Why you should consider hiring a social media manager

There are a number of reasons you should consider hiring a social media manager including time, effort and results. 'More buyers are joining social media networks and looking for reviews and recommendations' (1) so if you don't have a hold of your social media presence, you could be instantly losing to your competitors!

Time

Probably the most common reason to hire a social media manager is time. Lots of businesses know how important social media is for their business but on top of meetings, sales, taxes and all the other tasks that come with owning a business they just run out of time and put social media on the bottom of their ever growing lists. Social media should be an integral part of your business strategy, afterall there are 3.2 billion(Mohsin, 2019) social media users worldwide and this number is constantly growing. It's important to portray yourself in the right light on social media and this is one of the reasons businesses put it off - they don't have the time to think carefully about this and get the content right. A social media manager knows what your business needs and will pull this content together in a way that will benefit your business without taking up your time.

Money

An important part of business is knowing when to delegate. At first glance you may see hiring a social media manager as an expensive task but if you look closely you'll see it's actually going to save you money (and hopefully make you some in the process). Let's say a social media manager chargers you £400 a month to manage all of your social channels, curate and post all your content and in the process grow your following, reputation and income. This on it's own sounds great but now think about the time you would have to spend if you didn't have a social media manager. What else could you be doing with that time? How much effort would you really be putting into that task knowing it's not highest on your list of priorities? Hiring a social media manager is an initial cost, but the results and time saved should allow you to see that as an investment, it's one of the best investments you can make for your business.

Strategies

Anyone that has used social media for their business will know that not everything you do is going to work or see instant results. It's a social media managers job to implement strategies and test them accordingly. They are used to doing this, will know how long to run campaigns for and can easily spot what's working and what isn't.

A different view

When you have your own business you're connected to it in a way that no one else is. You become emotionally invested and can't always see things from a rational point of view. You may have taken some really awful photos but think they show the raw passion of your brand; your social media manager will see this for what it is, half arsed content. With a fresh set of eyes and no direct emotional connection, your social media manager will only post high quality content that will get you results.

More to it than you think

Social media managers don't just chuck out a few posts when they feel like it, every post has been carefully thought through. This involves monitoring all platforms and deciding on best times, days and ways to post, knowing how to respond to followers, engaging with accounts and growing these accounts in a natural way.

Managing your social media can feel like a daunting task as a business but it doesn't have to. 'Social media is a key part of marketing strategies, yet nearly 20 percent are unsure how to measure effectiveness'(2), you wouldn't send out mass emails without knowing what they're achieving, so you shouldn't post on socials without understanding the impact. You may not have the time or interest to grow your accounts but as your business develops you'll see just how important social media is and see the massive impact it can have.

References

Maryam Mohsin, 10 Social Media Statistics You Need to Know in 2020, 7 November 2019

Buffer, State of Social, https://buffer.com/state-of-social-2019, 2019