Do you indeed?! Surely a social media manager is just someone who comes into the office, plays around on Facebook, sends out a few tweets and maybe writes a blog or two between endless meetings extolling the virtues of social media? Well, surprisingly that is the view held by many managers around the UK who still haven’t quite grasped the value that social media can bring to a business. But then again, ten years ago there were plenty of managers who didn’t see the point in setting up a company webpage, or using the internet!
A company manager might just notice that their friends, colleagues, children and family are using social media and dismiss it as something that is for use in their spare time. What so many of them fail to see is that their (present and potential future) customers are using it too, so businesses need to be connecting with them in the social media space.
As I have talked about in previous blogs, businesses need to start to create social media strategies and usage policies, but there is a regular problem in that the managers who end up with the responsibility often have a poor understanding of social media outlets themselves. Therefore they are not the best people to be counselling employees or considering strategy. You must have a plan and a clear roadmap, show consistency and offer valuable content.
It is also worth remembering that just because someone has a personal Facebook page, it does not mean they could or should be creating a Facebook business page for your business. Social media is now a very competitive area of industry and if you want your business to make a mark you should hire an expert – someone who can create a better social presence than that offered by your competitors. It is as easy as a click of a mouse for anyone to just stop engaging with you, so it’s imperative to have an expert who knows how to deliver valuable and relevant content which encourages potential customers to interact with you and stay engaged.
A business may already have a Twitter and Facebook page and occasionally put out the odd update and think the job is done. Often, poorly thought out irregular updates when you have the spare time can actually look worse than not having any social media portals at all. A Social Media Manager can bring focus and clarity, and link all the social media outlets together so they are working as one for you as a business – rather than you being a slave to them. This in turn releases the valuable commodity of time for you as a manager to focus on other necessary areas.
