You’re Starting to Miss Messages Facebook added the messaging feature to business profiles in 2015, giving businesses the opportunity to connect for customer service. Customers don’t care how busy you are running your business – they want to know you’ll make time for them. A social media manager can help by answering all those messages for you. If you’re spending three hours a day trying to learn about how to make social media work for you, when you could be landing new clients to bring in three times that – it makes sense to hire someone at half that to free you up. Social media managers not only know what they’re doing – they enjoy doing it. If what you’re doing isn’t’ working to help you reach those goals, you need a professional to help you assess and adjust your strategy. What to Look For in a Social Media Manager The truth is that not everyone can speak for your brand the way you want them to, and just because someone says they can do social media marketing doesn’t mean they can do it right, or well. The content is what makes you successful and if it sucks, people won’t engage. Your manager isn’t responding to just a single customer, but an audience of future customers. What’s the most important thing a social media manager should be doing?
If you’ve been in business any length of time, you know how important having an active social media presence is. 95% of Millennials expect brands to be on Facebook, while 87% of Gen-Xers, and 70% of those aged 45-60 say they should be there, at the very least. And businesses are listening. On Facebook alone, there are 40 million active small business pages as of 2015, up from 30 million in 2014. But, you also know how difficult it can be to manage that alongside everything else you have to do. Even if the budget is a little tight, let’s take a look at some signs it’s time for you to hire a social media manager to handle it for you.
You’re Starting to Miss Messages
Facebook added the messaging feature to business profiles in 2015, giving businesses the opportunity to connect for customer service. The people who view your page can see how responsive you are to messages, to help them determine the likelihood that they’ll get a response from you there. According to Facebook, you must respond to 90% of your messages, with a median response time of five minutes or less to get the “very responsive to messages” badge on your profile. That means you can miss a few, and take a while – but the fewer messages you receive there, the more your responsiveness rate will be affected.
If you don’t catch messages until weeks, or worse, months after the fact, you’re damaging your reputation. Customers don’t care how busy you are running your business – they want to know you’ll make time for them. A social media manager can help by answering all those messages for you.
You Don’t Understand Platforms Your Audience Uses
If you don’t have a clue what Snapchat or Periscope is, but you know your audience is hanging out there, then it’s time to hire someone to help you. If you ignore the platforms where your customers are, then you’re watching money go out the proverbial door. Sure, you can read up on the platforms and try to figure out them yourself, but when you need to invest time in the other necessary tasks required to keep your business running like a well-oiled machine… it may be better to go to an expert. You’ll save time, which allows you to build your audience and engagement while you work on things you’re good at.
You’re Ready to Invest More in Advertising
Social media advertising can bring in an entirely new group of customers to market to. If you’re not savvy enough to craft the right kind of targeted campaign though, you could just be wasting time and money. A manager has experience in using advertising to draw in more fans, so if you’re not sure where to start, give them a budget and let them run with it.
Social media advertising budgets have doubled worldwide from 2014 to 2016, going from $16 billion to $31 billion. In the U.S. alone, social media spending is expected to hit $17.34 billion in 2019. 86% of social marketers regularly use Facebook ads, compared to just 18% who use Twitter ads. Though it can be difficult to measure ROI on social advertising, it can be an effective way to drive fans and followers to your profiles, and send people to your website or to download your app.
You Think About Social Media Last
You’re rocking marketing. You’re running sales and promotions, and hosting events. But, after everything’s said and done, you realize you should have been talking about all of that on social media. When this realization hits you, you feel like you missed an opportunity, and feel perpetually behind.
Let a manager come in and handle that for you – tell them about everything you have planned and when, and let them have fun with it.
You’re Working More than 40 Hours a Week Already
Running a business is hard work, and if you’re in the growing stages where you need help with everything, but can’t yet really afford to pay for the help, you’re definitely working more than 40 hours a week. And adding hours for social media on top of that can be frustrating.
With the help of social media tools for scheduling and content curation, it’s possible to plan a lot of your social media posts in advance, but it’s still necessary to maintain some kind of real-time posting habits, which can be difficult if you’re already busy.
Take some of the pressure off by adding a social media manager to your team, even if it’s only for a few hours a week. This will help you combat burn out.
You’re Neglecting Things That Make You Money to Manage Your Social Media
If you…
COMMENTS