Bold statement coming FROM a professional social media manager, I know.
But boy, if there’s something that really grinds my gears, THIS IS IT.
I’m writing this post specifically for anybody who has either:
1. Already hired someone to help with your social media
OR
2. Is thinking about it.
And obviously, if you’re reading this post, you KNOW having a presence on social media is incredibly valuable but justttttt in case…
Social media is an incredible platform that provides you with the opportunity for FREE marketing.
Social media gives you the ability to build actual, real relationships with potential consumers before the buying process has even begun (aka when that time comes, you will be their first choice).
Social media can give you a reach of thousands up to tens and hundreds of thousands…..FOR FREE.
Social media has allowed me to increase sales for clients by FIFTY PERCENT or more.
So yeah, I’d say pretty important.
But here’s the deal.
There is a VERY big difference between knowing how a social media platform functions and knowing how to leverage it to convert.
Knowing how to incorporate social media into an overall marketing strategy not only requires a deep knowledge of how social media platforms actually function, it also requires the ability to plan out longer-term marketing strategies.
Not to mention everyone and their brother now thinks they can be a “social media manager” because they know how Instagram works.
SPOILER ALERT:
That’s not how it works and if you hire one of these you might as well take your money and flush it down the toilet.
But don’t just take my word for it, here’s a case study to help paint the picture:
This past summer, I had a one-on-one coaching client who is a well-known influencer on Instagram. Said influencer has amassed a following of over HALF A MILLION people.
Impressive, right?
She obviously knows the in’s and out’s of Instagram - she knows how to take great photos, how to write a caption, how to use hashtags, and how to gain followers.
Okay, cool.
So then why did she book a coaching package with little old me, who at the time of writing this, only has 4.9k followers on Instagram?
Because even though this influencer clearly knows how to work Instagram, she had no clue how to leverage it to monetize.
And now?
Well, she’s since been featured in quite a few high-profile print magazines and has multiple full-time employees.
(Yeah, I’m basically a fairy godmother.)
Now here’s the part of the post where I’m going to give a quick disclaimer:
If you’re a music business that currently has a SMM (social media manager), fasten your seat belt bc I’m about to spill the tea.
Since I made the shift from doing social media marketing at a normal 9-5 job to running my own business managing social media accounts within the classical music industry specifically, I have seen the below scenario entirely too often.
Well-known and reputable companies assign their social media to a staff member, or hire someone from the community who says they know how social media works…
But their photos are the same thing over and over again (and mainly just copying the styling and setup of others…)
Their feed is atrocious (like hi, ever heard of curation?)
They post dump on the reg (can we please for the love of god stop with this already?)
They’re copy/pasting the same set of hashtags onto every post (good way to get marked as spam)
They don’t reply to anything they’re tagged in (#yikes)
They don’t do ANY engagement (double #yikes)
They’ve BOUGHT fake followers (don’t think I don’t see you with that high follower count but getting hardly any likes on your photos….)
And oh yeah, did I mention the whole copying others thing?
And to be really honest, if you’re the owner or person in charge of overseeing this position and you’re pleading ignorance and just letting someone run it because they say they know how to but you’re not actually monitoring it, you’re doing yourself and your business a huge disservice.
Part of running a business is knowing enough about ALL aspects so that you could run it yourself if you had to. Sure, it might not be your favorite thing and you don’t need to know EVERYTHING there is to know about it, but like….are you really just going to sit there saying, “Oh, I’m sure it’s fine!” while your employee BUYS fake followers (which btw is actually illegal now) and COPIES other companies repeatedly, ruining your company reputation slowly but surely?
GET. 👏 IT. 👏 TOGETHER. 👏
Looking at companies in this industry that I have adored for YEARS, watching them LITERALLY throwing money out the window, and to be completely honest watching some of them make their brand look a FOOL because their SM is being so poorly run, breaks my freaking heart.
Like….WHY?
WHY didn’t you do your research?
Why didn’t you take literally 5 minutes out of your day to Google, “What makes a social media manager qualified” or “Questions to ask a social media manager”?
So in the spirit of friends don’t let friends screw up their businesses,
HERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU NEED TO ASK BEFORE YOU HIRE A SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER.
(And if you have one currently you mighttttttt want to consider asking them these, too. And by might, I mean you probably should. 😬)
What experience do you have managing social media accounts professionally?
Can you walk me through how you learned how to do this?
Social media changes rapidly - what specific measures do you take to ensure you are always up to date on updates and changes?
Can you provide specific examples or case studies on how you have incorporated social media platforms into an overall marketing campaign, and what the results were?
What is your average cost per click when running paid Facebook advertising?
When you run your Facebook advertising, do you do A/B testing? How do you approach this?
What KPI’s do you monitor to measure success on the platforms you’re managing, and how do you track these?
How do you prefer to work when managing social media accounts in order to ensure success - do you prefer the client to be completely hands-off, do you require the client to provide specific items and information on a regular basis, or somewhere in between?
What software do you use when managing accounts and why do you use that over something else?
What is your approach to curating the aesthetic of an Instagram feed?
How many accounts do you manage at one time? Do you have a maximum number that you take on, do you have a team that assists you, do you accept all new clients?
How do you handle the situation when you receive a less than pleasant public comment?
How do you handle the situation when you receive a comment or message in which you don’t know the answer to?
How do you ensure that you are maintaining the brand image through any photographs you may take, comments you leave, etc? We want our brand to remain identifiable to US - we have a lot of competitors and don’t want our materials to look like theirs.
What camera equipment and editing software do you use?
Are you currently working with any of our competitors?
If one of our competitors wants to work with you, will you? And if so, how can you ensure that our materials remain unique to us?
So there you go.
Now you can make a fully informed decision and hire someone who actually knows what they’re doing.
YOU’RE WELCOME.
Rather run your own socials? Then you need to check out my Instagram Playbook! It comes with tips on how to build real relationships with your followers, caption party starters, a hashtag strategy that will help you get in front of new clients and so much more! Get immediate access to my IG Playbook here!
