In the world of social media, and social media advertising, there is so much to know and do. It can be overwhelming for business owners to have the time to fully understand everything that is going on, and to effectively promote their business to the world. Many people question the use of a Social Media Manager, though, because they believe that the fact they use Facebook, or Instagram, themselves is enough to draw in new business for their company. It is not always the case, though. Here we explore the role of a Social Media Manager and why investing in one is money well spent.
What Does a Social Media Manager Do?
Put simply; a Social Media Manager looks after the social media side of your business. They create and post content, share posts from other businesses, engage with your customers and maintain a constant presence online so that your business doesn’t get forgotten.
They spend a lot of time designing and creating new posts to be distributed by your business. These can be images, texts or videos that can take a significant amount of time to do well, to be engaging enough for people to want to interact with them. There are a lot of skills involved in this process and they need to know what is going to work best for your audience.
They spend time on social media to see what competitors are doing, or what other businesses are posting that might complement yours. They share relevant content that is going to interest your audience and put you in their minds again (so that they are likely to engage with you).
They make themselves available to respond to messages or comments from people on your pages, being the face of your business. They deal with poor attitudes and criticism and, quite often, customer complaints. They work to ensure that your brand always has a positive place in the online world and that people have reason to think highly of it.
Being on social media requires a constant presence; if you do not post for a few days the chances of people seeing your content when you do post is low. It needs to be frequent, engaging and posted at the right time for your audience to see it. Social Media Managers do all of this, including the research into the best time to post for your audience as well as what content they like and how often.
A Social Media Manager is also removed from your business. For you, it is your pride and joy and your ability to be social, as opposed to talking in a sales voice, is limited. Your Social Media Manager knows the right things to say so that your business is out there but does not bombard audiences with sales messages. This is the quickest way to turn people away and it not welcomed on social media platforms.
A Social Media Manager brings new customers to your business, particularly your website. Having the right content on social media entices people to click through to your website to see what you offer, and this is the ultimate goal of having an online presence. They are building brand recognition; a name that people will know and love, and a company they will use. This is what large corporations worldwide have done, built brand recognition, and people automatically think of them when they need something they offer (e.g., Victoria’s Secret for underwear, Bridgestone for tyres, etc.).
If you are lucky, the right Social Media Manager will also take care of advertising on social media for you as well, and that is a whole other realm to enter into!
Why Can’t I Just Do It Myself?
You may still be thinking; I can do all that myself. I have Facebook and a page for my business. I know how to create an image/video or write a post, and I can reply to comments and messages from people. Yes, you are absolutely right, you can! And you know what your audience would like because you have built the page from the ground up and have seen what they engage with.
But do you have the time to do it well? Is there a chance that other tasks during the day make you unavailable to respond to comments and messages in a timely manner? Or perhaps you are not comfortable with conflict and resolving issues in a public manner. This is especially true for business owners who manage their social media at night when they are tired. This is not the best time to be engaging with a customer complaint. Everything you do on social media is seen by your audience, and their friends, so a careful selection of words is needed at all times. A Social Media Manager will fix this.
Consider creating posts. How long does it take you to create a video? Maybe you are lucky enough to have a business that is active, and you can take videos of things being made or people working together. This might not take you long. But if you are not in this position, coming up with original content can take hours, just for one post! Designing and creating an image can take an hour, too, let alone planning out and deciding on what content to post. So, if you were creating one post for each day of the week, it can be an average of 5-7 hours of your time. Do you have that time?
Do you have time to research and learn what other businesses are doing? Or to find those pages that complement yours and build a relationship with them? A Social Media Manager will take the time to do this and, in many cases, will have connections with other brands already. They know what the trends are and how to best apply them to your page so that you get the maximum benefit from what you are doing. Social media is a constantly changing world and you need to be able to keep up with it. Plus, knowing what competitors are doing allows you to be innovative and stay ahead of the game, and offer your audience something better.
How often do you post on social media, and it is good content? Do lots of people like your posts, or is it just your faithful family and friends? Your pages need to be consistently updated with new posts so that people are reminded that you exist. And Facebook tends to hide posts from pages which do not post often or get activity on their posts (likes, shares and comments). So, it needs to be regular AND engaging. Can you do that? Can you get people to share your content with their friends so that more people see it, therefore building that brand recognition that the big companies have? If not, then a Social Media Manager is definitely the right choice for you.
You are too close to your business and too affected by the bottom-line. Your primary goal is to make a profit; to bring in customers, make the sale and get paid. There is nothing wrong with this, in fact, if you didn’t have this drive there would be no point in being in business in the first place. But your customers do not want to know about it; they do not care. They want to know what is in it for them. Why are you better than anyone else? Why should they buy from you and how will you help them? A Social Media Manager creates content and engages with your audience in a way that is friendly, personal and social; not at all sales related. They build relationships with people who then feel they can trust your company enough to do business.
You do not have the expertise or experience, a Social Media Manager does. From day one they will be building your online presence, but if you do it yourself it can take weeks to see results. They hit the ground running because they already know what works, what tricks to employ and what types of people are likely to want to do business with you. They have already done the research and can bring about big, positive changes in a small amount of time.
Finally, hiring a Social Media Manager will give you a competitive edge. There are still many business owners that refuse to take time to be on social media at all, or who manage it themselves and get mediocre results. Having an expert at the helm will give you a tremendous advantage over your competitors, being able to reach more people in a meaningful way than they can. Your brand recognition (reputation) will be higher, which means potential customers will think of you before anyone else and are more likely to seek out your services. Who doesn’t want a competitive edge in the market?
The short answer is yes; you can manage social media yourself. But you shouldn’t. Not if you want to be the brand people remember, the brand that gets new business every day and that is known for the service it consistently provides to its customers. A Social Media Manager can put your business on the proverbial map, in a way that business owners cannot. It is easy to see why hiring a Social Media Manager is money well spent.
