Tips for Working With Your Social Media Manager

If you’ve invested in a social media manager to help you establish and grow your social media presence, you must work in partnership with them for the most success. Don’t just throw your manager out there and hope things will go the way you expect. Client partnership is key!

Tip for Working with Your Social Media ManagerWhat responsibilities do you, the social media client, have as a partner with your manager?

  • Be available. I can answer simple fan and follower questions on your behalf, but you are the expert. Fans and customers can and do ask questions I cannot answer, so I need a way to contact you and get an answer quickly. For many, it’s email. Some may prefer texting. One person I know keeps their Skype account up and running and prefers contact that way.
  • Send me links. Anytime you see a website, blog post, video, or newsletter containing information related to your expertise, send it my way. I always appreciate new information I can use as part of your social media strategy.
  • Send me photos. Fans love to see the real person behind the social media profile. Keep it simple and fun. Maybe you went on a hike, spoke at a conference or met the President of the United States and shook his hand. Get those to me post haste.
  • Keep me updated. If you have an upcoming event of some kind – book signing, speaker at a conference, ribbon cutting – tell me AHEAD of time. If you wait until the last minute and then are frustrated at the lack of social media response, you unfortunately just caused your own issue. You’ve got to give me time to work it.
  • Understand social media basics. You invested in me, your social media manager, to provide the expertise needed to make each platform work to best advantage. But it is helpful for you to understand that social media is not about selling, selling, selling. It IS about building relationships, being authentic, being consistent, telling your story and being interesting and of value to your fans and customers. As such, I am not going to scream “Buy My Widget” every other post.
  • Create new content consistently. The easiest way to do this is to keep a blog. Start small, like once a week, but be consistent and do it every week. Giving me high-quality content to work with will better establish you as the expert in your business.
  • Keep your scheduled communication appointment. In my social media practice, I speak directly with each client at an agreed-upon time (beyond email) by phone, video chat, or in person when feasible. This allows you to ask questions, ask for changes, mention new information, develop or enhance new social media strategy, and the best part – we get to know each other better.
  • Pay on time. Please. I want to spend my time working diligently on your behalf rather than on tracking you down for a late payment. Plus that creates hard feelings unnecessarily.

Of course this is only half the equation. Watch for another post on exactly what a social media manager does for you, the client. Some of those responsibilities are also mentioned in another post titled “Create a Partnership with Your Social Media Manager.”

What other tips would you add to this list? Post a comment below.

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You Don’t Know Everything – and That’s Okay

When I really started taking social media seriously, I quickly realized that I didn’t know everything there is to know. And there’s a lot to know. I took steps to learn as much as I could about how it all worked, and eventually, others started asking me for help.

From that grew my social media management business, and now I work with a fantastic group of clients. They trust me. I take away their pain. I give them back their time. I follow through. I am consistent. I know things so they don’t have to.

But I don’t know everything. When a client asks something that I don’t know, I say so. I then work diligently to figure out the answer for them. I appreciate these learning opportunities sparked by my clients, and they appreciate my honesty and transparency.

Honesty and transparency are key. If you consistently employ this philosophy, you’ll find people are understanding, even empathetic, because they trust you to follow through. They often become your biggest fan and supporter.

You don’t know everything – and that’s okay.