Choosing a Social Media Manager can be VERY tricky.
Many simply opt to have an employee or college student make posts for their company. This may seem like an inexpensive way to make posts, but what often happens is the enthusiastic person starts out doing well, then often simply loses interest. Another big problem for the business owner is that the unqualified person starts responding to comments in a way that makes the business look bad.
From my conversation with some of my clients, there ARE concerns with others representing their companies. There must be “rules” and “guidelines” set up in advance.
Here’s why…
What if people are asking questions and the social media manager doesn’t know enough about your company and simply “makes up” answers?? This is very dangerous and can backfire quickly.
I always recommend that our clients set up ground rules for social media. For example, a marketing strategy must be communicated to the social media manager. If the messages sent are not communicated properly to the manager, he/she will not be getting the right word out and the business suffers because of it.
We like to communicate on a weekly basis (e-mail even works well and is efficient) so we know if the business has items that they are needing incorporated into their messages. This also helps us come up with events so they can be properly promoted.
Back to ground rules. We like to put “levels” in place. For example,
Level 1 – very easy responses to comments that don’t require any thought or potential damage to customer.
Level 2 – Need to have a general knowledge of the business in order to respond
Level 3 – Potential damage can be done if business owner is not involved with answer. This normally involves sending an e-mail or text for clarification on response.
Basically – the social media manager must be thought of as an extension of the company. If you don’t feel you can trust the manager’s ability to represent you – move on to someone else. Your business is to valuable to let a high school or college student make decisions on PR for your company.
Many times it proves helpful to have a qualified social media “guru” coach the person or persons that will be making the posts for you. A qualified marketing consultant can help you set up your guidelines and help teach the business owner to set up a social media “system” in order to maximize this new “free” marketing tool.
If you feel you need help, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line at Discovering Profits. We’ve spent countless hours researching what works and we can help you set up your system – it’s a very small investment to insure you maximize your return for social media.
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