10 Minute Marketing
In this podcast, we're peeking behind the curtains of several businesses to learn more about these entrepreneurs and how they've approached marketing to grow or scale their businesses!
10 Minute Marketing
Staff Up: You Need To Hire More Than A Social Media Manager
Your ideal marketing team is not just one social media manager who does it all!
Join 10 Minute Marketing host Sonja Crystal Williams in exploring the different roles of the ideal social media marketing team in a small or mid-sized business.
While a social media manager's role is crucial, that position can include the array of responsibilities that are best broken down into individual roles staffed by a range of dedicated professionals.
Today's episode delves deeper into the indispensable roles of other critical job functions such as copywriting or graphic design, where expertise in messaging and visual storytelling can make or break your marketing efforts. Sonja also shares essential tips - plus her favorite hiring resources - on effectively collaborating with full-time team members or freelancers to optimize your content production and enhance your online presence.
Resources mentioned in this episode.
Job Posting Sites
https://www.indeed.com/
Freelance Marketplaces
https://www.fiverr.com/
https://www.upwork.com/
VA Sites
https://asksunday.com/
https://www.hiremymom.com/
Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of 10 Minute Marketing. I'm your host, sona Crystal Williams. All right, so today's episode is yet another lesson in our series of lessons where we have been talking about different ways that you want to approach your business growth. Last episode we talked about should I be doing all my digital marketing and social media stuff solo or should I hire a team? Now, today's episode is really a continuation.
Sonja Crystal Williams:Going down the path of I'm going to hire a team, I need the support. Either A I'm a business owner or entrepreneur and I'm tired of doing this stuff on my own and I need to start staffing up and being realistic about what that looks like. Or B I already am working on a small team, but again, we realize that our workload is more than we can handle. We need that additional support or maybe even outside perspective. So let's dig in. I want to go straight to really walking you through what the roles are that you need to hire for, and I also want you to keep in mind some of these roles may overlap. You may find in the beginning, when you're first staffing up, you're going to have to find someone that covers more than one of these positions. So I'm going to give you the ideal. This is what it should look like on a team and this is how responsibilities are typically broken down. Number one this one's kind of broad social media manager or some people call it social media associate or social media assistant. Maybe just depending on where you are on the hiring scale and the level of experience the person that you're bringing into that role has, might determine the formal job title and pay scale. But I'm going to just kind of call it social media manager, for example purposes here, and the social media manager in a typical small business environment or even a mid-sized business, I kind of say a lot of people make this the catch-all.
Sonja Crystal Williams:This is the person who's doing everything from producing content, and that content could be in the form of video or images or taking photos, whether that's actually going on site and being on site to get the photos, or actually getting photos sourced from different people on the team and then compiling those and making sure that it gets distributed. So there's a, in a sense, a sourcing. How is something going to get sourced, whether that's photo, video, graphic. So now they're also a graphic designer, probably using Canva in reality these days, unless they have amazing Photoshop experience or a graphic design background. They're probably using Canva or something like it.
Sonja Crystal Williams:Okay, this person is sourcing what's going to get produced and what's going to actually get published on social media, and then they're taking on the role of actually doing the publishing. They are either pre-scheduling the post to go up or they are actually the day of going to each social media network and doing the publishing. So we have sourcing, we have publishing. Then we have the monitoring side, and this person is also responsible for especially in really active accounts monitoring the social media. What kind of responses are we getting back to our posts? What kind of comments are getting dropped on our posts? What kind of questions or inquiries are we getting through our direct messaging? This person should be checking that on a daily basis and ensuring that it all gets done. So, in general, that's what the role looks like.
Sonja Crystal Williams:There are a lot of other small nuances. So, even though I've broken it down into three simple things, this is a full time job, so I want you to keep that in mind. For most companies if you hire someone into this role, it's a full time job if you want to grow your social media and if you want to produce content on a daily basis and I broke content down really simple videos, graphics, photos. I want you to also remember that when that content gets distributed, if it's getting distributed across, let's just say keep it real simple and say three social media networks there's so many different forms that it's going to take, ranging from stories to is it a video going on Shorts or YouTube, or Reels or TikTok. What does it look like, you know? Is it a regular post that's going to pop up in the feed? Is it a square post? Is it a rectangle post? So your social media manager is also taking on the planning of all of that and probably responsible for coming up with a content calendar. Ideally that, hopefully, you're looking over and at least at the beginning of your working relationship you're looking over that content calendar that they've planned out and then you're meeting regularly to discuss and think ahead about, like, what is the content? And then here's the other thing they're writing it right. So when it's getting distributed, they're also responsible for writing what's getting said with that post in the caption or description area so that people can respond to it. So there's a lot of strategy, a lot of planning and then a lot of actual tactical, like I'm rolling up my sleeves and I'm going to get this done.
Sonja Crystal Williams:When someone's in that role, okay, and if you have a small business, this can be someone who takes on those responsibilities full time. You just need to make sure they're someone who's really good at paying attention to detail so they're not making typos in your graphics and in your actual copy. That gets written in your captions. You need someone who's going to be mindful enough to check the comments and direct messages on a frequent basis, not even once a day, but often many times a day, especially if you have a very active account. Meet someone who is a strategic thinker and to some degree creative and has fun with it, likes their job, wants to create content, wants to see and test out different things and is able to keep up with trends.
Sonja Crystal Williams:Now I'm going to be realistic with you and tell you that this is a big ask. Not everyone is this well-balanced and that's why other roles exist, so that we break down the role. So social media manager, again, is kind of a catch-all, and if you can find someone to hire full-time in your team that has those different skill sets based on their well-rounded experience, or you want good work produced, then you're going to be searching high and low to find that Okay, because I'm not going to say it's rare. There's a lot of people out here who do all of that Well. They can perform better, though, when some of those tasks are split up so they can focus on what they're really good at. So let's talk about some of the other roles.
Sonja Crystal Williams:One of the other roles that I feel like you absolutely need on the team is a copywriter, so someone who's really good at copywriting or content writing and again, these can be separate roles or they can be one of the same, but content writing and copywriting is the person who's going to nail your messaging and they're going to do it effectively, and they're going to know the right words to use that are triggers for your audience to take action. Having someone specifically focused on this role now gives your social media manager the ability to just focus on all the strategic and planning things and maybe, again, maybe even the production of content that needs to happen, while someone else is taking care of the words that need to convert your audience or get them to do something, whether that's engage with your content, share your content, sign up on your website or for your email list or even buy something, so that copywriter really plays a critical role. That role can also expand beyond social media, of course, into other things they can do for you, such as writing your email campaigns, your blog post, your website or landing page copy. It's really a great role to have, and that role doesn't necessarily have to be someone who's employed full time. That role could extend to someone who works for you on a freelance basis or is maybe even part time with a set number of hours per week. It really just depends on how productive your team is in messaging and how much messaging you might need on a regular basis as you're creating or fine-tuning any offers that you have in place for your audiences.
Sonja Crystal Williams:Okay, next role this is a really important one as well graphic designer. Same thing here your graphic designer. Oftentimes, when I've worked with teams, we've hired out graphic designers for support and we give them regular work. So even if they're freelance, they know they're probably going to get X amount of hours or have X amount of projects to work on for our team on a regular basis. So I encourage teams, while a lot of graphic designers might prefer to use their software again Photoshop and things like that and if you have something getting incredibly custom designed, that's still going to be your go-to Like. We still want the graphic designer to be as creative as possible if they're creating something very original for you. However, nowadays I encourage a lot of graphic designers that I team up with and if I'm managing and helping teams, you know, beef up what they're doing with their content.
Sonja Crystal Williams:Get them to create templates for you in Canva or something similar to that, something that you're going to be able to edit when you need images created quickly down the line and you don't necessarily want to wait for the turnaround on how long it's going to take to come to you from the graphic designer. So consider that as well. It's a really great way to have a partnership. There's also so many resources If you don't have a graphic designer and you do just have that solo social media manager taking on the role as well. Tell them to look for templates. There are lots of template shops that exist where you can find templates designed for Canva, designed for Photoshop, and it will be a lot easier, with those pre-designed templates, for your social media manager to go in and manipulate those templates into a style that works for your brand. Make sure you've got brand guidelines in place, though, that allows you to do that. That's probably one other area that I work with a lot of graphic designers on, and I really recommend your team do it too. Get that graphic designer to draft brand guidelines on your fonts, your colors, your font sizes, style guidelines. You really want to have that in place so that your graphics produced have a very consistent, clean look and it makes your brand much more recognizable across different social media channels. It also conveys something to your audience for them to see those really nice, highly professional, strongly produced graphics.
Sonja Crystal Williams:Okay, next roles. A lot of people hire these two for one video editor and videographer, but they're not necessarily the same role, so I want you to be really mindful here. I've come across many videographers who are great at shooting video, not the best editors, and vice versa. I've come across some editors who are great at editing. They don't necessarily nail it when it comes to actually being on site and shooting. This is also a great opportunity to figure out where does this fit into your business's ecosystem or within your team? Does this need to be a full time role, or can you hire someone to come in and do this work for you? Again similar to the graphic design role.
Sonja Crystal Williams:A lot of times when I'm coming in to work with teams or helping them structure what their organization is going to look like, this is one of those opportunities where I'll say you don't have to hire this person to work for you full time. There's really a couple of different approaches. Either A you find someone which is either a person or another business vendor that you're going to hire that can handle the videography and the editing, and if you are ever going to bring them on site to shoot video for your business, always do it in bulk. Schedule long sessions, block out half a day, maybe even a full day, and get yourself lots of video footage that you can use over the course of the next several months. So your engagement with this videographer, company or person might end up being once a quarter or every other month. You don't necessarily need them to come shoot video for you on an ongoing basis. That gets very expensive very quickly. It also helps when you do hire someone who's good at both where they shoot the video on site, because the editing process sometimes can go much faster.
Sonja Crystal Williams:The only thing I encourage teams is keep in mind from a copyright standpoint that that videographer. If they are recording on their own camera and using their own equipment, then technically they own the copyrights to your video. So you need to also kind of come up with that internally. Are we going to supply them equipment or with the drive that they're going to stick into the camera to record? Like, make sure you just have that conversation first, okay, especially if you're hiring them freelance and they're not working for you as an employee. Now the second option would be to split the responsibility where you all are the videographers in-house, so you're recording and getting your own footage and then you're sending it over to an editor for the editing process. Now, again, the only downside to this is that editor wasn't on site, so they have to really watch the video to find where there's going to be great areas to kind of mix and match and really create a strong video for you. However, again, this saves you the cost of having someone constantly come on site and from here you can have a really good working relationship with that video editor delivering video, know, get and understand your style or help you come up with what that style is going to be. Then you'll have a much easier process to flow through long-term.
Sonja Crystal Williams:Okay, final couple, these are bonuses and, again, a lot of people and companies throw these kind of mix, these roles in, but one is a content creator, and that's the person who might be responsible for actually creating all the content.
Sonja Crystal Williams:So this would be for larger teams. Yes, you may have the social media manager in place. That person is managing, they're doing the planning, again. They're doing the strategy, they're overseeing, they're ensuring everything all the content gets distributed. They're not necessarily creating, though. That's what a content creator can do for you and that content creator is the person who is sourcing the creative ideas on what content is going to get created. And that, again, could vary depending on what person you're hiring into that role and whether or not they're good at creating TikToks or graphics or things like that. Creating TikToks or graphics or things like that. This person might be also coordinating with the copy or content writer. They might be coordinating with the video editor, so, or they might be the person who's doing their own editing. If they're the content creator, another thing that you could do in lieu of this is if you have the type of product that lends itself to getting a lot of user generated content or influencer content, rather than hiring a full-time content creator. You could also work with influencers or with your own audience to source content coming directly from your fans. So there's a lot of different ways to spend that as well.
Sonja Crystal Williams:The final kind of bonus role is a community manager. So, again, rather than your social media manager having to take on the full responsibility of on a pretty active account managing all the comments and everything coming in, you've got someone who is in that role. If your company has any type of Facebook groups and they are the people helping to facilitate and direct conversations, respond to direct messages in really large groups on social media, whether that's Facebook, whatsapp, person who's in a direct role to interact with your community online, all right.
Sonja Crystal Williams:So that's my snapshot of the different roles you need to think about. The final thing to really keep in mind for any of these roles are like, what are my hiring practices going to be? And again, that could look different, but you really need to again take into account for these various roles Are they full-time, are they part-time? Are they freelance basis, where the person is an independent contractor and I just need them to get the work done? You also need to take into account do I need to meet with this person in this role in person? Do I need them on site in the same city as me so that we are accessible face to face? Or can this role be 100 percent remote? Or is it some hybrid role, and what does that look like? These are things you really want to get a pulse on before you step out to actually hire.
Sonja Crystal Williams:And then my favorite go to's for where I've seen teams have success hiring, as well as places where I've hired in the past. Let me give you a list and I'll drop these in the comments or in the description of this podcast. That way, you've got some leverage and you've got some places you can go. One of my favorites has been Indeed. com. In fact, I have people on my team today that I hired from Indeed. com. It's a really great resource. It is a pay-to-play resource, however, it's an excellent resource to find candidates. In my experience in using Indeed, though, you're going to scan and you're going to look through a lot of resumes, so I've always put questions in place to qualify candidates, and that helps me easily sort through the hundreds of applications that can potentially come in when I'm hiring for certain roles.
Sonja Crystal Williams:Another place and these are a couple of freelance marketplaces, fiverr. com, and if you're going to a marketplace like Fiverr, my recommendation to you is you need to be really good at giving instructions and overseeing the work that gets done. These are very inexpensive freelance resource websites where you can find freelancers on the cheap. However, to get to the really good ones, you need to be really good at managing so you get the product that you want. Another good one would be Upwork. com. I've used Upwork on and off for many years. I've even taken gigs on Upwork as a freelancer. It's a great place also to find really all levels people who were beginners scaling all the way up to people who are experts. When you're looking for again freelancers to come onto your project. You could even probably find people to work for you full-time from Upwork as well. So that's a great opportunity freelance marketplace. So indeed, fiverr, upwork, linkedin.
Sonja Crystal Williams:If you've got a larger organization, you're going to definitely be able to find a lot of people on LinkedIn, either directly by posting the job or for actually going through profiles and looking for people that you would be interested in working with open to work symbol on their profiles, which might let you know if they're seeking opportunities currently. So it's a great opportunity to essentially look at their online resume and find that as a hire. Beyond that, a few other places would be looking at hiring VAs and there are tons of market places out there where you can find VAs. Some of them are country-based, some of them are very specific. We hire Filipino VAs, we hire Indian, we hire only US and Canada-based. So just look for that when you're looking through the VA marketplaces.
Sonja Crystal Williams:I've got a few that I have also used in the past that I'll drop into the description for today's podcast and check those out. Beyond that, word of mouth never fails Search through your own network when you're looking for people to hire. That way, you can talk to friends and family and past associates and colleagues to find the right people to fill your positions. Always, always, always, when you're hiring, ask for examples of work. Ask questions. That helps you understand is this person a critical thinker? You need critical thinkers in these social media roles, particularly if they're going to take on anything that's strategic or content creation related, because they're going to inevitably run into problems that must be solved.
Sonja Crystal Williams:That has probably been my biggest takeaway when it comes to hiring period. All right, so those are a few of my tips when it comes to staffing up to hire your social media support. I hope this has been helpful for you. Stay tuned for next week's episode, where we continue our conversations around how you're going to grow your business and different techniques to do it. Thanks for listening everyone. Until next week, take care.