Truth be told, social media management is a very tasking endeavour which requires intense & rigorous round-the-clock attention. The social media manager has a wide span of activities under his/her purview namely, content creation, post scheduling, engagements management and overall monitoring & evaluation. Choosing a good social media manager is important because you shall be parting with money in paying that individual – thus you must ultimately get a good ROI. This endeavour can be relatively challenging in the Zimbabwean context because social media use by businesses is still, for the most part, in its formative stages. Therefore the hunt for a social media manager isn’t as main-stream as looking for an HR manager for example. It is with that background that I’m addressing herein some key aspects to help you land a good social media manager.
Have Basic Knowledge About Social Media Management
It’s quite unwise to venture into looking for a social media manager if you yourself have no basic idea of what the craft is about. How will you come up with a blueprint of what you want & what you’ll expect from a social media manager if you are clueless about it? So first things first, you must ensure you acquire basic knowledge on social media management – this will help you conduct a well-informed search. You must know that social media management is a very broad field implying that you’ll come across diversely-abled prospective candidates. Therefore you need to be in a position where you are able to comprehensively articulate your social media vision to anyone. This is especially important to a prospective social media manager as that will help them to assess whether they have what it takes or not.
Consider Areas Of Specialization
You need to closely evaluate a prospective candidate’s skill set. In the world of social media marketing things like videos, infographics are central to high-performing content. Thus, the incumbent must be someone who is well able to develop such content without having to outsource services as that will cost extra. The other aspect is that some people may be well-versed with one platform (e.g. Instagram) and not be well-acquainted with other platforms. You’ll need someone who can operate effectively on any of the most common platforms namely, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp & LinkedIn. Basically you’ll need someone who hits the ground running – you cannot afford to have someone who will be trying to learn the ropes on your dime.
A Look At Prior Experience
Any prospective candidate evaluation always looks at experience as a precursor to good subsequent performance. However, for this role you need to look at it a bit differently. Locally you might not find someone who has been a social media manager before (you could but the chances are slim to none). How then do you approach the experience aspect? You look at certain experience aspects that can morph into one being a good social media manager. Aspects such as computer proficiency, customer services/relations & marketing experience are important indicators for a potentially effective social media manager. A proven protracted social media presence across the various platforms is also a good indicator (it means the person has an appreciation of how the platforms operate).
Interview Strategically
Obviously with respect to what I have said so far you can see that the interview will be one of the most strategic tools to ascertain you get the right person for the job. You must ask the right questions; questions that will ascertain how much they know about social media management. Questions like: what are analytics & their importance, what are the most important metrics to look at in social media management, which is the best platform to use & why, how do you generate captivating content etc. To prove their experience or inherent ability you could have them do a trial run, for instance, ask them to run a social media campaign that can be evaluated later to see how they performed. You could do this by tasking them to increase your followers or engagement rate by 10% within a month as an indicator of their ability. Measuring their mental & behavioural acumen is also very important. How well they handle pressure & take instructions are aspects that are critical. In as much as they can be appropriately skilled, their emotional quotient (EQ) needs to also be in order – all this must be ascertained beforehand.
Places To Look
Online job listing platforms are always a good place to start, a good example is www.cvpeopleafrica.com. Your job posting should have a strategically coined description that will elicit the right people to come forward. As I have pointed out before, LinkedIn is also a good place to look for skilled & qualified individuals. Then lastly, tech-based hubs such as www.muzindahub.co.zw & www.techvillage.org.zw are also platforms through which you can find skilled people in the domain of social media management. You could also look to marketing agencies (they are now more likely well-skilled in social media management).
In developed countries, looking for a social media manager is quite easy because there are many social media management agencies. We definitely need to see a rapid emergence of such in Zimbabwe. We also need more research & literature to be made available on social media management, specifically for the local context. One last thing, social media use by local businesses is still evolving so it’s to be expected that any prospective social media manager you get might still be evolving also. So don’t be too rigid in your approach; be flexible yet objective at the same time.
