Finding a Skilled Social Media Manager

If you've been looking for a social media manager, you probably have discovered that there are a huge number of options out there. The trouble esthete not all options are equal – and, while some may be a good solution for your needs, they may not be a great fit for someone else.

Let’s take a look at some of the possibilities to consider, when looking outsource your social media:

Stay in the family

Perhaps the best “outsourcing” option for you is to expand the responsibilities of one of your existing employees to also include social media duties. That’s right, keep it in-house. But make sure you’ve got someone with the time to invest in staying on top of their various social media responsibilities, because these tasks will require a good amount of time and attention, so be advised that it may reduce the time available for them to do their other work.

Recruit from outside

If you'd rather recruit a new person, it's time to go online and look. Freelancing sites like oDesk and Elance would be an obvious choice for finding skilled, experienced outsourcers. These sites provide thousands of skilled workers in all possible categories, and finding potential candidates for a social media manager position shouldn't prove too difficult. The challenge is sorting through the legions of unqualified folks to identify the qualified ones. And, once you do, there’s the additional challenge of training and management of your outsourced worker. It’s not impossible, but be sure to give great directions if you want them to succeed (outsourcers can’t read your mind, after all).

Take to the search engines

Another option is simply heading straight to Google, searching for something like ‘outsource social media' or ‘social media manager'. You'll see many potential candidates listed among both the paid and organic results. This option is perhaps particularly good if you're looking for an agency and not an individual freelancer, as agencies typically have larger budgets to allow for ranking higher in search engines (or paying for ads in prominent positions).

This last option, while seemingly less personal, can turn out to be a great choice, particularly because you can leverage the experience and institutional knowledge and capabilities of a larger, more sophisticated organization.

Taking a test drive

No matter which option you settle on, it’s probably best not to jump into things fully without knowing what the new outsourced social media you is going to look like. So be sure to ask for a portfolio or have some sample posts created.

In the case of using an agency, ask for a demo. The folks (and my partners) at Likable would love to show you what they can do for you.

And remember, ultimately, you or your company is being represented out there by someone else. So don’t make this decision too casually.