Social media takes so much time away from you doing what you are good at. And the time spent does not always reflect what you have in your bank account. It may be time to consider someone else to take on the task of keeping your business visible. And most importantly driving traffic to your business to make money. You do need a social media manager if you ever want your business to grow and be sustainable.
Always remember that you are an expert at what you do. And social media managers are experts in what they do. Unless you are prepared to spend time and money learning how to be effective on social media, then you should get someone in. And sooner rather than later. Every time you open a social media app, you are taking valuable time and money away from the business. And energy away from what you are so good at.
You have concerns
Yes, of course, you are concerned about handing over a part of your business. It feels like some random person is stepping in, who doesn’t believe in your mission. And they now have to use your voice to speak about your business. Eeek! They may also not be in your niche, and you worry that they won’t fully understand your product or service.
Often a business owner takes on a social media manager thinking they will offload the work to someone else. And it will be simple. But, as the business owner started to prepare the social in their overall strategy, they realise how much is actually involved and why it is such an important task.
It really is panic for small business owners. And it can be a block to growth if they don’t really know what to do with someone taking over their social. Even if they thought it was a good idea at the time.
What to do
The first thing is to get your new social media manager to study all your social platforms thoroughly. Especially the last 20-30 posts. You want them to get a feel for who you are, and what you do.
If it is possible, it is a good idea for them to spend time in your business. They need to observe how you engage with your customers and your team. And understand how you make your products and deliver your services. This will give them a clear picture of your voice, professionalism, and how your business works in relation to your customers.
If you have an online business, ensure they attend your workshops, give them access to your courses, and get them on your email list. This is vital for them to understand who you are, and the 2-way relationship you have with your customers.
As part of the interview process, ask them to send you some sample posts that reflect your business and your voice.
You are the content director
Think of yourself as the content director and your social media manager as the producer. You may also want to create the content. The job then is for them to ‘pretty it up’. They can create the images, research the relevant hashtags and schedule the content to get it out there.
If you want a say in content creation, you can allocate a slot a week to batch-create your content. Use your marketing calendar to write your posts, take or choose photographs, and record your videos, all in one go. If you like using memes and GIFs, find the ones you like during this process. Then add a quick caption so that it sounds like you.
Resources
All your previous content is a resource for social media. Your free content, courses, webinars, and previous blogs – there are loads of quotes that can be pulled out for social posts.
Canva is brilliant to create images for social. Create a team with all your branding ready to go. This means you can dip in and out too if you would like to, and you can contribute to the content when you can or need to.
A social media scheduler is a really good idea too. There are plenty on the marketing, so find one that works for your manager and for you. This also means you can preview the content before it goes out to ensure it fits with your mission and your voice.
Create a shared Google Drive folder so that you can dump your content anytime and communicate with your manager. They can do all the follow-up work from there (adding hashtags and scheduling etc), which is a big time suck for you.
If you really don’t feel you can create the content yourself, you either get your social media manager to write, or you can hire a ghostwriter for this content. It depends on your budget and also your business strategy.
Top tips to use a social media manager
Take time to train this vital member of your team. You need your business to run without you. If they are all too dependent on you for every little thing, you will struggle to grow. You want them to be part of your mission, understand your goals and feel like they are part of your journey too. Free yourself up as much as you can so you can focus on other things.
And give feedback on content created by someone else. Don’t just change it yourself. You want them to learn why it wasn’t what you wanted so they can improve. If you amend their work, they will also start to lose confidence. And this is never good for anyone on your team. Be honest and support everyone to grow with your business.
Getting a social media manager, is a big decision. It’s a time and money investment, but the results can be utterly amazing!
