Social media community managers monitor social media round the clock for both brands and agencies. They serve as the voice of the company, building visibility and credibility on different social media networks. Community managers forge new connections on social media networks and strive to increase a brand’s popularity online. As the voice of your organization, it is important to select the ideal entity who will serve your brand well as its online spokesperson. Here are four tips to select the perfect community manager for your brand.
#1 Experienced
Depending on what industry you are in, it is important for the community manager to understand where you need to be present and how to interact with your specific audience. There are social media networks that work best for certain types of companies and community managers can make sure you are visible on the most relevant networks and interacting daily. A community manager who has only worked in home improvement social media networks would have a different skill set and knowledge base than one who has worked only in food focused social media networks. Be sure to select a community manager with experience in your particular industry.
#2 Varied Voice
Similar to the home improvement and food manufacturing analogy, a community manager should have the ability to change up their voice depending on the brand represented. It’s not just that the community manager has to respond to posts and messages, they have to respond in the voice of the brand they are representing. You should examine social media accounts the community manager works with currently to find out if they are changing up the voice or if it is consistent throughout. Select a community manager that can change up their voice and is more developed.
#3 Delivered Results
Reputable community managers should be able to tell you what their average response time is. They should also be able to reliably forecast projections on where your audiences will be within the first year of working with them. Often this is done by showing what has been accomplished with similar brands. This information should be available on a weekly or monthly basis from the community manager.
#4 Automated Responses
We’ve all gotten automated responses from Twitter and Facebook thanking us for following and inviting us to interact. They are very easy to spot and often impersonal. Canned responses are often the ways that community managers can claim very low response times. Keep it real and ask the community manager how many responses will be automated versus customized human responses.
Follow these four tips to select your next community brand manager. Often references are a good idea to help you not just see the statistics on the page but get a real testimonial from a live person. You’ll know you’re ingood hands when you thoroughly check a community brand manager.
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