Many businesses struggle with social media. Part of the reason is that the position is relatively new.
It’s kind of crazy to think that 10 years ago the world was very different. Social media was beginning to be a large part of our personal lives with Facebook and maybe with YouTube, but that was about it. Facebook may even have been only for college kids at that time.
I do remember the first time I saw a business using Facebook for marketing purposes. I was in college so it must have been around 2006-2007. Someone used their college email address to setup a Facebook profile for a college bar that they worked for. They made friends and made announcements using the account.
Looking back, that person was pretty innovative…
Now any business can use social media for marketing and many businesses do, but it still seems that many business leaders look at the Social Media Manager as someone that just messes around on Facebook and Twitter all day. I think the work that goes into social media manager is under-appreciated.
And as a result, the resources dedicated to social media are usually lacking and it leads to poor results in many instances.
But let’s say that you see the value in social media marketing. You realize that it really takes a full-time person (at least) to manage your social media marketing effort. Now your challenge is finding the right person.
Let’s get into that point a bit…
The Traits of A Social Media Manager
Awhile ago I looked at the type of person I think is best for the social media manager position. Traits to look for include:
- Cultural Fit For Your Company
- Passion
- Curiosity
- Competitiveness
- Reliability
- Responsibility
- Fun
Click on the link to go into detail on each of those. I won’t rehash the whole thing here because we’re going to start looking at how to find that person and bring them into your company.
Here are some tips for writing a job description that attracts a good social media manager to your company.
Tip #1. Describe Your Company
This seems simple, but it can be challenging. Many leaders struggle describing their company. They use empty words like “best” and “premier”. They use industry words that their customers and clients don’t understand. They’re so involved in their own business that it’s difficult for them to look at their company from an outside perspective.
This is both a good thing and a challenging thing when it comes to writing a description about your company. You want to tap into your passion for the company. This helps bring out the culture of the company and that allows potential employees to see if they’re a good fit. You want to describe what you stand for and how you go about business. Those that are turned off won’t apply and those that are turned on will.
That’s the first step in hiring anyone and it’s especially important for someone that will be a very public face of your company as the Social Media Manager.
Write about your company with passion. Then go back into the description and make sure it makes sense to outsiders. Have someone you trust read the description and see if they understand what you do. If they don’t, you need to simplify the language or possibly make it more specific. You can’t just say that you’re an engineering company. That’s too vague. What do you engineer?
Tip #2. Share Your Company Goals
Next, you want to share your company goals. You might not know exactly what you want the Social Media Manager to do. You might be expecting them to come to the table with ideas to boost your social media efforts.
But what you do need to provide is a list of the goals you have for the company. Talk about where you are now and where you want to go. This gives the potential employee an understanding of what’s expected of them. They can fill in the blanks of how they’ll help the company reach those goals. You can work on the details as well. But together you’re all working toward the one big goal.
You don’t need to share specific goals for the social media program especially if it’s a new position for your company. Talk about overall company goals and how your team all works together to achieve those goals. Then you can work to fill in the details of what’s expected of the Social Media Manager, but by sharing the goals right away they can see what’s expected.
Some will shy away, but a few will be interested and those are the people you want.
Tip #3. Add A Little Test
Finally, you want to add a little test to the job description. Ask them to find some information on Twitter. Ask them to share their personal social profiles with you if those profiles are public. Ask if they can post something and see how long it takes them to do so.
With the little test or tests you can look for people that are passionate, reliable and responsible.
You can also see if they’re curious by adding a question to the description. See if they’re curious about your company and ask if they have any questions for you. It’s a good sign if they do have questions. They can research your company, but it’s always a good thing to get someone that is asking questions and showing curiosity.
Conclusion
I know I didn’t provide a written job description for your Social Media Manager position. You can go on Google and search for one of those. And when you do that go ahead and use these tips to make tweaks. I think you’ll create a better description that will really bring in the right person if you do.
You want someone that is passionate about social media. You want someone that you can rely on and trust to be responsible as a representative for your brand. When you hire the right person you don’t need to put them under constraints. They’ll have their own constraints that fit with your company.
Good luck!