When you hire your first social media manager, you want to be sure you’ve chosen the right person for the job.

After all, you’ll be trusting them to represent your brand online and to speak to your customers on your behalf.

That can be a bit nerve-wracking at first, but when you find the perfect social media manager your nerves will soon disappear.

In this blog, I’m going to share my top tips for finding and hiring the best social media manager for you.

Niche-based social media managers

Some social media managers choose to work with businesses in a specific industry or field.

For example, I work with therapists because I’m a huge mental health advocate who has personally benefited from therapy. 

This can be valuable because it means they really understand your audience’s wants and needs and can talk their language. They’ll know the type of content that works for your audience and will be able to hit the ground running. 

Of course, there are also many generalist social media managers – those who work with a wide range of different businesses – and they’re a great option too. They enjoy the variety and challenge of creating content for a range of audiences.

Platform-based social media managers

Many social media managers choose to focus on working on one or two platforms. Often these are the platforms they enjoy the most and know they can get the best results from, or which are best suited to the businesses they work with. 

The great thing about choosing a social media manager who only works on a limited number of platforms is that they can stay on top of all the latest trends and feature updates, and are able to quickly interpret how they can benefit you.

How important is experience?

OK, let’s tackle the elephant in the room. Just because your niece’s best friend’s cousin is smashing it on Instagram does not mean she’ll be able to do the same for your business.

Social media is a marketing role, and although experience isn’t always necessary – we all have to start somewhere – a basic understanding of writing for sales or engagement definitely is.

Where to find a good social media manager

Start by asking fellow business owners who they recommend. Follow social media managers on the platforms your business is active on. You can find them using the hashtags #socialmediamanager #socialmediamarketing and #socialmediatips. 

If a local social media manager is important to you, use Google to find people in your area. 

Do your homework

Once you’ve found a social media manager online, it’s time to turn detective.

First and foremost, check out their own social pages. Are they active? Do you like the content they are posting? Do you warm to their personality? Do you have similar values?

This information is important because you will be working closely with your new social media manager and you need to know you’ll get along.

What to expect when you speak to a social media manager

Your first call or meeting with a freelance social media manager will be a chance to establish whether you’re a good match for each other.

You should ask them about their experience and training and ask them to tell you about some of the successes they’ve had, but you shouldn’t treat the meeting as an interview. 

In turn, they’ll want to know about your business, what you hope to achieve on social media and what your budget is. It’s a good idea to get an idea of their prices from their website first. Take a look at my services page for details of pricing. 

After you’ve spoken, the social media manager will provide you with a bespoke proposal which sets out the services they will provide for you and how much they will cost.

As you’re here, it would be great to chat with you further. I’ll be able to let you know how I can help your business grow on social media. Book a call today.