The 5 Fundamental Steps: How to Hire a Social Media Manager

Today’s demanding digital world has created a need for Social Media Managers in businesses of all sizes, across all different industries. The power of maintaining an online presence cannot be understated—it plays a vital role in brand awareness, audience engagement, and long-term marketing success. With 82% of all Canadians on Social Media, not being present, or barely being present,  means missing out on potentially valuable connections.

Think of social media as the 21st century business card, where people get their first impression of your business from what they’re seeing online. If your online presence is great, a potential customer has already warmed up to the potential of doing business with your company. If your social media presence is lacking or non-existent, it’s time to start thinking of hiring the right Social Media Manager.

The right Social Media Manager will develop a plan to leverage your social media platforms to drive business growth and customer engagement. It takes time, a unique voice that can be showcased, along with an understanding of the product or service, but once these areas combine you’ll have potential customers understanding your business by how and what you post on social media.

1. Understanding the role of a Social Media Manager

If you know you need to hire a Social Media Manager but don’t know quite where to start, you’re not alone. Total spending on digital marketing by businesses in Canada is expected to grow to over $16 billion by 2025.

The role of a Social Media Manager is multi-faceted—it isn’t just about posting updates. Rather, it’s about conducting market research, creating a content strategy, maintaining communities online, analyzing data and metrics, and staying up to date on changing market trends. If you think that sounds like a lot for one person to handle it’s because it is, which is why it’s so important to hire the right person and to have a great team to provide support.

These managers are instrumental in shaping a brand’s public image, and function as a company’s eyes and ears on different platforms. So, it’s crucial to invest in someone who can effectively manage all the different complicated aspects of the job.

2. Defining your business objectives and goals

Your unique business needs are going to determine how to hire employees for different vacant roles within your organization. You need to make sure that you align your business objectives with your social media strategy. 

Is your goal to drive business?

Hire a Social Media Manager who has experience driving direct traffic from social media to your business, whether it’s a website or another form of contact. Remember, don’t expect a massive surge immediately. Designing, deploying and then monitoring your social media takes time. Give them 6 months to start showing an effect before you decide on going another route. Better yet, think about hiring a contractor to get everything going before you’re ready to hire someone full time.

Is your goal to drive awareness? 

Hire a Social Media Manager who has worked with brands that have a proven track record of competing in a tight market and leading. Awareness is about showcasing your business and getting into the minds of potential customers who may not be ready to buy ASAP, but instead are likely going to be looking for a service akin to yours in the near future. Trust is the name-of-the-game, with 81% of customers saying they need to trust a brand before purchasing, and brand awareness makes sure you get in front of the right person, at the right time, and start building a trusting relationship with them.

Is your goal to develop a content creation process?

Hire a Social Media Manager who has experience designing, managing designers, and more importantly expressing a creative viewpoint throughout their career. If you think your social media’s messaging isn’t straightforward, or you’ve gotten to a point where creatives fall flat with little engagement, it’s likely time to hire a Social Media Manager who has experience re-invigorating brands with dynamic creatives that grab the attention of potential customers.

You need to define what your business needs before starting the hiring process. Focus on one of the three goals above before jumping into the world where skills and qualifications can be elaborate, and you’ll need to brush up on your “social media talk” before interviewing potential candidates.

3. Essential skills and qualifications

When it comes to what makes the perfect Social Media Manager, you want to look out for a balanced blend of creative and analytical skills. Candidates should be highly proficient in content creation and possess a deep knowledge of different social media platforms. Strong communication skills are also crucial, as well as a keen attention to detail and the ability to analyze and interpret social media metrics and customer feedback.

The skills required before you even consider hiring a Social Media Manager are multi-faceted. From having an eye for creative that fits in-line with your brand's image, to reporting on the results of social media one-off posts or entire campaigns is required. Here are a few of the essential goals every social media manager should have:

Planning

Knowing when to say what is one of the most important skills a Social Media Manager should have. When do you talk about the product or service? When do you touch on the importance of your customers? When do you have fun as a brand so your business isn’t only seen as pushing services 100% of the time? Most Social Media Managers use tools like Hootsuite, Later, Hubspot or a myriad of other planning tools to create a schedule of posts for both this week, next week and next month.

Tracking

Knowing the return on investment for any given social media campaign can be difficult. The way to start out making the connection between revenue and social media requires extensive tracking. Social Media Manager’s specialize in knowing this connection, which can be done via a planning tool or even something as simple as a UTM tag.

Creatives

Knowing how to create, or manage the creation of content, is a Social Media Manager’s highest concern. Connecting with an audience with visuals means understanding how the product or service they’re showcasing needs to be displayed or portrayed to effectively grab the attention of a potential customer. Social Media Managers should always have a good design sense, even if they’re not the ones creating social media content directly.

If creative resources to support a Social Media Manager are not present, you should hire someone who is comfortable using a tool like Canva to design for the most popular social media platforms. 

Writing

Knowing how to connect with an audience that is the perfect fit for your product or service is where a great Social Media Manager thrives. The words, cadence and frequency of messaging drives home the goal of your company in the context of your ideal customers needs, and hiring the right Social Media Manager means finding a new outlet to let your business shine on a whole variety of platforms that all have their own unique spin on how to grab readers’ attention with language.

4. Interviewing and selecting the right candidate

The interview process is exciting but it can often be full of disappointment. What you see on paper isn’t always what you get in person, but it’s important not to get discouraged. It might take some time, with the Canadian average to hire someone reaching 44 days, but the effort will be well worth it when you find the right fit for your company.

When it comes to sitting down with candidates, you should look for those who have experience with content strategy, analytics, and crisis management. Adaptability is key in digital marketing, no matter your niche, so you need a manager who can respond well to changing trends and challenges that might arise along the way. 

Take some time to talk to them about your brand and what you’re looking for. Ask plenty of questions while you evaluate their experience and potential. Try to think of some hypothetical situations beforehand and ask them how they would solve different problems. It’s important to get a sense of self-assurance and confidence from your candidates, as they will be making important decisions that can make or break your brand’s online presence and reputation.

When you work with a recruitment firm, they can walk you through this process and make sure every important aspect is addressed. You should walk out feeling confident that you have all the information you need to make an informed hiring decision. The likelihood of being disappointed with your choice is much lower when you work with a professional firm rather than go through the recruitment process on your own. 

5. Utilizing a recruiter in the hiring process

The hiring process can be complicated, and it takes up a lot of time and resources if you try to do it all in-house. When you work with a recruitment firm, the search for the right candidate becomes much more streamlined. Specialized search firms have the expertise necessary to source candidates with the best qualifications for the job. Not only that, but they generally have much more widespread access to a qualified candidate pool.

Networking is an entire job on its own, but recruiters have the advantage of tapping into their existing networks to bring the best Social Media Managers to the table for your business needs and goals. Any time you’re making a new hire, you want to be certain that they possess the right skill set for the position, and that they’re capable of bringing new knowledge and experience to your team. 

Read More: Maximizing Success: 4 Ways to Build Collaboration with Your Recruitment Agency

Create your dream digital marketing team with Creative Niche

Creative Niche specializes in helping businesses hire the right Social Media Manager the first time. Our extensive experience interviewing and finding Social Media Manager’s for businesses’ in a multitude of industries is what sets Creative Niche apart from competitors.

Looking for someone who can help you drive direct revenue via social media? What about someone who has worked with some of the largest brands in the world and helped define their social media process? Creative Niche has an extensive network of Social Media leaders who are jumping at the chance to reinvigorate a brand, or help maintain what your business has already accomplished..

In the same way that you want to understand and connect with your customers, the team at Creative Niche wants to connect with you and elevate your brand to new heights all by helping you cultivate an unbeatable creative team.