As a business owner, you might be tempted to let your neighbor’s uncle’s sister’s son (a.k.a a non-professional acquaintance) handle your company’s social media accounts. After all, what could be so hard about it. After all, it’s not really that important to your overall marketing...and you just need someone young who understands all that stuff to do it. Spending the money to hire someone to handle it, seems silly, right?
How do we tell you you’re making a really bad decision without making you feel bad? Here’s the reality... according to stats from Sprout Social, over 3.6 billion people use social media currently. That number is only expected to increase and is projected to reach 4.41 billion by 2025. These numbers indicate the immense size of the social media sphere and showcase why it’s vitally important to place proper importance on this aspect of marketing, not relegating it to someone with no marketing or brand experience.
Why Hiring a Non-Professional to Manage Your Social Media is a Bad Idea
Here are more reasons why thinking a non-professional can or should handle your social media is a poor business decision:
Assuming They Have Time
While a non-professional might have more time than you do, they don’t have the time it takes to address a well composed social media marketing campaign. They may be well versed on the use of social media personally, but having the devoted time and attention that it takes to engage with the public in a professional and consistent way might be a stretch.
Close monitoring of social media accounts, including messaging prospects and customers is vitally important. Prompt responses delight customers and keep them coming back. Obviously, a random person you assign to oversee your social media presence will not be as responsive as either a professional or yourself when it comes to your brand’s social media presence. Delayed response, or worse - an unprofessional response - reflects poorly on your brand.
Consistency is key
For your audience to recognize your brand, you must be consistent on your social media accounts. This means your goal should be to remain authentic and relevant while being consistent with all your posts and engagements on social media. This doesn't mean posting constantly, or only posting one type of content. The consistency comes from staying true to your brand. One deviation or mistake in social media can be costly.
Promoting regular engagement is one part of a healthy social media presence. You want both established and potential customers to see your posts, engage with them, share them, etc. You have to create posts that promote and encourage engagement in order to make this happen. Posting on a personal page is very different from branding a business...and your social media manager needs to understand this distinction.
Expertise is Necessary
While an acquaintance’s teenager might understand everything about their own personal social media presence, they aren’t experts when it comes to digital consumer marketing. You need a professional who understands and is trained in behind-the-scenes tactics and who understands how to boost a brand’s presence through paid searches, targeting and then retargeting. You also need to have someone on your side who knows what to do should something go wrong within the process.
You need a professional you can count on to know when and how to post sales and promotions, recruitment listings and successfully walk the line between when to “sell” and when to have fun and build up the brand.
Bottom Line: Hire a Professional
Although hiring a family friend might seem like a good idea for a variety of reasons, some of which benefit them (giving them a job) and some of which benefit you (paying someone less to do the job who is not a professional), it is not a good idea to cast your brand’s social media presence to the side with little regard to its direction. Because of the nature of social media, a simple mistake can be devastating. Instead, let the professionals do their job. You’ll get a better response that way, and it will be worth it when you see the results!
