I saw a headline this morning that struck me. The title? Why you shouldn't hire a social media manager.
Um, hey. I'm Sarah. Marketing and Social Media Manager extrordinaire at your service. A little offended by said title.
Naturally I read the article with my guard up, waiting for the seemingly inevitable validation of my subconscious but sometimes evasive fear: my job is perhaps a teensey bit frivolous.
Not to say I don't believe in my cause. I absolutely, whole-heartedly believe in social media as a tool for institutions, organizations, celebrities, and businesses. I even more whole-heartedly believe in the role of an educated strategist to facilitate social media marketing strategies. As addressed in earlier posts, and as I have seen first hand, a well thought out campaign is much more than a tweet here and a facebook fan page there. Its actually quite complicated, and made even more-so due to its relative infancy.
Side note: I am wildly amused when I see job listings for social media managers/directors/strategists that list things like "must have 3-5 years of experience in social media marketing." Huh? Newsflash: Facebook launched to Harvard students in 2004, and then to everyone else in 2006. Twitter was also founded in 2006. These are the current, and loosely speaking the first prevalent forms of social media that kickstarted the social media marketing movement as we know it today. So in essence, five years of experience in this field makes you Mark Zuckerberg or Biz Stone. And I'd wager to say that neither are in need of jobs or extra cash given their current social stature. But I digress.
I'm not one to publicly critique someone else's work (especially since the author of this article is a successful digital marketing strategist--which is why I'm surprised she wrote it). Instead, I will offer a polite reframing. Had I written this article I would have titled it something to the effect of Three things to consider before you hire a social media manager.
1. In the actual article, reason number one for why you should not hire a social media manager states: "Social media has yet to be defined and communicated as it is relevant to your business." It then goes on to effectively say that with so many different channels (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, Flikr, Wordpress, etc.) organization can be tricky and goals may become blurry. My response? Hire a real strategist who knows and understands your industry and social media's role in it. Define your goals and let the strategist tell you how social media will further them. A true social media strategist will see a hole in your social communication and show you how to supplement your existing marketing plan in order to fill that hole. Hello success.
2. Reason number two: "Goals, responsibilities, and expectations for the role are not clearly defined." The author points out that when searching for social media jobs online you will find a myriad of job titles and discriptions for social media professionals. My rebuttal: I'm wondering when all job descriptions became unified? How many Vice Presidents of younameit are there around the United States? And how many of them perform the same tasks? I've seen everything from the Vice President who manages and the Vice President who runs the place. As with any other position, one's role in a company will depend on the size of the business as well as the industry and conditions that are present in that workplace. It is up to the company to decide what tasks are allocated to each member of the team.
The final paragraphs of the article caution that the available number of qualified social media professionals is small, and urge companies to consider all their resources, citing Home Depot as an alternate example. The author admits the value of the in-house social media hire, but reminds us that it might not be right for every business. I have no qualms with this. And I mean no disrespect to the author. She's actually quite amazing, despite my disagreement with her framing of this article. My question to her is, why--especially when you're at the forefront of a field that so many of us truly want to succeed in--use such a negative title for an article that really just discusses options? That's just no fun--and a little bit of a downer.
You can find the original article here.
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