Before you start..
The best thing you can do when you hire a social media manager is let them work! 🙂
Try to be mindful that social media managers are multitasking masters, that doesn’t mean you need to spend your day challenging them 😉 😛
You are hiring a professional for a reason, they know what they are doing.
They have spent thousands of hours learning their craft and applying it, you should be able to look at them as a Bookkeeper/Accountant or Electrition/Carpenter.
Once you have read those reviews and checked out their portfolio/ their clients’ social media presences and are confident enough to send that up front and first months payment, sit back watch and monitor but do not interfere.
Give them at least two weeks to get things built/repaired and updated, once you have passed over all information and agreed to terms.
As company owners and managers ourselves, we realize that you are used to micromanaging your business BUT if for example, you are constantly calling, emailing or messaging giving input on every little detail and action?
You may very well harm the progress, quality and you will definitely slow the time to seeing good results.
Try to keep in mind that any decent manager will have other clients and while the majority of the startup work is done in the first Two weeks, they do also have other responsibilities that are equally as important as your project.
Getting started..
(This is where I go against the grain)
Google social media managers, STOP!! If you google social media manager/management, Google is going to give you the top industry leaders and paid ads results, you may very well miss out on a fantastic new company/manager that just launched their business and will treat you like gold dust rather than just another client among dozens.
Try using Facebooks search engine, type in social media management or others such as social media manager, look through the results for a while.
Go to their page, do they have a four to five-star rating? read their reviews, click on the reviewer’s name and follow it back to their business page/website.
Read their reviews, what are their clients saying about them? click on the reviewer’s name and follow it back to their business page/website.
Click on the reviewer’s name and follow it back to their business page/website.
Read their reviews, click on the reviewer’s name and follow it back to their business page/website.
How does it look?
What kind of posts are they making? are they really long (Ideal posts are under one hundred and forty characters)
For example:
This week @Rayspizza #bostonmarket , two large the works pizzas $20. Say “extra extra cheese” and get 50% off your extra cheese! #extraextra.
Are they engaging, the client’s page members? Are they answering questions? commenting on reviews?
Talk to your manager to be, ask them what they do for each client, ask questions, it is your business and your money 🙂
If you are starting a brand new social media presence, you want to allow three to six months to start seeing real activity.
If you are constantly giving input and asking questions you can potentially, depending on the length of conversations DOUBLE that timeline. Think back to the earlier reference of Carpenter, if you are having a hardwood floor installed and the installer has quoted you for two days work.
 You are standing in the room asking him about every angle he’s cutting and how long the nails last and you start telling him halfway through you want custom angled design cuts and patterns in the floor, how long do you think it will take him to finish the floor compared to if you were not there?
Your social media manager should request up front everything they need, once they have and you have submitted it all, they should be able to get to work without bothering you. Remember the whole point of this relationship is to have someone manage this process for you so you can get more time to manage your business/enjoy the fruits of your labor and investment 😉
Some managers just require peace and to be left to their process, in these cases give them everything they need, a list of your input and preferences if you have any, send them any sign in details and passwords you have and let them work their magic.
In these cases, you should agree on a date or leave it up in the air depending on your mutual preferences to a once a month meeting to discuss any changes of direction as well as progress reports.
Request your social media manager has bullet points for discussion if you are doing the monthly meetings, so as that nothing is forgotten (they can gather these throughout the month.) You can also do this to address any concerns you may have developed.
A reasonable amount of time to set aside for a monthly meeting is one to two hours depending on the size of your business and amount of accounts managed.
Try to have a date set on both of your calendars for this and if anything happens to warrant a change, try to give your manager at least two days notice and a week to try and fit you into a new appointment.
NEVER send sign in details or passwords via social media, ALWAYS ensure your manager has secure email ie. william@finleymediasolutions.com.
Ask them how they secure their computer/devices.
What anti-virus/protection do they use?
Is it a free version?
Do they pay for their email service?
This is your business we are talking about, make sure they are secure!
Constant client manager interaction.
There are some managers that prefer to have a constant dialogue ( I am one of these managers) if the client is receptive/has spare time to devote to the process
They prefer to have a message exchange on social media and talk throughout the process.
I personally feel this fosters a working relationship and gives me a chance to know the client and their business better.
I send the odd message with the upfront understanding that unless I type A.S.A.P in the message, the client can take their time responding and some messages may just be as we go progress updates.
I also make sure it is clear that I may not always reply right away and if it is important they have my phone numbers (home and business cell, I am on call for my clients 24/7, 365 )
I have found that this progress works well for some of my clients that do not always have time for a lengthy monthly meeting.
Whereas other clients prefer that everything all at once monthly meeting.
Really your manager should be flexible but it does depend on each managers workload and client base as well as their personal preferences.
In the process, you will have decided if you are both a good fit for each other.
If there seems to be a lot of friction or you are having to work too hard to agree on terms and conditions, you are more than likely better to continue your search.
Too many issues early on will at least most of the time manifest into bigger issues later on.
Dexterity and account management.
Make sure your manager is able to start and manage multiple accounts and is familiar with all social media platforms that you may wish to utilize.
Keep in mind that not all social media platforms are suitable for every kind of business.
Just because you have an account on every social media and blog forum and platform out there doesn’t mean you have to use them all for your business.
As well from a financial consideration, it can get pretty pricey to have multiple accounts being managed.
For example, a good starting rate for a decent manager is three social media accounts managed, three researched/content created posts per week starting at least $500usd per month.
Now if you go all in at Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, Instagram, Tumblr Google+  YouTube  Pinterest Flickr Snapchat Quora or any of the other platforms established and popping up every year, you are soon going to be heading into a lot of cash.
You may do so needlessly, this is where your manager’s knowledge also comes into play.
Depending on your business, products/services, your manager should be able to find the perfect combination of platforms to compliment your business.
This can take some time so be sure to allow them working room. (Most businesses can do just fine on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram/LinkedIN.
Some of these can be linked together as well a good manager will know how to do this so as that posts made on one account show up on one or more other platforms automatically in real time.
Additional accounts can be added to suit your needs, you can also depending on your budget and project timeline aspirations, request your manager experiment with these.
I suggest waiting until your social media presence is well established before starting this process, six to 12 months.
Some will work well some will not keep in mind social media is constantly evolving and what worked yesterday may not work today and what works today might not work tomorrow.
A good manager will have a base understanding and a good starting game plan, they, however, can not be responsible for the flow of social media trends and circumstances.
I am one of those companies that do have a few clients, so that is all I have time for today.
I hope this helps you and if you have any questions? REACH OUT! 🙂
I always make time to help others and I often give FREE advice to small businesses with no strings attached. Â https://www.facebook.com/socialmediaexcellencediscovered/
is my online office 🙂
