Hiring a Social Media Strategist: Why It Matters & How To Do It

A lot of business owners try to handle their social media marketing in-house. This can be a costly mistake—especially for small businesses.

Here are five reasons people typically hire a social media strategist instead:

No time or resources to do it properly.
No experience creating successful social media campaigns / strategies.
No interest becoming a social media agency (i.e., they rather focus their energy on their core business and where they can make the biggest impact while someone else takes care of their social media marketing).
Don't want to use up their internal marketing efforts chasing social media updates and algorythms because it's time-consuming and ineffective trying to keep up with trends not related to their products and customers.
Rather have it done better / faster by someone that's done it before successfully and can duplicate the success again for them.

Read on to see if a social media strategist is right for you.

Should You Hire a Social Media Strategist?

If you need someone to help you create a winning social media strategy, manage your accounts, or understand how to grow your following, it's highly likely you need a social media strategist.

A social media strategist can help your business create a successful social media marketing strategy, implement it, and track the results.

They can also help you stay up-to-date on the latest trends and best practices (which is helpful in not getting your profile frozen, locked, or worse yet, deleted).

The best thing is that these experts can work with businesses of all sizes and know how to create a plan that'll allow clients to get in front of their target audience with social media.

A social strategist should also help you create content that engages your followers and encourages them to take action (because you can't pay your bills with 'likes').

That said, if you're looking for someone to simply help manage your social media accounts, a social media strategist may not be the best option.

Not every business needs a social media strategist—who typically charges by the hour for this type of service—but if you do, you need to check out this, this, or this to get the benefits of having multiple social media strategists without the exorbitant fees.

However, if you're looking for help creating a social media plan or want someone to help you execute your plan, or have specific campaigns that you need help creating and targeting the right audience, a social media strategist can be a great asset.

They know how to create effective campaigns that target the right audience at the right time to to generate results and get your media presence to the next level.

Questions to Ask A Prospective Social Media Strategist

If you're thinking about hiring a social media strategist, it's important to ask the right questions because not all social media strategists are created equal and you need to make sure you find one that is a good fit for your needs and objectives.

Question 1: How Much Experience Do You Have?

First, you'll want to ask the social media strategist about their experience and what kind of results they've been able to achieve for their clients.

This is a great way to get an idea of their skills and expertise as they need to have a proven track record of success with businesses [of all sizes].

It's always beneficial to work with a strategist who has experience in your industry or niche however it's not a deal-breaker and if you had to chose, go with the strategist that has a track record of success with various businesses over one with lesser experience that could've gotten lucky.

Sounds obvious, but few people actually research and make sure the "expert" has the skills and knowledge to help them meet their goals. Don't be one of those people.

A strategist that has lots of commercial / business clients will have a better understanding of the conversations happening within your target audience and create content that resonates with them because they understand how to get this critical data and use it effectively.

Also, you should investigate how they plan on helping your business grow.

You'd be surprised how few have specific ideas or strategies for your brand and leave it up to a "non-expert" to figure it all out.

Question 2: How Do You Use Your Personal Social Media Accounts?

This is a hard one because agency strategists won't generally share their personal accounts with client and many just plain aren't allowed to.

Feel this one out and ask the social media strategist about their personal social media habits letting them know you're trying to get more clarity on how they use social media and whether or not they're in line with your own company's values.

Question 3: Which Social Media Platforms Are They Experts At?

This is low-key the very best question here because no one asks it but it's critically important to the success of your campaign(s).

Not all platforms are created equal when it comes to marketing. Some work better for B2B, some for B2C, and some are great for both.

A social media strategist will surely know which platforms to use for your business but they also have to know why AND have extensive experience executing the tasks they're offering to handle on your behalf.

Most will never never admit this but no social media strategist is an expert in all platforms. Let that sink in...

Make sure the professional you hire is familiar with the platforms you use and has experience using them to reach your target audience.

Question 4: How Much Will They Charge?

This is one of the most crucial questions to ask when hiring a social media strategist.

Social media marketing can be costly so make sure you have a realistic budget in mind before wasting your time talking to strategists.

Once you've determined your budget, make sure your strategist understands their full fee needs to include developing a strategy that fits within your budget and meets your goals. No surprise fees.

Question 5: How Are They Going To Come Up with a Winning Social Media Strategy That Works for You?

A social media strategist needs to develop a strategy tailored to your business and goals.

They should consider your target audience, industry, and what platforms will be the most effective for reaching your goals.

A great social media strategist will develop a custom strategy tailored specifically to your business and they will be willing to sit down with you and learn about your company, your customers, and your goals before taking your money.

Question 6: How Frequently Will They Post on Your Social Media Platforms?

How often do you want to publish content?

What type of content?

How much lead time do you need for each piece?

These are all questions a social media strategist needs be able to answer.

Question 7: How Will They Measure ROI?

A social media strategist needs to be able to track and analyze data from all of your social media platforms.

They will then use this data to decide what content is working, what isn't, and how to improve your strategy.

The ideal candidate will know how to measure the ROI of your social media marketing efforts and regardless of the channel being used, they should have proper knowledge of and a clear strategy to generate tangible results and present quantifiable evidence of the posts.

Final Words

If you're like most business owners, you don't have time to manage your social media accounts.

You're busy running your business and don't have time to post updates, respond to comments, create new content, etc.

That's where a social media strategist comes in.

A social media strategist can help add value to your business by managing your social media accounts and creating engaging content that will attract new customers and keep current customers coming back for more.

We manage thousands of social media accounts for our clients and created countless strategies for business owners and marketers, helping them create engaging content and managing their accounts for them.

If you want to stand out from the competition in the digital space, this is the opportunity to do it (below is a list of our most popular services).

Social Media Content x1: Engage, educate, and entertain your audience organically through regular posts for one social account.

Social Media Inbox: Don't let another message or comment slip through the cracks. We'll monitor your inbox for one account and respond on your behalf.

Social Media Starter Kit: Start taking advantage of the many benefits of social media. We'll set up your business profile, create a customized strategy, and help you start posting content.

LinkedIn Groups: Increase your visibility and engage a larger audience through curated content posted to relevant LinkedIn groups.

P.S.: If you learned anything new or found any of this helpful, do us a favor and let us know by leaving us a positive review on Google. Please be as detailed as possible when describing how we helped or if you're a-person-of-few-words, that's okay too... a simple "no comment 5-star review" is greatly appreciated too! Here's the direct Google link: https://g.page/r/CVal72XJBEIVEAI/review

To learn more about any of our social media services, send us an email by clicking on the support link in the top right corner of the service page (see screenshot below).