When hiring any social media manager to take the lead role in your campaigns, it is essential that you find the right person because they will be representing your brand.

If you are an organization that deals with a great number of social issues, a person’s lifestyle and online presence may have a huge effect on choosing the right candidate.

List the qualities and skills that you consider the most important must have’s for your brand and narrow your candidate choices based on those factors.

When you have narrowed down your choices, prepare what you want to know in advance, so you will already have an idea of what type of individual you are looking for.

Here are things that you may wish to consider asking when you interview them:

• Do you feel comfortable taking the lead role in creating projects alongside our other departments in order to gain valuable company experience?

The answer to this question is vital because many social media managers do not understand SEO principles and this can cause a huge conflict if the posts and content they are posting is effecting SEO and vice-verse.

These two departments need to work seamlessly together for effective marketing to take place.

• Do you like to work in a variety of different inbound marketing arenas?

If the social media manager is only able to post to platforms, but lacks skills in basic design, email marketing and content areas, they will not always be the best choice for your company.

Social media marketing involves a great deal more than just posting. Posting is what virtual assistants do, not managers. Managers should posses at least some of the skills that are listed in the job specific details below.

• Are you up to date on today’s latest on line trends? Are you energetic, creative and resourceful? Do you work well with others and are comfortable taking some direction?

This question is very important as the position requires the person to get along with others and find a variety of creative approaches in order to get the job done.

Social media marketing plays an integral role in assisting the corporate management team with overall brand strategy and requires the individual to communicate, promote and implement future marketing strategies through a variety of in bound marketing concepts.

These inbound marketing strategies may include some or all of the following skill sets; graphic design, e-mail marketing, promotion, SEO content, event planning and other services and tools that the company utilizes in order to maximize its brand initiatives. If the candidate is not able to utilize a variety of different applications, software and mediums, it is unlikely that they will be effective.

Many workers in this field think they are managers, just because they post on platforms, this is not so. They do not understand the concepts of marketing, they are only engaging, there is a difference!

Specific Skills Required to be a successful manager:

• Social media marketing candidates should be expected to have some of the following personal skills:
• A strong understanding of branding products and customer service.
• Excellent communication skills, and the ability to sell ideas through a variety of different means.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Basic design and graphic skills.
• A strong understanding of online marketing concepts such as video marketing, social media, email marketing and content creation.
• Exceptional writing and editing skills, as well as, the ability to adopt the style, tone, and voice of the brand’s blog platform.
• Excellent organizational skills to be able to work independently and manage projects with many moving parts.
• Be sociable and engaging with other people.
• Possess exceptional leadership and group building skills.
• Socially responsible, humorous and open minded.

While not every skill is as important as the other, and let’s face it, not every one can have all the skills required, it is expected that the candidate possess a least a considerable number of them.

The same can be said about the specific job skill requirements, which are:

• The ability to work and communicate with the appropriate department managers to launch corporate strategies.
• Create or gain access to content that helps articulate the value of the brand.
• Conduct Product research and marketing trends analysis.
• Provide detailed information, training, and product marketing reports to sales reps and other departments when necessary.
• Properly start up and maintain numerous social media accounts such as, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, etc under the guidance of the marketing manager.
• Provide communications on social platforms in a consistent, on-brand voice.
• Search and join brand related social media platforms.
• Create and evaluate social media strategies.
• Assist in growing the company’s social media reach.
• Submit various types of articles on a wide range of topics for its’ blog.
• Proper writing and editing skills are a must.
• Contribute to long-form content projects such as e-books and newsletters.
• Conduct analytical projects to improve blog strategies/tactics and expand users.
• Practice white-hat, honest, and creative SEO tactics.
• Assist in managing email campaigns from start to finish, including planning, testing, evaluating, and reporting.
• Developing and optimizing lead nurturing campaigns.
• Developing event planning specific strategies for the brand.
• Keeping up to date with practices and standards in the email marketing industry and growing the brand through its lists.
• Assisting all departments in day to day operations.
• A minimum of 2-3 years of prior experience in marketing or sales.

The truth is social media marketing entails a great deal more than just creating a few posts for Twitter and Facebook, it requires a great deal of time and patience and creative thoughts on the part of the manager to be able to carry campaigns for long periods of time.

Results are hard to quantify and are rarely measured in direct sales.

What social media managers cannot do is create direct sales. This is a misconception created by over zealous social media marketers who are only selling the idea of social media. This is not reality, social media is simply engaging with clients and creating a buzz for a brand which leads to sales via web traffic and corporate promotional marketing campaigns.