What Expectations Should You Have of a Social Media Manager for Your Business?

There are many different types of social media marketers in the world and they have a wide range of skillsets. Everything from social media managers that operate more like virtual assistants (create and share content for you but do nothing else) to social media managers that handle every aspect of social (including engagement, monitoring, and advertising). Before interviewing your manager prospect, what expectations should you be seeking as a small business owner looking to hire a new social media manager?

Connection

A quality social media manager isn’t going to just create posts for you in a silo. There needs to be a regular communication plan to check in with you about what is and isn’t working. You should have an expectation, and it should be in whatever agreement you sign, that there be active communication each month including a window of time to chat and discuss things. These calls should cover current efforts and plans for any future efforts, upcoming events, or promotions.

Strategy

If you’ve ever spent an hour creating social media content and found a few days later that it produced zero engagement or interest in your business, then you understand the futility of not having a social media marketing strategy. Many business owners approach social media marketing as a post it and forget it endeavor and then complain to other people about how social doesn’t work for their business. When it’s time to hire a social media manager, you should expect that they’ll work with you on a social media marketing strategy for your business that will help you produce results.

Reality

Too many small business owners do not really understand the role social media plays in their marketing efforts. While social media can produce sales, that’s not the purpose of social media marketing. If the expectation is that your social media manager will close business or generate sales for you, you don’t understand the difference between marketing and sales. Marketing is anything you do to create awareness and attention for your brand – essentially warming up your prospects for the sale. These efforts may generate new business for you but that’s not the purpose of social media marketing. Social media is about connecting with your audience, building brand awareness, and getting the necessary attention you need to earn the trust that will eventually result in a sale. It’s not fair to put all the pressure of making money for your business on the shoulders of your social media manager because that’s not what social media marketing is about.

Quality social media management and social media strategy go hand in hand. Your expectations going into any outsourcing situation should be built upon trust that you are hiring an expert that can move the needle forward for your business.

Are you finding it is getting more difficult for you to post about your business in social media due to time and energy restraints? The Social Media Advisor team can create a custom editorial calendar for your business, create on-target messaging and branded images aligned with your culture, and get it scheduled each month – taking this huge task off your plate entirely! Ask us more about our Monthly Social Media Management service!

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

When Is the Right Time to Hire a Social Media Manager?

When we first start our businesses, we are responsible for every single aspect of running them – including any and all marketing efforts. There’s no shame in being in this space. We all begin somewhere. If your company isn’t making money yet, it’s impossible to justify spending money you don’t have to bring in experts to help you with all aspects of owning a small business.

However, at some point, you will have clients and you will be making money and then the question becomes, “When should I hire help to do all the tasks that aren’t in my genius zone?”

Here are some things to think about if you find yourself wondering if now is a good time to hire a social media manager:

Consistency is Hard

You have the best intentions and you know the vision you want for your social media presence but the struggle is real when it comes to consistently creating posts and showing up on social media. If you can’t find the time in the day to make consistency a priority in regards to your social media efforts, it’s time to call in support.

You Don’t Have Time to Learn

While there are plenty of small business owners that take my social media marketing training classes to learn how to be awesome in their social media efforts, I run into just as many people who don’t have the time, or the inclination, to learn how to master social media on their own. If learning social media marketing has been on your to-do list for months (or years), let’s face it – you need to call in reinforcements.

Your Efforts Produced Zero Results

Many small business owners find that they can create and share content but that doesn’t mean they can get results on their own. Anyone with a computer and a Facebook account can participate in social media marketing, but if you find that the time you spend there doesn’t produce the desired results – it’s probably time to hire a social media manager instead.

You’re Ready to Invest in Ads

As any marketing team will tell you, the best way to make money with your marketing efforts is to spend money. Once you have a marketing budget for social advertising ready to go, it may be more beneficial to find an experienced social media manager to manage these efforts for you. There is a learning curve to social advertising and you have better ways to use your time as a business owner than becoming a Facebook ads expert.

Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired of doing it all yourself?  Then now is the time to stop throwing spaghetti at the wall, finally come up with a solid social media marketing strategy, and have someone else build out your online marketing efforts for you.

Are you finding it is getting more difficult for you to post about your business in social media due to time and energy restraints? The Social Media Advisor team can create a custom editorial calendar for your business, create on-target messaging and branded images aligned with your culture, and get it scheduled each month – taking this huge task off your plate entirely! Ask us more about our Monthly Social Media Management service!

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

How Can Outsourcing Your Social Media Marketing Help Your Bottom Line?

There aren’t many influencers on social media these days that aren’t outsourcing some part of their social media marketing to others. While they are the faces you see when you login in, the process of creating and sharing content on social is a multi-step process, involving many different tasks including strategy development, copywriting, graphic design and image creation, idea generation, scheduling, hashtag strategy, and placement.

All of these tasks can be overwhelming for a small business owner. Is it time to outsource your social media marketing? Here are some things to think about:

Avoidance, Procrastination & Dread

Avoidance, procrastination, and dread are three practices guaranteed to result in failure. If you find that creating content and scheduling social media posts is something an activity you avoid, procrastinate, and dread, it’s definitely time to outsource your social media marketing to an expert. Even with good intentions, something that’s never getting done is an area of your business that fails to produce results.

What is Your Time Worth?

We both know that you didn’t start your business to spend all your time on social media. Part of the reason you became a business owner was to create more freedom in your life to pursue the things that are important to you. Each hour you spend on social media marketing each month detracts from your time freedom.

If you average out the amount of time it takes you to create and schedule your social media posts each month and multiply that by your hourly rate – you may find that outsourcing this responsibility doesn’t cost you as much as you think.

What’s the Real Cost?

If you think about marketing for your small business as a spoked wheel, there are many areas that need attention all year long. In order for your marketing efforts to live up to their fullest potential, each spoke of the wheel must be a priority. If one (or more) of these areas do not receive the attention and focus they deserve, it impacts your business’ ability to reach people and achieve desired results. The real cost of not outsourcing the marketing tasks that you don’t have time for is amplified in this lack of results. Nothing produces nothing, every time.

Only you can determine the right time to bring on social media team for your business. At some point, your business should be going so well that you’ll need to either hire a team member or outsource the work to a social media management company.

Are you finding it is getting more difficult for you to post about your business in social media due to time and energy restraints? The Social Media Advisor team can create a custom editorial calendar for your business, create on-target messaging and branded images aligned with your culture, and get it scheduled each month – taking this huge task off your plate entirely! Ask us more about our Monthly Social Media Management service!

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

Are You Prepared for Marketing Your Business in Social Media in the 4th Quarter?

As it always does in business, the fourth quarter has snuck up on us! Now that the hazy days of summer are gone, it’s time to revisit your business strategy for the last quarter of the year. The earlier you start this process, the better prepared you will be to tackle the rest of the year.

Here are some things you can do right now to ensure a healthy bottom line by year-end:

Check-In

People are back to work and their focus is renewed right now. It’s a great time to check-in or follow up with leads, customers, and power partners. Also, check-in with your social media marketing efforts. Have you been consistent in your posting and showing up online?

Review Your Goals

Now that summer is in the rearview mirror, it’s time to take another look at your yearly goals. Are you on track, behind, or are there goals you can push to next year or eliminate completely? This evaluation process will help renew your focus going into the fourth quarter and re-energize you to knock some of those goals out of the park this year!

Holiday Prep

As we look at the end of the year, if you haven’t already created a holiday marketing strategy to carry you through – it’s time to do so. What contests, giveaways, discounts or specials do you want to launch this holiday season? When it comes to promoting your holiday marketing campaign, it’s key to start promotion early and not wait until the last minute to announce your Black Friday sales or holiday discounts.

Also, what can you do NOW to beef up your followers and lists heading into the holiday season?

Outsourcing Your Social Media Marketing

What do you have in place to support your business for 4th quarter? Are you running out of time to do your social media and blogs? Do you have a budget to bring someone in to do them for you?  When you don’t enjoy doing something because don’t have the expertise or you no longer have the time to it, it will actually save you more time and money by bringing in a specialist. Kick frustration to the curb and hire an experienced social media management team!

The Social Media Advisor team can create a custom editorial calendar for your business, create on-target messaging and branded images aligned with your culture, and get it scheduled each month – taking this huge task off your plate entirely! Ask us more about our Monthly Social Media Management service!

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

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