PR Manager’s Guide to

a Social Media ManagerHIRING

GUIDE TO HIRING A SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGERatomicdc.com | @atomicDC | 972-668-3867

HIRING THE RIGHT PERSONHiring the right person is of great value to your company and your brand.

Your social media manager is not only posting content, they’re supporting your brand and they’re the voice of your business. Hiring the right person to manage every aspect of your social media marketing is crucial to the success of your overall marketing, advertising and communication strategies.

It’s easy to hire the wrong person if you don’t know what skill set you’re looking for, you’re in a hurry or you don’t get to know the applicant’s knowledge and skill level. This guide is designed to help you hire the right candidate quickly, avoiding the hassle and expense of hiring the wrong person.

This guide includes the following resources:

Best practices and tasks for a social media manager’s schedule

An understanding of the job description, responsibilities, and desirable skills

Places to post your job opening and find qualified candidates

Researching your potential new hire

Five key interview questions and a list of additional questions

An interview project to gauge an applicant’s creativity

Helpful tips on in-house social media and salary guidelines

What does it take to be a great social media manager? We’ve identified some best practices for time management and tasks that successful social media managers use regularly. When you see your social manager playing on their phone, they’re not slacking, that’s part of their job.

Where does the time go?Keeping up with current trends by reading blogs,

listening to podcasts, and participating on social platforms

Performing social audits, identifying trends and

creating action plans

Social response and interaction time to like,

respond, post, search, tag, and comment

Creating content calendars, writing copy,

and creating graphics

Planning media campaigns

Brainstorming, experimenting and creative time

Attending events, social gatherings, and meetups

Creating reports and communicating results

A DAY IN THE LIFEWhat does a typical social media manager schedule look like?

Listed below are some of the most common tools that are used for implementing, executing, monitoring, and tracking social media campaigns. Your candidate should be familiar with some of these and have used several of them in order to effectively manage your social media marketing campaigns.

Tools & Software TypesSocial media scheduling, social monitoring, and social analytics

Project management

Content creation software, stock media and general computing software

Common Tools & Apps

SOCIAL MANAGEMENT TOOLSCommon social media management tools and software.

Hootsuite

CoTweet

TweetDeck

Sprout Social

Involver

Short Stack

Attensity

Radian6

Mutual Mind

Jive

Raven

Vertical Response

Wildfire

Brandwatch

JOB DESCRIPTIONJob description, skills, and experience for a social media manager.

Job Description We are seeking a candidate with 3+ years’ experience working with multiple brands spanning different industries in social media marketing. We’re looking for a highly organized, strategic thinker with the ability to creatively communicate with simplicity and clarity. You should have experience in creating and executing social campaigns along with statistics on campaign successes. You will be responsible for managing, training, and motivating a team dedicated to social media marketing.

The social media manager will oversee many aspects of social media marketing, connecting people with brands. Responsibilities include big-picture strategy, research, campaign building, content creation, planning, scheduling, social listening, and reporting. You will create opportunities with public relations for the company relating to new business, news and success stories, with the goal of the company being known as a resource and influencer in digital marketing.

Skills and ExperienceExperience managing a team of social media and/or PR team members

Proven success with social media campaigns and/or PR management

Knowledge and experience with monitoring and reporting tools for social media

Organized, creative, and relational

Knowledge of reputation management, all major social platforms, and social

software tools

Design experience, content writing, photography, video production, and layout

Social buzz words (KPI’s, hashtags, CTA (call to action), cross-channel, data

mining, organic, real-time, social listening, trendjacking, H2H (human to human)

JOB RESPONSIBILITIESJob responsibilities for a social media manager.

Social Media ResponsibilitiesWork with clients to create social media strategies that support their brand and objectives

Research top influencers, competitors, and trends in clients’ industries

Create timely and engaging content optimized for each social platform and intended audience

Monitor sites for customer service opportunities and initiate conversations on clients’ behalf

Be happy, smile, and bring a positive attitude to the office (yummy treats are welcome too!)

Analyze and report social actions on a monthly basis for successes and new opportunities

Create engaging and professional visuals that reflect client and their brand

Develop and maintain social media branding for all social platforms

Stay current with social media trends and tools (includes networking, educational events,blog reading and listening to podcasts)

Manage social media team, conduct meetings, advise on projects, and motivate team members

Continue to refine and define our social marketing process

Work with the social team to create a solid branding message for internal communications and external marketing initiatives

Public Relations ResponsibilitiesDevelop opportunities and connections for the company to be used as a resource for public relations (print, online, speaking, consulting)

Write and schedule press releases based on the company’s achievements, new clients, client news and employee achievements

Create case studies to share with potential clients and to showcase successes

WHERE TO POST YOUR JOBWhere to find the right candidate for your new position.

When looking for a social media marketing manager, it’s important to look and post where qualified candidates are participating. A great candidate will be on most social platforms, sharing content, involved with local groups, and if they’re in the job market, looking on job boards and social channels. Look for candidates that are sharing content and having conversations with people in these places:

Local Groups and OrganizationsParticipate in local social media groups, meet-ups, and business organizations and use those networking opportunities to find candidates. University job boards, local chamber of commerce meetings, and local marketing groups are great resources. Consider sponsoring a local social media event. They frequently allow for announcements to their organization and it’s a great place to let people know your company is hiring.

Social Media PlatformsPost your job opening on all social platforms reach candidates where they are participating socially. A good candidate will be looking on social, as well as other places for job leads.

Social Networking and Job Search WebsitesSocial networking sites such as LinkedIn are very valuable in finding the right person. Job search sites are good, as most people looking for a job will be on 2-3 of them.

We tweet our favorite places to find qualified candidates in the Dallas, Texas area and also many nationwide websites and organizations. Follow us @atomicDC on Twitter and Pinterest for relevant social media manager updates, infographics, and tools. @atomicDC

#socialmediamanager#digitalmarketing

@atomicDCSocial Media Manager& Social Media boards

RESEARCHHow to effectively research your social media manager candidate.

If you’re hiring a social media manager, you obviously want someone who not only uses social media, but has a personal brand and a positive social voice. Here are some ideas of where to look and what to look for.

Look for your candidate on all major social platforms.What are they posting? You can learn a lot about your candidate by looking at their posts, photos, and videos. It’s also a good idea to look at their posting frequency. Don’t just look at the first few posts, go back over several months.

Search for your candidate.Google. Bing. Whatever search you like. This may not be easy if they have a common name, but give it a try. It’s a good way to learn about potential candidates, organizations they’re involved in, and how they socially support others.

Look for past social campaigns they’ve been involved with. This is a great way to see their work in action and their creativity.

This may feel like you’re stalking your candidates, but this is a necessary step in finding the right person for the job. Just so you know, they’re researching you and your company in the same manner.

KEY QUESTIONSFive key interview questions for your candidate.

Just because someone spends time on Facebook or may have managed social marketing for a company does not mean they are a social media expert. Asking these five key questions will give you the insight you need to make a good, solid hiring decision.

5 Key Questions1. Give examples of two campaigns you’ve created.Look for two unique ideas that align with specific company goals, demonstrating creativity, process, execution and results.

2. How did you measure campaign successes?Look for data-driven answers that specifically tracked measurable results and quantifiable goals beyond number of fans or followers.

3. Describe your biggest campaign wins?They should be able to talk about the specific results and outcomes such as increased sales, reduced costs, and customer interaction.

4. How did you get internal staff participation?Look for responses that include training and cross-department participation. Also any incentive programs created to encourage.

5. How did you manage accounts with little or no communication from the client?Clients can take too long to respond to requests, how did they communicate and

ADDITIONAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONSAdditional interview questions to ask your social media manager candidate.

You don’t need to ask all of these, but here’s a list of some social media related questions that may help your specific industry, business or social marketing needs.

What social software or tools do you use?

What’s your favorite social platform? Your least favorite platform? Why?

Which social brand or person you follow for inspiration? How have they inspired you?

Do you have experience with email campaigns and strategies?

Do you have experience with social marketing strategy? Tell me about your process.

Do you have experience with paid ads?

Do you think businesses need to use paid ads? Why or why not?

Do you have experience with social analytics?

How have you handled a crisis, negative comment, or review?

How much experience do you have with reputation management?

What do you think the most important job function of a social media manager is?

Have you created or worked within a social media advertising budget?

Do you blog personally or professionally? Where do you promote your posts?

How do you determine target audiences?

How do you define ROI in social media?

Do you think businesses should be on all social platforms? Why or why not?

How to you keep up with the ever-changing social platform technology?

How do you evaluate new social platforms?

Are you an early adopter or do you wait to see if new technology becomes mainstream?

What social influencers do you follow?

What’s your opinion of Google+?

What strategies do you recommend for building a social following?

Have you ever held a live event on any social platform? How did you market it?

What is the scariest thing about social media? The most exciting?

What do you think the next big thing will be in the social world?

How would you improve our social presence?

Why should we hire you?

RANDOM OBJECT PROJECTHere’s a sample project to use during the interview.

Here’s a simple project to see how quickly your candidate thinks on their feet, to get a glimpse of their creativity level, and to see how they will interact on the different social platforms.

Grab a random object. Grab some random object or something related to your business. Yes, this is similar to the old “sell me this pencil” routine, but with a social twist. During the interview, set the object on the table.

Ask any of these questions.

What are three uses for this object?

How would you determine a target audience to promote this object?

How would you promote this on Facebook?

What three hashtags would your tweet with this object?

How would you photograph this for Instagram?

How would you create a social campaign around this object?

If you were blogging about this object, what would the title be?

SALARY GUIDELINESSalary guidelines and industry standards for social media managers.

Salary GuidelinesA social media management position is one that is responsible for all aspects of social marketing, from strategy to scheduling. Creating campaigns that produce measurable results and managing your social marketing team are just two of the many high level responsibilities your manager will have.

Salary RangeSalary guidelines for a social media and PR manager can be hard to find and set. Our friends at The Creative Group have a national salary guide that can be of assistance. We referenced their report and adjusted based on the market and overall landscape of the talent available. Based from their survey and speaking to other owners in the industry we have see the social media manager salary range should be between

$48,250 – $88,250

National Salary Percentage Adjustments: Chicago, IL - 123.0% Des Moines, IO - 97.0% Los Angeles, CA - 125.0%

Dallas, TX - 105.5% Jacksonville, FL - 93.0% New York, NY - 141.0%

HAPPY SEARCHING!We wish you the best in finding the right candidate for your social media manager position.

We hope you have found this guide to be helpful and we wish you the best of luck in your search. Please feel free to contact us and let us know how your search is going and if there is any way we can be of assistance to you!

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HAVE YOU CONSIDERED AN AGENCY?We would love to work with you!

5 Benefits of Hiring an Agency:

1. No HR & benefits hiring expense

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4. Access to advanced monitoring tools

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Call UsCall us today! We would love to help take your social media and digital marketing to

the next level.

972-668-3867atomicdc.com | @atomicDC