According to the latest statistics, around 50% of the internet’s population uses social media to learn more about brands. While specifics vary between countries and markets, there is one universal truth that can be deciphered from this: your brand cannot afford not to be on social media.
A social media manager can help you make the most of your digital platforms, positioning your brand as one to watch. While, at this point, you can pretty much hire a social media manager from anywhere in the world, and you may be encouraged to hire from countries where the exchange rate works in your favour, there are certain advantages to working with local social media management teams.
So if you’ve begun asking yourself that all-important question of “how to hire social media managers near me” but haven’t yet had a chance to take this a step further, you’ve come to the right place.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through why hiring local gives you unique market advantages, how to choose the best local social media managers for your company, and common red flags you should look out for.
Why You Should Hire Local Social Media Managers
Hiring a social media manager based locally offers distinct advantages that can help your business soar.
We’ll go through a number of the most important benefits below:
- Understanding your local market best: There are certain digital marketing truths that all social media managers worldwide will know. For example, every social media manager will know the basics of posting on different platforms, what scheduling tools to use, what type of content converts, and how to run analytics and data insights. That should all be a given. But what not all social media managers will know is your local market and target audience on a very regional level. Community trends, cultural nuances, city-specific memes, or even popular local events like school markets or carnivals – those are things only a local will know. For social media, leveraging that local knowledge is worth gold, since it means your marketer can use it to better promote your business. Local social media managers will also be better equipped to identify potential collaboration or mass media opportunities, which can help cement your brand more firmly in the local market.
- Benefiting from time-sensitive content: Working with professional social media managers based locally also means you’ll benefit from time-sensitive content. Have you ever tried to communicate on an urgent topic with someone based in a different timezone? It’s near impossible. There are many areas in business where you can afford to hire from elsewhere, but social media should not be one of them. Social media trends happen quickly — if you’re just a day late, you may as well be a few years too late. Real-time events, the latest news, brand-new developments — these are all things your social media team should jump on and use to create top-notch content that’ll help your brand stand out. The best way to do this is by working with a local social media management team that can access information in real time.
- Communication and accessibility advantages: Being in the same time zone also has distinct communication and accessibility advantages. It’s great to be able to just pick up the phone and call your social media manager if you need to discuss something. Or, even better, meet him or her for coffee down the road for a quick catch-up. Even in a digital world, nothing beats real human interaction and the benefits this brings.
- Brand-specific content: Of course, your search history may already be filled with “social media services near me” requests if you have a business like a cafe, salon, or anything else where you expect customers to visit you regularly. If customers are visiting your shop or store, your social media content should also show those locations. If you have a restaurant, for example, you want your social media to be flooded with content of your seating, views, or latest dishes. While of course you can hire a photographer or videographer to come in and shoot the content that you can then use to share with a global social team, you’ll get the best results from a local social media team. They can then come shoot native content and behind-the-scenes footage, which can help take your digital platforms from bland and boring to viral in no time.
- Great relationships: You can form really great working relationships via email or Slack communication, but it’s often easier to form a great relationship by actually spending time with someone. And since great social media relies on great relationships, having that in-person or local touch can really make all the difference.
If you want to work with a team that can work with you to help your business succeed, going local is the best way to do it.
What To Look For In A Social Media Manager
In order to find the best social media managers, you need to know what to look for.
A great portfolio and good reporting strategies obviously matter (we’ll look at these more in the next section), but you also want to find someone who has a particular interest in your company or industry.
Think about this: Say you’re a cement-making company, but you hire a social media manager who’s excellent at what they do but who couldn’t care less about cement, construction, or any other related field. Do you think that a social marketer will be best positioned to promote your company? Probably not. There’s very little that matters as much as genuine interest.
You also want to find someone who has a great communication style that works for you. Creating social content is often about teamwork, and you need someone you can feel comfortable around.
If you’re a chef in a restaurant, for example, you need to feel comfortable enough to invite your social media manager into the kitchen with you to shoot fantastic behind-the-scenes content, and it’ll be even better if there’s a genuine connection you can make use of to crack a few jokes or otherwise add authenticity.
This is where good communication comes in.
But even for industries where you may not need that sort of coverage, having good communication and the chance to honestly discuss your social efforts is really important.
How To Evaluate Social Media Managers Near You
So you may be asking yourself: “How do I evaluate social media managers near me?”
This is a very important question, because even if that genuine interest and good communication are there, you still need to make sure that you’re hiring a social media manager who’s actually fit for the job.
There are a few things you can look at here.
First, take a look at the social media manager’s portfolio. This may be harder for someone just starting out, but most people going into social media management have some sort of social expertise, even if it’s just with their own accounts. What do the social media accounts look like? Do you like the aesthetic? Are they well curated? Are they on brand? These are all important basics to help you get started.
Sometimes, looking at personal accounts or very specific examples may give you a better indication of someone’s potential. This is because social media managers can often be tied down to the type of content they’re allowed to post for brand accounts. So, if possible, discuss portfolio examples with your candidate and ask to see the work they think would fit best for your company.
It’s also worth discussing strategy. A social media manager with a vision is great, but it needs to be a vision that aligns with your business goals. After all, the goal of digital marketing is to help your business succeed, and you need to know that the social media manager you’re looking to hire will help you with this. Ask about their plans or strategies, and pay attention to how much they’re asking you about your business, too.
Finally, it’s also worth discussing reporting strategies. Most professional community managers offer some type of reporting and data insights, even if they’re just using native analytics tools for their stats. But the important part is to establish what type of reporting is offered (for example, number of posts completed, overall reach, demographics, follower growth, and etcetera) and how often reporting is done.
If your goal is hiring a social media manager who’s made for your business and you look for someone with a genuine interest, great communication style, good portfolio, well-thought-out strategy that aligns with your goals, and good reporting habits, you’re on your way to social media heaven.
Benefits Of Working With A Growing Agency
There are a number of social media marketers you can choose from, including freelance social media marketers, well-established agencies, and newer, growing agencies.
All have their fair share of pros and cons. But we believe that working with a growing agency is a really great opportunity to work with local social media management teams that offer many of the advantages of working with individuals, while still offering the stability, consistency, and security you’ll get from choosing an agency.
Growing agencies, for example, are often still more flexible and offer faster response times, while offering more personalised attention and genuinely creative ideas. This is something you’ll often see with freelancers, who are more committed to working on your brand.
But working with an agency also gives you the security of knowing that you’re not only relying on one person, so you’re covered if your dedicated social media manager falls ill, goes on holiday, or requires maternity, paternity, or medical leave.
By choosing a growing agency, you get the best of both worlds.
Red Flags To Avoid When Hiring A Social Media Manager
If something seems too good to be true, it probably is — and that’s important to remember when hiring a social media manager.
Anyone who promises you 10x growth in a short period of time is likely to scam you or follow like-for-like or spam practices that are against many social media guidelines. That last thing you want is your account being shadow-banned or blocked by Meta because your marketing manager did a shoddy job.
So, pay close attention to the deliverables offered. Are these realistic? Do they seem reasonable? Also, pay attention to pricing and the different pricing and management packages offered. If pricing isn’t clearly laid out or seems incredibly cheap or insanely expensive, something might be off.
You’ll also want to avoid social media managers who don’t communicate well or are unwilling to adapt and customise strategies. If, for example, they’re adamant that they have one effective method of posting that works wonders and they’ll only use that method, then you’d best walk away, even if everything else seems fantastic.
Social media, after all, will only work well if it’s uniquely adapted to your business and your unique business goals.
Are You Ready To Go Local?
Going local with your social media agency really makes all the difference.
In fact, we’d go as far as saying that choosing local is the best way to run your social media accounts. You’ll benefit from fantastic advantages, including a unique market understanding of your target audience, access to time-sensitive content, and the opportunity to build deep and lasting working relationships.
So if you’re ready to make the most of your social strategy and work with a professional social media management team based near you, contact PrecisionSEO today.
