Does your small business need a social media manager? Hiring one is tricky. You can waste a lot of money hiring some teenager who thinks they know what their doing.
And given some teens today…
It is probably not the best course of action.
Remember, social media is a means to an end of finding influencers in your industry and qualified prospects to buy your products or services.
With all the hype that surrounds social media for businesses, it is easy to join in without a plan for reaching out to potential customers. Wasting time on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIN is not the only cost.
A poorly executed social media strategy can harm your small business reputation through boring content, unprofessionalism, and spamming. These three tips will help you decide if you need a social media manager.
Step 1: Create goals
Marty Levine, of Prosyna marketing, says that hiring a manager who promises thousands of followers and tells you exactly what they plan on doing before they learn your business, iis probably not the right person.
Your small business needs a customized approach to reaching out to target audiences. It's not about quantity, it's about relevance. You want someone to draw relevant, potential customers to your brand online for minimal cost.
Step 2. Analyze Your Time Availability Each Week.
Before hiring a social media manager, analyze the trade-offs. If you have four hours a week to spend on your web presence and social media to promote it, you can invest that time in publishing content or promoting the site.
Four hours is not enough to do both well. Content should be your top priority. You control that. Social media outlets are designed to help you promote content. Content publishing needs to be consistent.
It may be your small business does need a social media manager but don't rush it. Before interviewing people, look for candidates who have already helped businesses like yours.
For example, you want a social media manager who can target buyers in your industry or geography. Or perhaps a one-on-one targeted approach. Let candidates prove to you their social media promotional efforts rang the cash register in sales of other clients they've served.
Step 3: Wait and Watch Results.
As a small business, you don’t necessarily want “fans” of your social media sites to span the entire world. Your following can be small and loyal, and still be a profitable. It takes time and consistent online presence to gain followers. Especially as a small business, a mass appeal to the whole online community is unwise and not the goal.
The social media manager you need is one who will diligently gain followers who show interest in the product on a local level.
Tiffani Murray, founder of www.personalityonapage.com, said that because small businesses usually deal locally, your social media manager is more than just an announcer and a constant “buy buy buy” sales pitch. They will also interact and “converse” with followers to build trust and a brand which will build loyal customers. Engagement and building trust online is what you're after. The sales will come.
Does your small business need a social media manager? Create reasonable goals. Be realistic on how much time you can spend. And if you hire someone, keep a keen eye on results.
Great article on #smallbiz and #socialmedia published on @bestbizhelp ! Give it a quick scanbestsmallbizhelp.com/2012/11/does-y…
— Joseph Gebert (@josephgebert) November 22, 2012
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