Is your social media manager really managing your social media presence? Or, are they actually posing as experts making random posts but not providing you any real value? It’s a good question and one that you should be asking yourself if you’ve hired someone to manage your social media.
Most people confuse the act of posting pictures and simple text updates to Facebook and Instagram with actually managing a social media presence. It’s not the same. Not in the least bit.
Managing a social media presence means managing, monitoring, listening, and interacting with and for a brand’s online reputation. It goes far beyond taking pictures at an event, adding them to a collage, and posting them to your Facebook page while tagging everybody you know. Every post should have an intent and purpose. It’s not merely about keeping followers in the loop on where you were today and where you’ll be tomorrow. It involves thought and idea development with relative calls-to-action, including traffic generation on your website. It involves listening to your followers and interacting with them, socially.
Social media managers also have to monitor other social media channels or outlets for any mention of your name, your brand or products and ensure that you (they) are plugging those gaps where you have been absent.
I could go on about what a real social media manager does but I think it’s best that you learn it from someone who actually does it. Here are some helpful resources for you to find out what a social media manager actually does.
What does a Social Media Manager actually do? (by Josefina Casas)
Casas provides a very practical explanation of what a social media manager does while also explaining how it differs from a community manager.
What is a Social Media Manager? (by Lauren Mikov)
Mikov gives a birdseye view into what she does as a social media manager.
Additonally, if you’ve hired a social media manager or are about to hire one, here’s a great article that includes 10 Questions to Ask When Hiring a Social Media Manager.
If your social media manager doesn’t fit the bill, maybe you should hire us to manage him. I should note that while we, Notion Motion Corp., include social media marketing in our repertoire of services and we manage several of our clients’ Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, we don’t consider ourselves social media managers. Our goal is to get you up and running on a social media platform suitable to the demographic you’re trying to reach and then help you to establish your social media presence and build your brand reputation. Sometimes we partner with other agencies to ensure we’re effective at giving you what you need and a better ROI because at the end of the day its all about your network and our network collaborating to increase your net worth.