Contributed post: Michelle Berg,
President & CEO of Elevated HR Solutions.
In January, one of my clients came to me asking to support their social media endeavors. Although social media is something I’ve always liked to do in my spare time (remember IRC chat rooms…yeah…I was addicted back then already), it’s not something I
do for clients. Their response was, “Fine then - hire me a kick ass social media guru. Or you know – a person who is an expert with online stuff.”
Jim Collins of Good to Great says, “The most important decisions business people make are not
what decisions, but are
who decisions.” That’s because
who you have working in your company impacts everything from your personal AND company brand, to your operational efficiency to overall profitability.
So where does a company start when it comes to hiring someone to help out with social media? It’s certainly not a role that everyone understands like accounting or sales. But relax – it’s not that difficult to hire a rock star. Here are some quick steps to help you out:
1. Don't search for a “guru” or an “expert”
There really is no such thing considering social media really hasn’t been around long enough to garner such titles. You wouldn’t go outward and say you are hiring an Accounting Expert or a Sales Guru. You hire an Accountant with personality or a Sales Executive that is driven. Typical titles in the social media world are as follows: Community Manager, Manager of Interactive Communications, Social Media Specialist, Social Media Advisor, etc. I typically advise Community Manager because of how encompassing it is. But at the end of the day, it does come down to business preference. They can be rock stars and/or kick-assed but you don’t need to place that in their title.
2. Define the role
Sure seems like a no-brainer, but in my experience, this is overlooked all too often. Title aside, you need to know what it is that they are going to do. If you don’t know – then it’s almost impossible to manage them and more importantly to ensure you can measure their results and make sure they are doing what you need them to be doing.
