Social media management is so many steps beyond just posting things to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms.  When people are considering whether or not to outsource social media marketing –they should consider exactly what it involves to see what management of these accounts actually consists of. This can go a long way in determining whether or not you yourself are cut out for the job or if you should hire a company or manager to handle it for you. If you are going to outsource your social media management, you’ll want to be sure to understand what a manager should be dealing with on behalf of your business.

First, a social media manager should make sure that your accounts are created and updated.  Any existing accounts you may have will need to be updated to be sure that the content on them is the most accurate and relevant to your business. If you don’t already have accounts for certain platforms you want to be on, like Facebook for instance, your social media management team should be creating these accounts for you and completing them with your most recent business info.

Once all of the accounts have been created and updated, a detailed social media strategy should be put into place. This strategy should outline what your goals are through your marketing efforts.  This can be a variety of things from traffic to your website, newsletter sign ups, sales, increased engagement, etc. Your social media manager should then come up with the appropriate strategy to achieve these objectives.  This is also something to reference moving forward to see if your efforts are bringing you results where you want to see them.

When it comes to actually posting, a social media manager should be posting regularly and consistently. The content should be relevant to your brand and also to the goals you are trying to achieve with your social media marketing efforts. Managers should also either respond to messages and comments on behalf of the brand or have a contact person that they are making aware of comments and messages so that person can better respond to customers.

Managers would be the ones who would run any paid advertising or competitions you want to create for your brand. Generally, you will set a budget for contests, promotions, or advertising and your social media manager will create a strategy and implement it. This work is extra –so the charge will be extra as well.

Another big part of social media management is tracking progress and staying up to date on the most successful social media practices out there.  Using analytics and creating a monthly report is a great way for managers to look back over the progress of the last month and then to re evaluate for the next month moving forward.  Because social media is ever changing, it’s important that a social media marketing manager is an expert in their field. Staying up to date on trends, new tools, feature changes, fresh approaches, etc. is extremely important in keeping ahead.

What do you think it takes to be an effective social media marketing manager? Are you considering hiring a social media manager for your business? If you are looking for a company with years of experience in the field, feel free to comment below or contact us at (862) 438-5783 to get started!