Meet Bobby Baehne, digital marketing specialist and president of Think Big Go Local Inc, a social media management firm based in McHenry, Illinois. She has a few concerns about hiring social media managers today:

One of the biggest problems in the job market right now is that anybody with a Facebook page thinks they’ve got what it takes to call themselves a social media manager.

As a small business, you’re probably being hit up by all kinds of people (individuals and companies) that make you the promise that they can build your audience, increase visibility, and take over all your social media management.

But how do you know that they’re not going to suck at it?

Over the years, Bobby has heard her share of laughable encounters. Here are several off the top of her head:

• One of her clients was trying to choose a social media company to help them with their online presence. Company X had 3,090 Twitter followers, but when their account was checked in Twitter Audit, Bobby learned that 3,000 of these followers were purchased.
  
• Bobby checked out another social media company, which had only 110 Facebook followers on their business page. If they can’t do it for themselves, can they really do it for clients?
  
• Last one: the third social media company’s Twitter account has been closed down for spam.

Because of these experiences, Bobby is sharing ways you can tell a good social media manager from a bad one.

Do a background check

Nothing super extensive – just ask for references and read every online review about the company.

When you ask for those references, have them send you links of social media accounts they’ve been managing that are similar to your business model. Ask them to include clients’ emails, names, and phone numbers so you can contact them and ask what their experience has been like.

If an individual or social media company isn’t willing to do this for you, be skeptical.

Look at their digital footprint

Check out the social media manager’s website and online profiles, and see how well they’re branding themselves. They should be taking their business as seriously as they’re taking yours.

How many social media followers do they have? What’s their engagement like? Someone may have 100,000 followers but gets only a couple of likes on a post means their followers aren’t legitimate.

Evaluate the types of stories they’re doing for their business as well – so that you know they understand how stories work and how important they are in social media strategy.

Look for the different types of content that they’re sharing. Are they balancing text, links to articles and live video streams in their social media strategy?

Do an online search for your prospective social media manager. Find out what you can on what others are saying about them and how they’re ranking. These will show you the company’s digital footprint, so make sure they’re building their business just like you want them to help build yours.

Ask what type of training they’ve had

They don’t need to have attended an Ivy League college to be a great social media manager, but you need to know:

• If they have any certifications in social media.
• The type of experience they bring to the table
• What they do to keep up with trends, current events, and continuing education.

Ask “Who’ll work on my account?”

Every social media manager works a little differently, so you need to know the individual assigned to your account. Will it be one person? Is it a firm with several employees that might all be working on different aspects of your account. Who’s going to be the contact person?

See to it you understand their process. It’s actually a good way to test their expertise because a great social media company will have an onboarding process for every new client. You need to know how the communication works for sharing your content and ensuring it gets posted.

Know what the price they’re giving you includes

Given the price the social media manager is charging you, make sure you understand all the related details upfront. This may include the following:

• How many posts are included?
• Which platforms are they going to post on?
• Do you need to approve posts first or are they just going to post content for you?
• Is the money you’re spending going to be invested in advertising?
• Do you pay extra for the creation of your ads?
• Who’s going to respond to direct messages from your customers?
• Will they be working to build an audience by following other influencers in your niche?
• Are one-on-one strategy calls included in what you’re paying for?

By knowing everything that’s included with the amount, you won’t encounter any surprises later. Plus, if you’re shopping for different social media managers, you can compare apples to apples when trying to decide the best fit for your business.

Here’s Bobby Baehne’s complete video:

Make the selection process easier

If you want to hire a social media manager who “doesn’t suck“, look no further than Remote Workmate. Plus, unlike freelancing platforms where you do everything yourself, we handle all the heavy lifting for you, including onboarding and payroll.

You can choose from our pool of top candidates right away. Simply visit our Hotlist at:
https://remoteworkmate.com/hotlist

You can browse a wide range of profiles on our Hotlist page. Once you find a qualified VA, simply fill out the form at the bottom, and we’ll get in touch with you at the first opportunity.