audiences into engaged brand advocates. They’ll spark conversations, monitor platforms for feedback, and deliver community-focused insights that can aid your team in refining and improving strategy.
They have in-depth knowledge of your brand, copywriting, and communication skills and know how to use social listening tools.
Paid Social Media Specialist
A Paid Social Media Specialist is responsible for creating paid media strategies, analyzing paid campaign metrics for optimization, and managing social media ad budgets. They are highly focused on maximizing ROI and meeting set KPIs. The role requires essential social media advertising skills and understanding best practices such as budget management, data analysis, and copywriting.
Analyst or Insights Specialist
An analyst or insights specialist on your team will track performance metrics, create reports, and deliver insights for improving future performance. They will also include social monitoring and listening to gain insight from audience interactions.
To determine effective strategies, they should be familiar with the analytical tools associated with specific social media platforms, such as Facebook Insights and YouTube Analytics.
Influencer and Partnerships Manager
This role is dedicated to engaging influencers, managing affiliate partnerships, and nurturing relationships with brand ambassadors. The dedicated contact person is the influencer and partnership manager who will identify and nurture strategic partnerships, develop collaborative campaigns, and negotiate contracts with transparent terms and compensations.
This role combines social media knowledge with relationship building and sales. Knowledge of influencer discovery platforms and broad industry connections will make them effective.
LinkedIn Marketer
A LinkedIn marketer will create valuable content that consistently resonates with your target audience, engage with your growing community, and run sponsored content. This role requires skills like copywriting, design, and keyword optimization.
These are the standard roles within a social media team structure. However, once you have a clear objective for your social media marketing, you can decide which roles are a priority for your company.
Social Media Marketing vs Paid Social Marketing
Organic social and paid social are two complementary components of a comprehensive social media marketing strategy. While both are deployed on the same platform, there are significant differences you need to take note of.
Social media marketing is focused on managing and organically growing your brand’s presence. It relies on creating authentic connections and directly engaging with your community.
When to use organic social: Leverage this to build awareness over time and humanize your brand by sharing relatable posts, funny memes, or educational content.
Paid social marketing relies on using platform-specific ads to retarget website visitors and generate leads. In HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report, paid social media ads was one of the top five channels that drove ROI for social media marketers.
When to use paid social: Leverage this to generate leads for a new product or service, promote a campaign, or test out new messaging.
Social Media Marketing Team Organization Chart: By Industry
The type of industry your business belongs to will determine the social media marketing initiatives you prioritize. Also, as social media marketing strategies and content types differ, so will your team structure.
Social media marketing team structure for SaaS companies
For a SaaS company, you need a social media teams with technical expertise. Your goals are to build brand credibility, generate leads and educate potential customers on the value of your product.
Key roles
- Social Media Manager
- LinkedIn Content Writer
- Content Creator (with relevant technical background)
- Analyst/Insights Specialist
Optional roles
- Community Manager
- Influencer/Partnerships Manager
Why this structure works for SaaS
With this team, you can find interesting ways to market complex software solutions. Your subscription-based product will require a team that can consistently educate users with product-led content that drives adoption.
Social media marketing team structure for service-based businesses
With no physical product to showcase, you will need to demonstrate expertise to earn the trust of potential customers. Your social media marketing team will create content that builds thought leadership and nurtures relationships with your audience. They will create a close-knit community and consistently provide prompt responses for effective engagement.
Key Roles
- Social Media Manager
- Content Creator
- Community Manager
- LinkedIn Marketer
- Paid Social Media Specialist
Optional roles
- Analyst/Insights Specialist
- Influencer and Partnerships Manager
Why this structure works for service-based companies
This structure allows for a more personalized approach to community engagement, relationship building and reputation social media management.
Agency Social Media Marketing Team Structure
When you run an agency, prioritize having specialists particularly for highly technical functions like analyst and paid social media specialist. Your team should be able to work in a fast-paced environment, as client projects can require quick turnaround times. You will also need a broad influencer network across multiple niches.
Key Roles
- Account Manager
- Social Media Manager
- Content Creator (multiple)
- Paid Social Media Specialist
- Analyst/Insights Specialist
- LinkedIn Marketer
- Graphic Designer
Optional roles
- Community Manager
- Influencer and Partnerships Manager
Why this structure works for agencies
This gives your agency a versatile team to manage multiple client accounts while also building your own brand. As your client base grows, you can also scale up each role to include multiple people.
Social Media Marketing Team Organization Chart: by Company Stage
The size of your company typically reflects the size of your audience/customer base. It also determines your marketing budget, social media priorities, and team structure.
In a small company, you will likely work with a lean team of generalists, while in a large-sized company with a customer base that spans across multiple regions, hiring social media specialists will be crucial.
Enterprise social media org chart
If you're running an enterprise, you need to build a full-scale team with defined roles and hierarchies, often structured to cater to specific social media platforms. At this stage, your team requires a high level of specialization as you must create tailored content for different audience segments across multiple platforms and regions.
Key roles
- Social Media Director
- Social Media Manager (platform-specific)
- Social Content Strategist
- Content Creator
- Content Writer
- Graphic Designer
- Video Editor
- Community Manager
- Paid Social Media Specialist
- Social Media Analyst
- Influencer and Partnership Manager
Why this structure works for enterprise
This structure allows for specialization, which is essential when dealing with a large and diverse enterprise audience. It also provides your team with the ability to run multiple campaigns at the same time, as there are enough people with the expertise to deliver.
Growth Stage social media org chart
At the growth stage, your audience is expanding and your business offerings become diverse. You will need to scale rapidly without losing consistency and strategies will shift to prioritize personalization and segmentation.
Key Roles
- Social Media Manager
- Paid Social Media Specialist
- Content Creator (2-3 members)
- Community Manager
- Paid Social Media Specialist
- Social Media Consultant (to support core team)
Why this structure works for the growth stage
This structure lets you focus on audience growth and engagement while managing limited resources. It also allows you to dedicate more resources to high-performing channels.
Startup social media org chart
The team structure for a startup is typically leaner, often with one or two roles handling multiple responsibilities. Generally, you will focus on high-ROI but cost-effective strategies.
Key Roles
- Social Media Manager
- Content Creator
- Community Manager
Why this structure works for the startup stage
With fewer individuals on the team, all wearing multiple hats at this stage, there is enough room for experimentation and iteration.
How to Build a Social Media Marketing Team
Building a social media marketing team is less about headcount and more about skill sets. You need to align goals with roles and find individuals with relevant skills.
Here’s how to approach building an effective social media teams:
Use your strategy to prioritize roles
Clearly define your social media goals and KPIs. Do you want to drive user sign-ups or build an engaged community? Your objectives will guide you on which roles to prioritize. In a B2B company, your main objective may be to showcase thought leadership and connect with potential partners, so a LinkedIn marketer will be top on your list. Alternatively, social media for a fashion brand or DTC company might lean towards virality on TikTok.
Audit your current team
Your audit will help you identify the overlaps and gaps in your current team. To review your team, you should:
- List out the current roles and responsibilities
- List out the skills you need on your team to achieve your goals
- Evaluate whether the people on your team have these competencies
- Review the current workload of each team member
- Create a list of new roles or skill areas to fill
- Rank the roles in order of their contribution to the team’s goals
- Create a plan to hire based on priority
Consider multiple team structures
Consider these common team structures for your team:
In-House Team
This means your team works full-time within the company and is fully dedicated to your social media marketing needs and goals. This approach requires that your company has a stable budget for social media marketing and is ready to commit to it long-term.
Pros
- Deep understanding of the company's products and service offerings
- Complete control of marketing strategy
- Easier to maintain brand consistency
Cons
- Higher cost
- Possibly generalists not specialists at the early stage
Outsourced Teams (Freelancers or Agencies)
With this approach, you can hire external experts for specific campaigns or have a retainer agreement with them. You will need someone in your business to liaise and review their deliverables.
This approach is advisable for small companies that cannot afford an in-house team or would instead approach social media marketing on a project basis.
Pros
- Cost-effective
- Provides access to expertise and specialized skill sets
- Allows for scalability
Cons
- Lack of brand consistency
- Confidentiality risks
Hybrid Teams
A hybrid team will involve your in-house team collaborating with freelancers or agencies for specialized skills in long-term or short-term projects that require specific expertise, like advanced analytics or campaign execution.
For a seamless collaboration, someone on your in-house team will be responsible for liaising with the external contractors. You should create a brand book that will serve as a guide and ensure clear communication on expected deliverables.
Pros
- Less expensive than hiring for all roles full-time
- Flexibility
- Ensures speed in highly demanding times
Cons
- Brand consistency may become difficult
- Time-consuming onboarding
As your business evolves, whether as a result of your growing audience or increasing your product and service offerings, you should recognize when it is time to scale. It may involve adding a new person to the team or outsourcing specific projects.
How to Hire Social Media Marketers
Many companies hire social media marketers by either sourcing talent from freelance platforms or working with recruiters to build an in-house team.
This process can be challenging, as some social media marketing skills are difficult to measure directly in terms of impact. Finding a well-rounded candidate who combines creativity, consistency in brand messaging, and the expertise to drive results can be challenging.
The hiring process involves:
Writing a job description for specific roles
The top rule for writing a job description is: Don't be vague. Clearly outline your preferred qualifications, location, expectations, compensation, and benefits. Be transparent about the responsibilities of the role so you avoid employee dissatisfaction shortly after hiring. Additionally, set realistic expectations and align the offer with the role's current market value.
Posting on job boards
Recruiting a social media marketer is like casting a wide net when you go fishing—you need broad reach to attract candidates. Key places to share your well-crafted job description include:
- Job boards like LinkedIn, FlexJobs, and Wellfound
- Freelance marketplaces such as Upwork and Fiverr
- Internal channels for employee referrals
Interviewing selected candidates
For most social media marketing roles, candidates should be able to provide a portfolio of their previous work, which can serve as a good indicator of their skills and experience. Requesting this along with their resume is a recommended best practice.
During the interview, ask candidates about their technical skills, past experiences, and how they would handle situations similar to those that may arise in your company. Allow time for them to ask their own questions as well—remember, an interview is a two-way conversation.
Hoping for the best
To be honest with you, hiring social media marketers can be a costly and time consuming process with multiple stages of vetting, interviewing and negotiating. You’ll be dealing with a massive pool of candidates where up to 50% of them embellish their CVs and besides that, there’s absolutely no guarantee that you’ll make the right choice. Typically, you’ll just have to go through the hiring cycle and hope for the best.
Find Expert Social Media Marketers on MarketerHire
A much better alternative to getting stuck in an endless hiring cycle that leaves you frustrated is to explore MarketerHire’s pre-vetted pool of social media managers, consultants, and LinkedIn marketers.
Our matchmaking algorithm uses data points including your industry, company size, timeline, and desired results to connect you directly with the exact social media talent you need within just 48 hours.
Here’s how it works:
- Fill in this questionnaire to describe your company, what kind of marketers you need, and your hiring budget.
- We will find a match for you from our network of 2500+ pre-vetted marketing experts and make a recommendation. If you like our recommendation, we will set up a 20-minute introduction call for you to meet your talent. If you don't find the right fit at first, we’ll make more recommendations. Thanks to a combination of AI and human expertise, 75% of clients find and hire their first match.
- Once you approve the marketer, we’ll help speed up the onboarding process and your new hire will be ready to kick off.
Lastly, we’ll check in every two weeks to ensure that everything keeps running smoothly. Ready to hire your next social media marketer? Come talk to us.