Who to hire for social media
As the world of Social Media continues to grow, many businesses are starting to utilize this platform in a daily basis. Many use social media to build brand awareness, promote marketing campaigns and more importantly connect with current and future customers. A firm that needs presence online should be especially careful about who they hire to do their social media campaigns. This is not only because of social media’s mass effect, but because it also takes a lot from a marketing professional to do the job properly.
When it comes to hiring a new social media talent, here are few tips for you to keep in mind.
1. Look for a marketing expert who masters social media; not a social media intern who practices Twitter and Facebook. Social Media is a new kind of communication channel just like television, newspaper and radio during the old times. A common misconception is that social media is easy, and therefore anyone can do it. Many companies end up hiring interns to manage their social media presence. The fact is that many platforms including Twitter and Facebook only build up social media. Since social media has grown rapidly to include various communication streams, it takes every aspect of marketing to support social media’s systemic growth for a particular company.
2. A Social Media professional needs to understand the industry and where your brand stands. It takes many years of education and practice to be able to perform an in-depth marketing research plan. However, it does not take much to understand the importance of knowing your unique proposition. Often times, such background marketing knowledge is the key to being able to successfully perform marketing promotion activities. Promotion strategies must adopt with target audience groups in each case.
3. Ask if they’ve had any Public Relations and Risk Management experience. Social media networks require constant motoring activities to maintain and protect company images. It is indeed bad to see a “hate page” appear, however it is worse to just leave it alone and not respond. That is why hiring the right social media professional is so important. Your social media lead needs to be there when negative commenting about the business appear, and should be the person to properly deal with it in a professional manner. Many times inappropriate responses can cause even more negative feedback. It is in this case where it is imperative to respond quickly so the harmful messages do not spread and affect both current and potential customers. At the same time, it is also important to make positive PR efforts to call for support. If ever there is truly a mistake made, then the company’s best response is always to admit to it, and promise to make it better.
All of the aforementioned tips are essential elements to consider when hiring a social media person. Do not take the risk of hiring an inexpensive intern in exchange for a possible PR disaster. A true marketing professional can point your company in the right direction and avoid unnecessary trouble later on.
