Do I actually need to get a Social Media Manager? (the honest truth from one)
- Guaranteed Goodside
- Jul 31
- 4 min read
Hi! I'm Alyssa, the one woman show behind Guaranteed Goodside! I offer Videography and Social Media Management services to businesses and peeps here in Calgarian! I have been self employed for 5 years, and now i'm sharing what i've learn't with you.
So let's get right to it. You're here because you are trying to determine whether or not you should have a Social Media Manager, and whether it is really going to be of benefit to you. As a social media manager myself, I can honestly tell you that you don't NEED to get a social media manager just because you are a business owner.
If you are managing to consistently post, and are getting results you are happy with then that may be enough. The catch here is are you actually doing that.
To me, the point of having a Social Media Manager is to outsource the work that comes from consistently upkeeping your social media profiles. There is so much noise out there as far as marketing advice (and here I am contributing to that), but generally if you are looking to find customers, you have to first be actually findable. Second, you have to resonate in some capacity with that customer enough for them to reach out and inquire about your services. The more you post, the more times you show up and the more findable you are going to be.
So in my opinion, there are two tasks here: you need to be able to post frequently and the content that you are posting has to be engaging. Then from here you have to ask yourself "is enough business being generated here". You also have to ask yourself if the time it takes to do all of your social media work would be better allocated to taking on more work. (more on this in a second!)
If you find that what you are posting generates comments, dm's and emails from people inquiring about your business. I would say you are doing a perfectly good job on your own! That's not a small feat, and something a lot of business owners strive for.
Including myself!
Then you can ask yourself if the community you've created and the responses from the content you've been posting, is generating enough interaction with your business to fulfill your business needs. As an example, if you are a graphic designer and can handle the workload of 10 projects a month, and you find your social media is bringing in 45 inquiries a month, with 10 of those converting to actual projects, I would say you definitely do not need a social media manager for marketing needs, unless you are trying to expand your business further.
Buuuut (there's always a but lol), let's say the money you bring in as a graphic designer is roughly $850 per project. You may think to yourself, "Hey if I wasn't spending all this time on brainstorming, creating, posting and responding, I would have the capacity to take on 3 extra projects a month". Then a Social Media Manager costing roughly $1200 for example would allow you to bring you in an extra $1350.
Cost Breakdown:
Graphic Design Project $850 x 3 = $2550 (minus the $1200 Smm fee) equals $1350.
Now let's say you're in a boat were you are posting and getting pretty much crickets as far as a response from potential customers because you don't really have much of an understanding of social media, then I would say you should hire a Social Media Manager as they can help you understand where you need to be in the digital space.
What a Social Media Manager does:
** please keep in mind that depending on what you hired your Social Media Manager for, they may do some of these things or all of these. It depends on what you have discussed and what you need.
Optimizing Your Social Media Profiles
let's use Instagram as an example. This would be formatting your logo, creating a great bio, adding a Linktree, and creating highlights.
Brainstorming Content Ideas
Filming and Editing Social Media Content
SMM also know how to format for social media platforms too
Scheduling and Posting your Social Media Content
Responding to Comments, DM's
Posting to Stories and Adding to Highlights
Reporting on the Month's Results
Working with Influencers and Scheduling Collaborations
Answering Business Questions
If you are unfamiliar with a lot of these, you could totally benefit from having a Social Media Manager and will most likely see a significant jump in quality as far as how your brand is perceived by customers online.
So here is my breakdown!
NEEDS a Social Media Manager
You don't understand social media or use it much yourself
You are not seeing much as far as engagement or results
You know how to use social media platforms but are not getting very much exposure and very little engagement.
You do not have the time to dedicate to social media
Benefits from a Social Media Manager
You would make more money if you traded the time you spent on social media marketing to working on projects in your business
Does not need a Social Media Manager
You are seeing success from the posts you make on Social Media, and the clients you are getting from social media are proving a workload that is enough for you
What are your thoughts?
If you are looking for a Social Media Manager and have some questions for me, please don't hesitate to shoot me a message at guaranteedgoodside@gmail.com
Check out my website at www.guaranteedgoodside.com for more!
I'm happy to help you out!
Thanks for being here and for reading my very first blog post :)
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