"Hire someone who is passionate about your business. Don’t just hire anyone.”
Many business owners are becoming more interested in Social Media marketing. They’ve seen how it can drive leads and sales and boost their online reputation. However, many of them are not spending a lot of time on Social networks personally, so it’s quite a challenge to figure out who the best person is to handle their business’ online presence and what that person’s job duties would be.
Who speaks for your business? Social Media is about people, conversations and deriving leads and sales from those relationships. In a previous post here I wrote about the questions to ask a potential hire. Once you’ve hired your Social Media manager, you’ll need a job description to track progress, hold them accountable and know exactly where your budget is going for Social Media marketing.
Here’s a comprehensive guide to help you determine where your Social Media manager is succeeding and where you need to place more attention:
Job Description
The Social Media Manager will implement the Company’s Social Media Strategy, develop brand awareness, generate inbound traffic and cultivate leads and sales. The Social Media Manager is a highly motivated individual with experience and a passion for content strategy, blogging, micro-blogging and community participation leadership. This position is full time salaried with benefits, including attendance at Social Media, blogging and industry-specific conferences.
Responsibilities
The following 6 elements are the roadmap to Social marketing success. Your Social Media Manager will master them to design and implement Social campaigns:
1. Clear Objectives. Set realistic goals. It isn’t enough to say you “see” results. Measurement is about more than just results. It must tie back to your objectives. You’ll never know your ROI without first setting objectives.
2. Great Design. Visual content has a lasting effect on us humans. Whether it’s your status updates, your landing pages or your Facebook ads, what the audience sees is what they’ll remember. Make sure it’s compelling and gets the point across.
3. Solid Content Strategy. How do you know what you’re going to post on your page? You must first sit down, get quiet, and do what I call a “Brand Discovery”. What is it about your business that makes it unique…makes people want to buy from you? Answer that question in detail. Then, describe your customers: what are their interests, what problems can you solve, how can you help them? Quality information that’s relevant to your audience is how you build a Facebook page or any other Social community.
4. Promotion Strategy. You need to continually grow your fan base. The best way is to utilize Facebook Ads. A small budget with carefully selected photos and ad copy (with a clear call-to-action) will drive likes to your page.
5. Engagement Strategy. You need a plan on how you’ll engage your fans and build those relationships. Your Social Media manager will listen, respond, ask questions and engage with your audience.
6. Conversion Strategy. Once you’re growing fans and engaging them, you need a strategy on how to convert them into customers. This more advanced form of Facebook marketing utilizes Facebook ads and marketing landing pages. Done right, it generates leads and sales. However, I’ve found most dealerships need advice and support. Find the right person to advise you and train your people so you get where you want to go faster, more efficiently and more cost-effectively.
Essential Duties
- Manage Social Media marketing campaigns and day-to-day activities including:
- Curate relevant content to reach the audience most likely to buy from you.
- Write editorial content
- Monitor, listen and respond to users in a “Social” way while cultivating leads and sales.
- Conduct online advocacy and open stream for cross-promotions.
- Develop and expand community and/or blogger outreach efforts.
- Oversee design (ie: Facebook Timeline cover, profile pic, thumbnails, ads, landing pages, Twitter profile, and blog).
- Design, create and manage promotions and Facebook ad campaigns.
- Compile report for management showing results (ROI).
- Become an advocate for the Company in Social Media spaces, engaging in dialogues and answering questions where appropriate.
- Demonstrate ability to map out marketing strategy and then drive that strategy proven by testing and metrics.
- Implement a proactive strategy for capturing customer online reviews. Monitor online ratings and respond accordingly.
- Monitor trends in Social Media tools, applications, channels, design and strategy.
- Identify threats and opportunities in user generated content surrounding the business, report to appropriate management.
- Analyze campaigns and translate anecdotal or qualitative data into recommendations and plans for revising the Social Media campaigns.
- Monitor effective benchmarks for measuring the impact of Social Media programs. Analyze, review, and report on effectiveness of campaigns in an effort to maximize results.
Qualifications and Experience
- Possesses knowledge and experience in the tenets of traditional marketing. Marketing degree is welcomed but not required with relevant work experience.
- Demonstrates creativity and documented immersion in Social Media. (Give links to profiles as examples).
- Proficient in content marketing theory and application. Experience sourcing and managing content development and publishing.
- Exhibits the ability to jump from the creative side of marketing to analytical side, able to demonstrate why their ideas are analytically sound.
- Displays in-depth knowledge and understanding of Social Media platforms and their respective participants (Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Google+Local, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest etc.) and how each platform can be deployed in different scenarios.
- Maintains excellent writing and language skills.
- Enjoys a working knowledge of the blogging ecosystem relevant to the Company’s field.
- Displays ability to effectively communicate information and ideas in written and video format.
- Exceeds at building and maintaining sales relationships, online and off.
- Is a Team player with the confidence to take the lead and guide other employees when necessary. (ie: content development, creation and editing of content, and online reputation management).
- Makes evident good technical understanding and can pick up new tools quickly.
- Maintains a working knowledge of principles of SEO including keyword research. Highly knowledgeable in the principles of “Search and Social”.
- Possesses functional knowledge and/or personal experience with WordPress.
- Demonstrates winning Social Customer Service techniques. Possesses great ability to identify potential negative or crisis situation and apply conflict resolution principles to mitigate issues.
