What Can a Social Media Manager Do for You?
This is a question that I get all the time. If you’re a social media manager (“SMM”), maybe you get it, too! Every SMM is a little different, as far as their skills, and we refer to each other all the time if something is out of our league. That said, here are a few common things that an SMM can do for you.
Research
We can figure out what things might interest your audience based on knowing your ideal demographic. Your audience is interested in more than just your product or service. For instance, say your non profit works to save the redwoods, like Sempervirens does (one of my favorite organizations). Their followers would probably like to hear about parks that have redwood trees, educational events, and articles about redwood trees. They might also be interested in the animals, insects, and people who visit redwood groves as well as which climates support redwood groves.
Photo by Elsie esq. 
Decide Where and When to Post
We figure out where you need to be on the internet–that is, which platform, and when. If you’re a brick-and-mortar store, we would probably focus on times that your local audience is online. There are a lot of behind-the-scenes tools that we use to figure out this stuff, and the post is really just the tip of the iceberg. By the way, you might like this article: Ten Simple Ways to Choose the Best Social Media Platform.
Choose Hashtags
We can help you come up with hashtags for your business, and how many we should use (and where, too!). Because not every platform is hashtag-friendly. Hah! #HashtagFriendly would be a great hashtag, don’t you think? If you like hashtags, you might like this article: How to Catapult Your Tweets Farther? Use a Powerful Hashtag!
Engage Online
The biggest problem for most businesses is having the time to engage online. Most SMMs do this for you (not all of them, though). And since Facebook’s algorithm is changing once again, engagement has become more important than ever so that you appear. Engagement is such an issue for many people that I’ve written a series on Engagement.
On Overwhelm?
Then you might need a social media manager! If “I’ll never get this done” is your constant companion, as Linda Hardenstein says in this Forbes Article, Five Simple Steps to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed at Work, then you may need some help. A social media manager can get you out of overwhelm and let you get back to the business of running your business!
It always amazes me how people are overwhelmed and don’t seem to see the freedom in outsourcing. Trusting someone as a brand ambassador, however, should never be taken lightly. That said, this is a great post.
Hi Bridget,
I think that some people are so overwhelmed that even trying to do things differently is overwhelming. And they may not know who to trust, as you say.
Thank you so much! Nice to see you here.
Carol