5 Signs You Need to Hire a Social Media Manager and Where To Find Them

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This episode is presented by Feathr – Nonprofits of all shapes and sizes use Feathr’s digital marketing tools to increase awareness, engage donors, promote events, and hit fundraising goals. Feathr provides a central place to manage digital advertising, email marketing, and peer-to-peer campaigns, as well as build ads, landing pages, and more. Click here to learn more.

Too many companies treat social media like a hobby, rather than a pillar of their digital marketing strategy. There, I said it. 

If you’ve been thinking about growing your marketing team to include a social media role and you’re wondering, where do I find a social media unicorn? And, what does realistic compensation look like? You’re in the right place.

Social media is hands down the most cost-effective way to increase visibility and online exposure for your organization. And only 44% of nonprofits have just ONE team member managing their social media presence.

In this episode, I’m sharing the five signs you absolutely NEED to hire a social media manager (and how to find them!)

Are you stuck in the research cycle vs. actually implementing a social media strategy?

When it comes to social media, there’s a staggering number of trends and strategies to keep up with. In fact, it’s all too easy to fall into the “research trap.”

Maybe you’ve been there before, or you’re currently in it now.

You’re signing up for what feels like a million webinars about Instagram reels and TikTok, and you’re constantly rethinking your Canva graphics and redesigning them again and again.

Or worse, you post something on social media, only to fall down an infinite rabbit hole. If you actually sat down and calculated how much time you’re spending on mindless scrolling and research, it’d probably be bananas!

Think about the work you absolutely love doing. You don’t want social media to take away from what you genuinely enjoy about your day-to-day. 

Hiring a social media manager will save you so much time, effort, and money in the end.

Social media is about the power of community building

I am a big believer in that you don’t have to be on EVERY single social media platform. It’s important to figure out the ones that make sense for your organization’s strategy.

And for the ones we do choose?

Go all in on your audience.

Social media gives us an incredible opportunity to build and maintain meaningful 1:1 connections. How often have you proactively reached out to your followers to let them know how much you appreciate them?

Some of my favorite strategies are voice DMs on Instagram and running Facebook Groups (hint hint: you can join mine right here).

When you make the effort to connect with your audience, be sure to respond in a timely manner too. Consumers expect a reply within an hour, and the average response time is five hours. And based on data from Sprout Social, nonprofits had an average 18% response rate. Yikes!

How to find your “social media unicorn”

So if you know you’re ready to take the leap and outsource social media management, the next step is figuring out where to find this magical person.

Here are a few places I recommend looking:

1. LinkedIn is an amazing tool to recruit for new hires. You can create a job post, share it on your LinkedIn feed, and then have your employees re-share the post onto their feed.
2. While it may seem a little scandalous, look for new hires at other organizations. Do you love the social media work that another company promotes? Figure out who leads those channels on their team!
3. I also have a great list of creative consultants and agencies you can check out here.

Now when it comes to paying your new social media manager, check various places like LinkedIn and Payscale and you’ll see a range of $36K-$81K on average. While $53K tends to be the median salary, consider what experience this person brings to the table so that they feel valued and appreciated.

I can’t wait for you to take the leap and make this hire happen!

Notable Quote from Dana

“If you don’t find joy in producing content and coming up with social media strategies, let me tell you, that energy is going to resonate to your audience.”

Resources & Links

This episode is presented by Feathr – Expand your reach, further your mission. Use Feathr’s digital marketing tools to increase awareness, boost online donations, promote events, recruit volunteers, and ultimately do more good. Learn More. 

FREE Webinar: The Top 5 “Set It and Forget It” Marketing Tips for Building Momentum During the Summer on May 19th at 2 pm ET | 11 am PT with Feathr’s President and Co-founder Aidan Augustin and Dana Snyder. Click here to RSVP!

Check out my list of recommended Creative Consultants and Agencies that you should hire.

Are you making costly mistakes with your social ads strategy? RSVP to my new masterclass, How To Attract Recurring Donors Without Posting On Social Media and learn my #1 secret for copy and content inspiration.

Want to make Missions to Movements even better? Take a screenshot of this episode and share it on Instagram. Be sure to tag @positivequation so I can connect with you.