Hiring a Social Media Manager? 7 Important Traits to Look For

In today’s world, every business needs a strong presence to be relevant in their field and engage their customer base. If you’re not investing enough in social media, it will show — and it will cost you potential revenue, customers, and brand recognition.

To give this marketing tactic the attention it deserves, consider hiring an expert who can engage your current customers and attract new ones. Here’s what a social media manager is, how they can help your business, and seven essential traits to look for in your business’s social media manager.

What is a social media manager?

A social media manager is the person you as a business owner will entrust to essentially take over your social media accounts to post and interact with your audience on your behalf. A social media manager can be seen as the voice of your company — they’ll be at the forefront of your social media followers and messaging. An ideal social media manager will be skilled in copywriting, researching, search engine optimization (SEO), and customer service. They may come from a social media or technical background with experience in task management. A typical social media manager may also hold a Bachelor’s degree or higher in marketing, public relations, or a similar field.

How can a social media manager help your business?

There are a number of ways a social media manager can assist you in growing your business’s online presence. Your social media manager will create content to post on social media, plot out social media campaigns, and engage with your followers. They put less pressure on you and your team as you work to create innovative solutions for your clients and customers. 

Social media managers will:

• • Determine the best times and days to post so you can reach your ideal target audience and gain maximum engagement.
  • Further your brand identity by developing a voice for your business when responding to customers and creating captions or posts.
  • Determine visual graphics and photos that will add depth and a personal touch to your brand.
  • Figure out how to convert and retain potential customers by obtaining feedback from surveys or social media comments.
  • Track analytics such as organic traffic, keyword research, and results of paid advertising.

Traits to look for in a social media manager

1. Organized

Your social media manager will have to plan and schedule posts on various platforms, and coordinate social events like giveaways, live Twitter Q&As, Instagram Story takeovers, and more. If they aren’t organized and don’t have a good sense of prioritization, they might miss opportunities and potential leads. Ask your potential social media manager if they are able to stay on task and are willing to utilize an organizational system to keep your social media accounts running smoothly. This could be by using a social media scheduler or if they have their own spreadsheet that tracks account movements.

2. Strategic

Behind every good social media manager is a results-driven strategy. You want to ensure the person or agency you hire can demonstrate ROI and use data and feedback to drive new posts. This can be through utilizing SEO keyword research or leveraging social media tools to find applicable hashtags that will help boost your business’s social media profiles. If a social media manager is simply posting just for the sake of it, they won’t offer much to your brand.

3. Relatable

Consumers like relatable content. Your social media manager should have a vibrant personality and the desire to connect with others. Ideally, they’ll have a sense of humor and an understanding of trends, and they’ll combine those qualities to reach your target audience. Consumers trust businesses who have empathy forproblems they’re going through and how that business can solve them. A great social media manager will be able to relate to your consumers on a personal level and gain consumer reliability through an online interface.

4. Tech-savvy

This likely goes without saying, but it’s important to ensure your social media manager not only understands technology but is passionate about and skilled in it. They’ll understand the ins and outs of every site and platform you want to use, and leverage that knowledge to help build your brand. They should be able to troubleshoot and work with potential tech issues that come with working on social platforms. 

5. Patient

Many consumers turn to companies’ social sites to voice complaints, ask questions, or offer praise. Regardless of their reason for reaching out, your customers deserve a composed and empathetic response from your social media manager. An ideal social media manager will also be able to determine when they should come to you for customer issues and when they are able to handle a situation themselves. They’ll also collect customer data so they can alert you if there’s a quality issue or consensus feedback among your followers. 

6. Dedicated

Many businesses are critiqued on their response rate to customer inquiries or concerns. Since they might be getting questions at random hours, your social media manager should be dedicated and flexible. Additionally, managing a social media account is not a typical 9-to-5 gig. There are many “off-hour” tasks that come with this role, and your director must be willing to adjust accordingly.

7. Creative

You don’t want to hire just anyone for this gig. Even if you find a person who’s “all of the above,” if they’re lacking creativity, they won’t attract an audience. Today, aesthetics are everything, and without interesting, engaging social media content, you might not be perceived as credible. Remember, your social presence can be a major selling point for consumers and can make or break your reputation. 

Learn how content marketing and social media go hand-in-hand with this blog post.  If you’re ready to level up your content to seamlessly fit into your social media strategy contact us! We’d love to have a discovery call with you.