7 Ways Hiring a Professional Social Media Manager Will Make Your Business More $
Alright, you've gotten my uncensored opinion on why every business that wants to be taken seriously should have a social media presence in 2020.
You've heard me rattle off some suggestions of industries that benefit most from an active, professional social media marketing effort.
The last question I usually work through with business owners during our brainstorming sessions is how to know when it's time to let a professional handle their social media marketing efforts in full.
At what point does it become more profitable to hire a professional social media manager?
If you are in an industry that will yield a high return on investment for social media marketing, here are some things to consider before hiring a social media manager:
If you have enough business coming in that could fill the time you're spending on social media marketing efforts with paying client work - you should hire a social media manager.
If you could be generating more business by doing anything other than being on social media - you should hire a social media manager.
If you could be designing, creating, choreographing, building, creating courses, writing, or learning new techniques in your industry that would bring in more or higher-paying business than what you currently offer - you should hire a social media manager.
If you hate talking about yourself or bragging about your services and products - you should hire a social media manager.
If you aren't going to take the time to proof-read and spell-check every single post from your business page - you should hire a social media manager.
If you plan on running any ads on Facebook or Instagram and don't want to spend 5 hours taking a course on how to do so effectively - you should hire a social media manager (with experience in those ad styles you're interested in running. Facebook's new advertising section is soooo different and not intuitive that I have spent hours watching how-to videos while walking the treadmill at the gym. Ugh For example, if you don't know how to add a pixel of code to your website to track traffic that moves from your social media ad to your website...if you don't know how to create a lookalike target audience from your past actual customers' data...if you don't know how to set up a lead form and download your leads...then it's a good idea to hire a professional. And I haven't even mentioned Pinterest or Twitter because I personally have no professional experience in either. My expertise is only Instagram and Facebook, and I don't plan on investing the time to learn the other platforms, so I hire professionals in those two platforms myself!)
(If you're a politician...you should hire a social media manager)
[If you ARE doing your social media marketing and ads yourself, be sure to check out the latest constraints on Facebook rules that are getting businesses kicked off of Facebook unintentionally: Facebook's '19 Changes That are Getting Biz Pages Banned]
A lot of the answers to these questions depend on you actually knowing how much time you spend each week on social media marketing efforts. If you don't know without a shadow of a doubt, then you should start timing yourself when you sign on and sign off.
Keep in mind, social media marketing comprises more than simply signing in to your profile and posting a sentence about your sale of the day, too. You have to include your time spent planning your calendar, creating graphics, getting the right links to the lead pages, researching hashtags, and more. So....what types of extra things do professional social media managers do?
What all does a professional social media manager do?
Every social media manager is different, and the details of your services will depend on your budget, needs, and goals. A great social media manager wears several hats: a salesman, copywriter, graphic designer, marketing specialist, a comedian, empath, and sometimes even a bit of a web designer.
That being said, these are the services that *SPARK* offers with social media marketing management, for example. A social media manager:
Learns enough about your business to speak in your brand tone and sometimes even your personal voice.
Learns enough about your business to respond to basic inquiries from customers and point them in the right direction for more detailed info.
Works with you to create a calendar of promotions around each of your products and services that provides monthly or weekly themes
Creates a calendar of strategically timed combinations of educational posts, cross-promotions, free tips and offers, engagement prompts, and viral-type posts that reflect your monthly themes and promotions.
Creates custom, branded graphics for most posts ( "When people hear information, they're likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later. ")
Knows legal issues surrounding using graphics and sharing info from other pages that may have copyright issues
Checks your pages several times a week (or daily) to respond to questions and engage with comments and tags
Starts and joins conversations around your brand/services/products in places other than your own profiles, such as joining groups and forums where your target clients might spend their time.
Reviews stats each month to find the highest performing posts to make sure your page is being seen by as many people as possible, with the most engaging content, bringing new customers to your sales pages and reminding past customers of your great services.
How much does it cost to hire a social media manager?
Some companies will charge a flat monthly fee with an accompanying list of all of the services included. For example, to include everything listed above for Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, I charge $650 per month through *SPARK*. *waits for the Internet to crash because I revealed actual prices without making you schedule an "exploration call" or fill out 10 forms before giving you a ballpark price*
Wait, before you close the window- that's not the ONLY pricing option we have! You can ease your way into the idea of outsourcing social media by hiring one of our team members at $15/hour. You'd be surprised how much work our team can cross off your list in as little as 2-3 hours per week.
So, that's a great option for outsourcing your social media little by little until you're making enough money from the leads your social media marketing brings in to completely turn it over.
7 Ways Hiring a Professional Social Media Manager Will Make Your Business More $
In addition to the 6 reasons I mentioned in the very beginning why you'd make more money outsourcing your SMM, here are some additional thoughts to consider:
Business owners spend 50% more time on social media than non-business owners. and if the average American adult spends an average of 3.2 hours a day on social media...that means that business owners are likely spending 4-5 hours a DAY on social media?! Ok, so that statistic includes people who do social media marketing for a living - so that data is a little skewed. BUT, the more important statistic is that the average 1-woman business owner spends around 6 hours a week on social media marketing.
If you're a momtrepreneur squeezing in every half hour earning money when she can between a baby napping or a teen's relentless after-school activities.... 6 hours a week might literally be half of your work week.
So, do some math, Ladyboss. I can't do your math without knowing your numbers, so I can't help you too much with this one in a generalized blog. (But that's the kind of thing we could do together in 1:1 business coaching in The Ladyboss Nation, if you wanted)
How much money do you earn per hour these days? That is, what's your total income each month divided by how much time you spend on activities directly related to earning money?
If that number is higher than $15/hour, then hit us up at *SPARK* and let us see if we can help bring you more business via social media marketing faster and with less headache than you could do it yourself.
I know it's unlikely. I know, as a Type A entrepreneur myself, that most of us want to do everything ourselves. We want it to be done right. We can do it faster than it would take to teach someone else to do something the way we would want to do it ourselves. And most of us AREN'T booked to capacity with paying work, so why would we pay someone to do something we could do for free?
And THAT, Ladyboss, is the question only you can answer for yourself. There will come a time when either you can't get over a growth plateau and are ready to take the leap to see if an expert can find more way to make you money. OR, you'll be at a point when you are juggling so many balls in the air that you can't keep going the way you're going. You need someone to take just ONE thing off your plate, because if Facebook changes their algorithms and ad platforms ONE MORE TIME you're going to LOSE YOUR MIND, amiright?
When that day comes, I hope you'll keep us in mind over at *SPARK*
How can we Spark Your Work?
