Why You Should Hire A Social Media Manager
Reading Time: 5 minutes
Ah, good old social media. It’s not just about cute dog videos or funny memes slating Tottenham Hotspur anymore (although I appreciate these too!) – it’s a doorway to a huge global market with more than 4.70 billion users around the world as of July 2022.
Let’s start with one simple fact: your business needs a social media presence.
It doesn’t matter if you run a small local shop or a big national company. Social media is more than just a trend. It is an essential piece of your business marketing strategy.
Social media user numbers have continued to grow over the past 12 months too, with 227 million new users joining social media since this time last year. That equates to an annualised growth of 5.1 percent, at an average rate of more than 7 new users every single second.
So when I tell you that if your business is NOT on social media…you’re making a huge mistake, I mean it, and the stats here definitely back this up!
The social landscape has changed from the days when all a business had to do was post organic content to boost their marketing efforts. Facebook remains the most-used platform by marketers worldwide (93%). Instagram sits in second place (78%), it’s amazing how many people you can reach online but this means that it is even more daunting than ever to stand out from the competition. But how does your company avoid being drowned out by all the noise?
This is exactly why you need to hire a social media manager.
Regular and consistent social media posts
How many times have you said “I’ll do the social media posts tomorrow; they don’t take long.” So often I see people push posting on social media to the bottom of their ever-growing to-do list, at the end of the day, as a business owner…you have to focus on your business, you’re not expected to be an expert in social media (that’s why you hire someone who is) but pushing your social media management to the bottom of your list is a huge mistake.
Tomorrow turns into the next day, then the next week, then you get the picture…it doesn’t get done, and then you realise it’s been nearly a month since you last posted and your followers have started to go elsewhere. If you aren’t regularly posting, your followers will find someone who is. Posting regularly builds up trust in your brand and in you as the business owner.
Social media managers are masters at creating a consistent social media strategy. A social media manager will also keep your followers up to date on your brand by posting regularly. It’s also important to attract new people to your social pages, spreading brand awareness and that’s much easier to do when you’re posting fresh and interesting content on a regular basis.
Why not just get an existing member of staff to post?
I get it. Laura in Sales has got 3,000 Instagram followers, she is always posting on her social media so she’s a perfect candidate for your company’s social media management, right? Absolutely not.
It may appear to be the cheaper option to have an existing employee occasionally contributing to social media efforts. However, if you do this, your social media will suffer from a lack of dedicated focus and it could also cost you much more in the long run.
Doing it properly means other aspects of their job have to suffer. If they’re a salesperson, they should be selling.
In addition to all of the above, a quick Google search will show you what can happen when an ex-staff member has control of your social media and some of the damage may be irreversible, I have heard of situations where the business owner has been asked to pay to get their access back from a disgruntled former employee who had full admin access to the accounts.
You’re far better off hiring a professional social media manager to help manage, maintain, and execute social media campaigns and provide a better return on your spending and investment. It took you time and experience to become an expert in your field. It’s the same for social media managers.
In this blog, I explain just a few of the many reasons why hiring a professional social media manager is so important.
They save time
As a business owner, you’re wearing many hats in the business. In between answering emails, sales, networking, staff management and preparing products to be shipped, how are you meant to be able to magically squeeze in time to sit and work on social media content?
By hiring a social media manager, you will save so much time as they work behind the scenes creating branded content specific to your needs. They can design the content, schedule it out and reply to any comments/messages you may have for you.
Brand Consistency
Brand consistency is about making sure your company’s values, ideas, and identity are communicated in a uniform and recognisable way. Making your brand easily recognisable across all your social media platforms can create a more positive experience for your audience, as well as increasing trust, brand awareness and mental availability.
It’s therefore beneficial to have an easy and reliable brand management strategy to ensure your brand remains consistent, a professional social media manager will be able to ensure this is done successfully, they will use your company colours, Logos and fonts to design posts that will stand out in todays crowded marketplace.
Keep up to date with social platform changes
Social media managers track any algorithm changes, platform updates and trends within a social platform so they can adapt their content accordingly.
A professional Social Media Manager should also keep an eye on new platforms and think about what strategies would work best to help your business thrive on the respective platforms. TikTok probably wasn’t even on your radar as a useful social platform for enterprise business, but TikTok is HUGE for business now. TikTok ads reach 1.02 billion adults over the age of 18 each month. TikTok Shop is probably one of the best marketing features across social media right now. As an extension of TikTok’s already fantastic shopping capabilities, TikTok Shop brings together a range of features and tools to enhance your brand, such as live streaming, creator affiliate schemes and easy-to-create promotions.
Social Media platforms are constantly changing, Instagram is a prime example of this – the post and Reel sizes have had a recent change and they are always testing new features. If you’re not keeping up, you could be missing something that would be beneficial for your business.
As social media continues to weave itself into the daily patterns of our lives, more consumers will go to new and upcoming social platforms and so will your competitors. Businesses that have a strong social media presence and branding will increase conversion rates, while those without active social media campaigns could lose potential customers. Which business would you rather be a part of?