“Should I hire a social media manager?” is a question most business owners and executives ask themselves – a question I see getting asked a lot.
10 years ago, social media was viewed by most businesses as a passing trend applicable to personal communication. The way social media channels are used has changed rapidly in this time however, with most of these channels making their money from businesses coming on board to connect with their client base.
Businesses now saturate social media platforms, there is a high level of competition to reach target audiences and many technologies have been put in place by the platforms to make it harder for businesses to reach their audiences unless:
- They pay for advertising
- They have consistently engaging content
I have found business owners tend to follow the following process when it comes to social media:
So in the end, businesses either give up on social media and let their pages go stagnant, or they look into if they should hire a social media manager.
If you’re at the stage of wanting to hire a social media manger, you’ll be asking yourself the following questions:
- Is it worth the money?
- Will I get return on investment?
- Is the risk worth it?
- How much do I pay a social media manager?
- Do I hire an in-house person?
- Or should I hire a consultant?
I will do my best to answer the above and hopefully give you a clearer direction on whether or not you should hire a social media manager.
Is it worth the money?
It depends if you’re target audience is using social media in a way that your business meets a need of theirs. In a previous post I answered if your B2B should use social media. Similar to the method I outlined there, you need to work out:
- Who your target audience is
- What platforms they are using
- If they are using those platforms for strictly personal use, or they connect with brands
- Can you offer them engaging information they can’t easily access somewhere else? (i.e: do you have a strong ‘offer’ for them?)
If you believe your target audience wants what you can offer and what you can offer meets an internal business objective (eg: sell more product, collect more data, brand awareness), then social media is worth the money.
Will I get return on investment?
If you have determined it is worth the money because you can offer something your target audience wants to engage with and it meets a business objective, then technically you should get return on investment (ROI).
BUT, it all comes down to if you can actually meet those needs effectively. Realistic KPI and reporting targets should be set and used to determine if social media has been success.
For example, a shirt manufacturer may target to sell 5 shirts in the first month and double that every month thereafter. ROI would be calculated based on meeting those targets.
DON’T SET YOURSELF UP FOR FAILURE.
Recently, I saw a business owner place an ad that read:
“Facebook and Instagram
I need to get approx. 1000 likes on my business Facebook [name omitted] and Instagram. Would be interested in targeting architects and designers.”
He was paying $20 (not an hour – $20 in TOTAL) to complete this task and gave a 7 hour timeline.
Realistic?
Not in the slightest.
Before you start posting on social media you should develop a social media strategy so you have a plan to follow and set targets to meet. This strategy will help determine what your potential ROI is and how to go about achieving it.
Is the risk worth it?
Like anything, there is always a risk that it will not work out how you planned. The thing with social media is (unlike how the business owner above understands it), it is not an instantaneous thing. It takes a lot of work, tweaking, managing, conversing and converting.
If you are going to take the risk you should do it properly and have a minimum 4-6 month testing and analysing period before you give in.
Do not assign your admin person the job of managing social media.
Barb might have a personal Facebook, but does she know how to stick to your brand style guidelines and messaging? Does she know how to deal with an angry customer or a social media crisis? Does she have time in her day to reply to people and plan and curate content? Can she keep up with the everchanging algorithms and features?
Probably not. Always put your best foot forward.
How much do I pay a social media manager?
Now we’re getting to the crux of if – the dollars and cents. Wages for social media managers vary considerably, it all depends on what expertise you want.
If you want a marketing or PR student fresh from uni who, let’s face it, probably lives on their personal social media accounts and has a basic understanding of marketing. You could probably get away with the $50-65k per year wage. This doesn’t guarantee they know how to convert people on social media however.
If you want an experienced social media manager with proven capabilities and a strong marketing/PR background – you’re looking at $90k+.
In addition to wages, you need to have an advertising and marketing budget as you will need to do sponsored posts and target advertising to reach your target audience – especially on Facebook – there is almost no way around it these days.
Do I hire an in-house person or should I hire a consultant?
The prices above are of course for an in-house person. Which begs the question, should you go in-house or should you go external?
I’m probably biased given you can hire social media managers from Hugo Halliday, but I have very solid reasoning for recommending this option.
- Limit your risk: shorter term contracts and ability to walk away if you decide it doesn’t work, without dealing with employer responsibilities and unfair dismissal issues.
- Cheaper: for the knowledge and experience you get, as well as the savings on super, tax etc. it ends up being much cheaper to hire a consultant social media manager than to employ someone in-house.
- Resources: if you hire someone in-house you will need to find them a space to work, deck them out with an appropriate computer (highly recommend they have graphic design skills which means paying for Adobe and a top-notch computer), get them a phone, a camera – maybe even a video camera.
After reading this are you ready to take the plunge and hire a social media manager? Do you think you’ll hire in-house or externally?