This slide presentation outlines steps you should take and things to consider when looking for and hiring a social media professional.

1. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
Open Social Media Education
A Captive Touch Initiative
Host: Sherry Nouraini
Founder/President
Captive Touch

2. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
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3. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
Topic of Our Workshop Today
What Does it Take to Find and
Hire a Good Social Media
Professional?

4. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
Evaluate your needs
• No Social Media (SM) presence
 Social media strategist to create a plan
3. Active on SM channels, but not getting
results
 Social media strategist to monitor and
create a plan
• Active on SM channels, have sound
strategy that is giving results, no time
 Community manager (VA)

5. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
How to find the person you need?
• Treat it as a project
• Shop around for quality not best price
• Start with word of mouth but don’t stop
there. Your work just begins
 Most of referrals are not so good
• Whether word of mouth is an option or not,
your starting point should be Linkedin

6. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
What to look for on Linkedin
 Search for keywords, location
 Complete profile
 Links
 Website
 SM accounts
 Youtube channel
 Recommendations
 Activity

7. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
What to look for on Facebook
Good social media professionals are great
story tellers.
 Cover image: Does it tell a story? Is it
unique?
 Overall design: Professional and
consistent
 Posts: Engaging, story telling, provide
value
 Fan count: Not a good quality score
because it can be artificially built up

8. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
What to look for on Twitter
 Complete profile
 Conversational
 Offer value
 Lists they are members of:
 Are they listed?
 Under what category?
 Sentiment on their Twitter handle, do a
search

9. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
What to look for on their website
 Professional design
 Active blog
 Value
 Thought leadership
 Strong writing skills
 Testimonials
 Clear explanation of offerings

10. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
The meeting
• Opportunity for you to evaluate the candidate
in person
• Opportunity for the candidate to evaluate your
needs and decide if they want to work with
you
 They should ask questions
 They should listen to you answer them
 Conversation turns into sales pitch? End
the meeting

11. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
What questions they should ask
 Your business goals
 Your competitive advantage
 Your motivation for using social media
 Your current social media activities
 Your expectations
 They should address if unrealistic
 Your budget

12. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
The candidate should exhibit
• An understanding of business goals
• An understanding of how social media activity
can be connected to business outcome
• Ability to think on their feet and brainstorm
with you right at the meeting
• Based on the first meeting, they should get
back to you with a proposal
• You should meet again to address the
proposal

13. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
Social media strategy proposal
• Outline steps to create plan, could include:
 Finding where prospects aggregate
 Monitoring conversations on SM
 Potential clients
 Competitors
 Identifying influential bloggers
 Research case studies of campaigns
• Done right, creating a strategy can be a huge
project
• Timeline to deliver first draft
• Be prepared, you may have to revise

14. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
Example strategy & tactics
• Business objective: Increase awareness for new
product X,
 Where to find target market (research)
 Engage on Facebook (strategy)
 How to engage them
 Facebook Ad (tactic)
 What behavior to drive in them
 Visit product page on website, include link
to website in the ad

15. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
SM management proposal
What the candidate will do for:
• Engagement
• Monitoring
• Measurement
• Reporting
• Meeting

16. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
How much do you expect to pay?
• Pricing should be the last thing to discuss.
• Most ask for price first, not a good idea
• Overview of pricing in the industry:
 Great blog post written by Mack Collier
“How Much Does Social Media Cost Companies in
2012?”
http://bit.ly/smcost

17. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
When making your final decision
• Don’t choose based on best price
• Go for creativity
• For SM management, start with a short
term agreement (3-6 months) in the
beginning
• Your best candidate knows the value of
offline activities and has a plan to tie it into
your online social media activities.

18. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
Few final points
• Social media consultants are business
owners just like you
• Respect their time
• Think of your SM consultant as a business
partner

19. Open Social Media: Where we tell it like it is
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