How to Find the Right Social Media Manager For Your Company

You need to have a team that can implement your marketing strategy, create campaigns and manage the key channels. Most chief marketing officers (CMOs) hire someone to manage social media. What should you be looking for when hiring a social media manager?

How do you decide if a role should be created in-house or if a freelancer is hired? How do you screen candidates and vet them?

This guide will cover all you need to learn about hiring on social media, including what qualities to look for and how to create a role.

Why you should hire a social media manager

Are you looking for buy-in on your hiring decision? Quantify the benefits.

Social media is a great way to reach your audience, but it’s not the best place for you to promote your business.

It is easy to assume that all businesses should be using social media. It’s easy to assume that every business should be on social media.

Checking the demographics of certain social media channels can give you a good idea. If your target audience is in the United States, and is between 18-30 years old, then you will almost certainly gain from TikTok.

Find out where your audience is using social media.

Do an in-app social media search to see if people are talking about you or your brand on social media. Searching for “Agorapulse”, as an example (above), confirms the fact that social media creators and marketers are actively discussing our solution. Searching Instagram for “social scheduling tool” confirms the existence of thousands of posts that mention our category.

Social media is used by the competition to generate sales and leads

Your organization may be losing out on sales and leads if your audience is using social media, and your competitors actively use this channel. Search for the brand names of your competitors and view their profiles to learn more about them.

Ask them some questions. Do they post content consistently? Is their content generating engagement–including reactions, comments, and shares? You can explore the results to find out what people are saying.

Competitive Research Example

Use the ad library of each platform to check if any of your competitors have ads running. You can browse the Meta Ad Library above and search for active ads of any business. This shows how many and what kind of ads are being run by the competition.

Your team lacks social media expertise

It may make sense in some situations to assign certain social media campaigns or channels to team members. You might, for example, have a limited budget or plan a test before making a large investment.

If you do not have the expertise in-house, it can be costly to train your team. Hire a social media specialist who knows the channels, tools, and tactics.

Your social media campaigns are not working.

You may have tried to build a brand or run a few tests campaigns, but the results were disappointing. Consider hiring a social media expert before you decide social media isn’t right for your company.

Marketers with experience can audit your accounts on social media, develop content that is engaging, and create and implement strategies according to your business goals. Many marketers can handle both organic and paid campaign to boost the success of your brand.

What to Look for in a Social media Manager

Use the following hard and soft skills as a starting point for social media marketers. You may also need to add other qualifications, such as management skills, depending on the level of seniority and the social media channels.

Social media managers need to be familiar with the technical requirements

You should hire a social media specialist who has the following skills.

Social media platforms

Social media managers are constantly learning on the job. This is especially true as new tools and platforms arrive. Any marketer that you hire must be familiar with the social media platforms your business intends to use, such as Facebook, Instagram LinkedIn and TikTok.

The candidates’ experience should go beyond the use of these platforms to create their personal profiles.

Social media managers must be familiar with tools such as Meta Business Suite, LinkedIn Business Manager and Instagram professional accounts.

It’s still important to have realistic expectations. The majority of social media professionals have mastered at least one platform. It’s hard to find candidates who have expert-level knowledge of all major platforms.

Social media scheduling tools

Native tools are great for posting content in real-time or engaging with your community. When you want to plan your campaigns or scale content across multiple channels in advance, you’ll need someone who knows how to use social scheduling tools.

Social media schedule tool example: Agorapulse

Agorapulse, for example, helps social media marketers to manage multiple accounts and channels with one dashboard. This tool allows marketers to schedule content on all major social networks, respond and review engagement results, report social media campaigns, as well as measure ROI.

Advertising platforms

If you want to achieve rapid growth, or secure leads and sales that are beyond what can be achieved organically, you will need paid social.

Candidates with experience in Meta Ads Manager (above), LinkedIn campaign manager, and native ad platform are the best candidates to hire. Include in your job description any third-party optimization platforms that are part of your tech stack.

Video editing and graphic design skills

You may not need to have graphic design or video editing skills if your organization has its own design team, or you hire a creative agency. If you want to rely upon your social media manager for designing images and editing short videos, then these skills will be essential.

Candidates who are familiar with video editing tools like CapCut and graphic design apps such as Canva, which your marketing team may use to create creative assets.

Copywriting skills

Social media content is not only about images and videos. It also requires good copywriting.

Copywriting is a powerful tool that can be used to educate customers, build communities and generate leads.

Candidates you select should have solid knowledge in this field. They should be able not only to communicate on behalf of your company, but also adopt the voice and style of your brand.

Analytical skills

Copywriting and design are only part of most social media roles. The ideal social media manager must also have excellent analytical skills.

These skills allow them to review reports for paid and organic campaigns, gain insight, and then apply what they have learned. Marketers can also use analytical skills to measure ROI (return-on-investment) and make data-driven, smart decisions by using their analytics.

Social media management is more than just vanity metrics such as comments or followers. In this field, it is important to know how to optimize and measure results related with revenue.

Download the Free E-Book: Social Media ROI: All You Need to Know

Soft skills for social media managers

Social media experts need to have the following soft skills and qualities in order to do their job well.

Creativity is a sense

You’ll want someone who is always coming up with new ways to share marketing messages, and make them more engaging for your audience. Look for a candidate that can transform a simple brief into a concept campaign that will excite your team and resonate with your audience.

Related Article: How to be more creative on social media

Time management is a great way to manage your time.

There are many moving parts to social media campaigns, especially when they’re aligned with other channels. You want someone who can handle multiple projects simultaneously and meet deadlines.

Flexibility and adaptability

You may find that, no matter how carefully you plan your marketing campaign, it needs to be changed at the last minute or that priorities change overnight. Look for a candidate with a high level of adaptability who can change their focus according to the needs and wants of stakeholders and team members.

Collaboration as a work style

Social media managers are often part of small marketing teams that include colleagues and stakeholders. They also require input from other teams, and managers’ approval in many cases. You should look for candidates who have a history of working as a member of a team and are able to collaborate with others.

Strategic Thinking

You are likely the CMO or leader of marketing for your company. You need someone who is a master of social media marketing and has a solid understanding of the strategy. They should also be able to build campaigns that are based on your larger goals. Look for a candidate with experience in translating social media strategy into content and campaign.

Want to improve and learn

Why would you hire a social-media manager who is eager to improve and learn? Social media is constantly changing, sometimes even by the hour. You need to hire a social media expert who can help you use social networks efficiently, take part in relevant discussions, and make progress towards your goals. This professional should be a follower of industry trends, who is willing to experiment, and has exhibited hesitance when it comes time for them.

How to Hire a Manager for Social Media: A 5-Step Process

You’re now ready to begin recruiting. You can streamline your hiring process by following these five steps.

1. Hire a social media manager freelance or keep your in-house team.

Clarify whether the position will be full-time or freelance. Use these questions, along with input from the HR department and executive staff of your organization, to help you make a decision.

Is the role permanent? If yes, hire internally. If not, hire a freelancer for social media. Does the role require full-time dedication? In this case, it is best to hire someone for an internal role. A freelancer could be the best option for a full-time or part-time position that is limited in duration. Add to your internal team if this is the case. A freelancer may be more cost effective if the role is fairly independent.

2. List the social media channels you use and their responsibilities

Make a list to help you write a detailed social media manager’s job description. Start by listing the channels that this member of your team will be responsible for. Be sure to indicate whether organic or paid campaigns will be managed for each channel.

List the duties that this role involves. For example, tasks might include:

Designing social media graphics and editing short-form videosWriting social media captions or paid social copyBuilding social media campaignsModerating social media engagementCultivating an online community for customersUsing social listening tools to monitor brand reputationReviewing social media analytics and ROI to evaluate and improve campaigns

Clarify the bigger goals of this role, in addition to listing its tasks. You can use business goals such as brand equity, lead generation or online sales.

List the educational and skill requirements for this position. List the soft skills and technical abilities above. Include relevant certifications below as well as professional requirements (i.e. minimum years of experience in the field).

3. Set realistic pay ranges

You can then set a salary based on the type of role and scope. What salary should you pay a social-media manager? In April 2023, social media managers in the U.S. will earn an average of $57,000 annually.

The salary your company should pay depends on a number of factors.

Freelancers charge per project, hour or month. Your business’s location is important, especially if employees are expected to work at the office. If you have remote positions, pay could be based on the employees’ location.

4. Post the job description for a social media manager

You’re now ready to connect with candidates after defining the role and creating the job description. Where can you find the best social media managers for hire?

Your best option for finding a candidate to fill a social media position is likely to be if your company has recruiters. The recruiters will connect you to qualified candidates using their networks and job listings.

You don’t need to hire a recruiter. Start by posting the job opening on your website, particularly if you have a careers section.

Upload the job posting to LinkedIn. Candidates can then search for and apply directly for your position. Post the job listing on Facebook groups, Slack and forums for social media marketing.

You can use a marketplace such as MarketerHire to find a freelancer social media marketer.

5. Vet social media candidates

You’ll want the best candidate for your in-house role or freelance job. These tips will help you to screen social media marketing candidates.

Verify credentials and certifications

It may be more desirable to hire a social-media manager who has a degree from marketing or communications. It’s important to consider certifications and degrees beyond the college level.

The Meta Blueprint Program (above), for example, offers several certification options in Facebook marketing, digital marketing and community management.

Agorapulse’s academy (below), which certifies platform users with experience, is run by the company.

Examine portfolios or samples of work

Work experience is just as important as credentials related to education. It can reveal more about the candidate. Examine the candidates’ work samples or portfolios to gain a better understanding of what types of campaigns they have built. Asking questions will help you learn more about the candidates’ problem-solving skills, strategic thinking and platform knowledge.

Sign a test campaign

A campaign assignment can be a good way to test the candidates’ abilities. Respect the time and effort of candidates when you ask for a test assignment.

You can ask for a task that will not take more than one hour. You should also make it clear to them that the work produced by their team will not be used in your real business campaign.

What We Have Covered about Hiring a social media manager

You can’t afford to risk hiring the wrong people when you are building a brand and implementing marketing campaigns. With these suggestions, you can plan more efficiently your recruitment process and allocate resources to hiring the best social media manager for the business.

 

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