2 min read

How To Hire a Social Media Manager

Business is going digital and your audience is online. In Fact you are going to meet your customer for the first time on social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn. As a result business are on the lookout for skilled social media professionals to help grow and improve their online presence. 

We want social media managers who have the right blend of skills. Who are good content creators, have an eye for detail and design. Can define strategies and have analytical thinking skills. Read on for helpful tips and advice about how to hire a social media manager.

1. Chalk the outline of role

Most important task when we decide to hire is to define the outline of the job description. Everycase is different but generally a social media manager does the following things. 

  1. Define and implement social media strategy. 
  2. Attract inbound traffic
  3. Enhance the performance of website 
  4. Lead team that defines content and build communities. 
  5. Generate report using analytics tools. 
  6. Workout with other verticals of marketing team, so that overall company marketing strategy is fulfilled. 

In addition to these you would want your social media manager to assist with launching a new campaign, building audience and help with recruiting. 

2. Prepare a checklist and evaluate profiles accordingly

Social media professionals are new age professionals and their previous work experience can help in evaluation. Companies are increasingly using data to make informed business decisions and making strategy. 

  1. Look for people who can create SEO Friendly content. 
  2. Who are familiar with Adobe Creative suite. 
  3. Who are comfortable using tools like Google analytics, hootsuite etc. 

Overall maturity, patience, good communication skills, understanding of brand and interest in solving customer problems. 

3. Ask right set of questions to social media managers during the interview

Shortlisted the candidates and are going to have the next round of interviews, gauge them thoroughly as per your needs. 

Ask them about their previous experience of social media, how they tend to structure and implement a marketing strategy. Ask them questions about past campaigns that were successful and also those which failed. 

Here is a short questionnaire which will help you understand your social media managers:

  1. Tell me more about your knowledge of SEO and its relationship with social media. 
  2. What strategies have you used in the past to generate leads. 
  3. Which social media tool do you use and have used in the past?
  4. How would you tackle a situation of brand crisis?

4. Check social media presence of the professionals

Before you decide to hire a social media professional, do look at their personal social media profiles. Expect a person who is going to be in charge of your social profile, at least should have managed their own social profiles in the right way. Look for candidates who utilise a range of networks and whose profiles are impressive, and well maintained. 

5. Offer the right compensation

Social media managers are one such tribe of professionals who are in high demand. So once you find a Social media manager who has the right blend of skills and who fits perfectly in your requirement, make a competitive offer without losing much time. If you don’t move fast enough, you risk losing the candidate and wasting precious time and resources in a lengthy interview process or worse a failed search. 

If you are a fast growing company and you are on look out for a great Social media manager, send us a mail at hello@hirexl.in . You can check Savanna HR and how they can help in your hiring needs.

Swati Sinha