How to Choose the Right Social Media Manager

Hiring a social media manager can feel like a simple solution to a complicated problem. You’re busy running your business, you know you should be more consistent on social media, and hiring someone to “take it off your plate” sounds like the obvious answer. I’m going to walk you through how to choose the right social media manager.

With the rise of AI, Canva, online courses, and other tools that make content creation more accessible, it has become easier than ever for someone to call themselves a social media manager. That doesn’t necessarily mean they understand marketing, strategy, your industry, or how to use social media to help you reach your business goals.

As someone who works with businesses on their marketing and social media, one of the biggest mistakes I see is businesses hiring someone simply because they can create attractive posts. But not every social media manager is created equal.

Creating content is only one small piece of social media management.

The right social media manager should be able to look at your business as a whole, understand what you’re trying to accomplish, and create a strategy that uses social media to help you get there.

Here’s what I recommend looking for when choosing a social media manager.

Look for a social media manager who starts with strategy

One of the biggest mistakes I see businesses, and even other social media managers, make is posting without a strategy.

There’s a tendency to think that if you’re posting consistently, you’re doing social media correctly.

But posting three times a week just for the sake of posting isn’t necessarily going to move your business forward.

Before a social media manager starts creating content, they should understand what your business is trying to accomplish.

Are you trying to:

• Generate more leads?
• Increase brand awareness?
• Sell a specific service or product?
• Build authority in your industry?
• Drive traffic to your website?
• Grow an email list?
• Promote an event, podcast, or launch?
• Reach a specific type of client?

Your social media strategy should connect back to those goals.

This is also why I don’t believe the goal of social media should simply be to “go viral.”

A viral post might get thousands—or even millions—of views. But if those views come from people who have no interest in your business, what did that actually accomplish?

A smaller piece of content that reaches the right audience and leads to website traffic, inquiries, email subscribers, or sales can be far more valuable than a viral post that generates nothing for your business.

Your social media manager should be thinking about the bigger picture.

Your social media manager should understand your business

A good social media manager should collaborate with you.

I strongly believe that the business owner should be involved in the strategy process because, at the end of the day, you know your business better than anyone else.

You know your clients.

You know the questions people ask before they buy.

You know what makes your business different.

You know what happens behind the scenes.

You know the stories and experiences that your audience needs to hear.

A social media manager brings marketing expertise to the table, but they shouldn’t pretend to know your business better than you do.

The best relationship is collaborative.

Your social media manager should ask questions, listen to your answers, learn about your customers, and use that information to build the strategy.

If someone is willing to start creating and scheduling content without taking the time to understand your business, I would consider that a red flag.

Industry knowledge matters

Your social media manager doesn’t necessarily need to have worked in your exact industry before, but they do need to be willing and able to learn it.

Social media strategy for a wedding photographer is going to look different from social media strategy for a financial advisor, restaurant, therapist, retailer, or SaaS company.

Your audience is different.

Your buying process is different.

Your sales cycle is different.

Your regulations may be different.

The type of content that builds trust may be different.

A good social media manager should understand these differences and research your industry rather than applying the exact same strategy to every client.

They should also understand what is happening on social media right now.

Social platforms are constantly changing. Trends come and go. Features change. User behaviour changes. And sometimes something happening in the world can completely change the context around a piece of content.

Your social media manager should be paying attention.

That doesn’t mean every trend needs to make its way onto your Instagram account. In fact, please don’t hire someone who thinks you need to participate in every trend.

It means they should understand what is happening and know when something is relevant to your business and when it isn’t.

Look for someone who understands that every platform has a purpose

Another question I would ask a potential social media manager is how they decide which platforms your business should be using.

You don’t necessarily need to be everywhere.

A good strategy considers where your audience spends time, what you’re trying to accomplish, what type of content suits your business, and what resources you actually have available.

Sometimes that means focusing heavily on one platform.

Sometimes it means using two or three platforms with different strategies for each.

The answer shouldn’t simply be, “We’ll post the same thing everywhere.”

Repurposing content can absolutely be part of an efficient social media strategy, but that doesn’t mean every platform should be treated exactly the same.

Your social media manager should be able to explain why they recommend the platforms they do and what role each one plays in your overall strategy.

A great social media manager should be able to explain why they’re posting something

One of my favourite tests when evaluating social media strategy is simply asking:

“Why are we posting this?”

There should be an answer.

Maybe the goal is to build awareness.

Maybe it’s designed to educate your audience.

Maybe it addresses a common objection.

Maybe it demonstrates your expertise.

Maybe it builds trust.

Maybe it promotes a specific offer.

Maybe it’s designed to drive people to your website.

Not every post needs to directly sell something. But every piece of content should have a purpose.

If the answer is simply, “Because we need to post three times this week,” that’s not a strategy.

Look for a social media manager who understands branding

Your social media manager should also understand your brand.

This doesn’t mean they need to be your brand designer, but they should understand how your brand looks, sounds, and communicates.

They should want to know things like:

• Who is your ideal client?
• What does your brand stand for?
• What is your brand personality?
• What are your visual guidelines?
• What tone of voice do you use?
• What makes you different from your competitors?
• What do you want people to feel when they interact with your business?

This is one reason I would be cautious about hiring someone who doesn’t require any brand information before getting started.

If someone can immediately start creating content for your business without asking about your brand, your audience, or your positioning, how can they create content that actually sounds and feels like you?

Your social media shouldn’t feel disconnected from the rest of your marketing.

It should feel like an extension of your brand.

Look at their case studies, not just their follower count

When you’re hiring a social media manager, don’t just look at how many followers they have or how impressive their own Instagram account looks.

Ask about their client results.

More importantly, ask what those results actually mean.

A good social media manager should be able to explain what they were trying to accomplish, what strategy they used, and what happened as a result.

For example, I worked with a client who wanted to increase visibility for her podcast.

Rather than simply creating a bunch of posts about the podcast, we worked together to develop a strategy based on her overall business goals and what she wanted to accomplish.

We considered which platforms would actually benefit her business and support those goals.

After about three months of working together, we started noticing that certain content was receiving particularly strong reach and engagement.

Then we discovered something even more exciting: her podcast had made it into the top 10 for her industry.

That is the kind of result I find much more meaningful than simply saying, “We gained X number of followers.”

The strategy was designed around the business goal, and the social media content helped increase visibility and authority around the podcast.

That’s the difference between posting content and using social media strategically.

Be wary of someone who wants to post just for the sake of posting

This is probably one of the biggest red flags I would watch for.

If a social media manager’s entire pitch is about how many posts they will create each month, I would ask a lot more questions.

“12 posts per month” isn’t a strategy.

“Three reels and two carousels per week” isn’t a strategy.

Those are deliverables.

The strategy is the reason behind those deliverables.

You should understand what the content is intended to accomplish and how it connects to your larger marketing goals.

A social media manager should be able to tell you more than how often they plan to post.

They should be able to tell you why.

Be cautious if they don’t ask for your brand information

Another red flag is someone who doesn’t require any information about your brand before getting started.

Imagine hiring a photographer and telling them nothing about your business, your ideal client, your style, or what you’re trying to accomplish and then expecting them to somehow create the perfect marketing campaign.

It doesn’t make sense.

Your social media manager should want to understand your business before representing it publicly.

At a minimum, I would expect some form of onboarding or discovery process.

They should be asking questions.

They should be researching.

They should be developing a strategy.

They shouldn’t simply send you a Canva link and say, “Here are next month’s posts.”

Ask how they measure success

Before hiring a social media manager, ask how they define success.

This is important because there isn’t one universal metric that determines whether social media is working.

Depending on your goals, you might care about:

• Reach
• Engagement
• Website traffic
• Leads
• Email subscribers
• Sales
• Inquiries
• Brand awareness
• Audience growth
• Content performance
• Conversions

A good social media manager should be able to explain which metrics matter for your business and why.

And sometimes the answer won’t be obvious immediately.

Social media can contribute to a longer customer journey. Someone might discover your business through Instagram, follow you for six months, visit your website several times, join your email list, and eventually become a client.

That’s why looking at one post or one month’s follower growth doesn’t always tell the whole story.

Ask what their process looks like

You should also understand what working with the social media manager will actually be like.

Ask questions such as:

• How do you develop a strategy?
• How often will we communicate?
• How will you learn about my business?
• How do you create content ideas?
• How much input will I have?
• Who writes the captions?
• Who creates the graphics?
• Who handles scheduling?
• Do you respond to comments or messages?
• How do you report on results?
• How often do you review and adjust the strategy?

There isn’t necessarily one right answer to all of these questions.

Different social media managers have different processes.

The important thing is that they actually have a process.

Remember that AI doesn’t replace marketing expertise

AI has made content creation easier than ever.

And I think that’s a good thing when it’s used properly.

But there’s a big difference between using AI as a tool and relying on AI to do your marketing strategy for you.

AI can help generate ideas, repurpose content, brainstorm hooks, and speed up certain parts of the content creation process.

But it doesn’t automatically understand your business, your customers, your positioning, your industry, or your goals.

The same goes for Canva.

Someone knowing how to create a pretty Instagram graphic doesn’t automatically make them a social media strategist.

Tools are just tools.

What matters is the expertise behind how those tools are being used.

The right social media manager should feel like a marketing partner

Ultimately, I don’t think you should hire a social media manager simply because you don’t have time to post.

You should hire one because you want someone who understands how social media can support your business and who can help you use it intentionally.

The right person should be curious about your business.

They should ask questions.

They should understand strategy.

They should know your audience.

They should understand your industry.

They should pay attention to what’s happening in the social media landscape.

They should understand your brand.

And most importantly, they should be able to explain why they’re doing what they’re doing.

Because social media isn’t about filling up your content calendar.

It’s about using the platforms available to you to help move your business forward.

Questions to ask before hiring a social media manager

If you’re currently looking for someone to manage your social media, here are a few questions I would ask before signing a contract:

• What would your strategy be for my business?
• How would you determine which platforms I should use?
• How do you learn about my business and ideal client?
• What role does my overall marketing strategy play in your approach?
• How do you measure success?
• Can you show me examples of client results?
• What did you do to achieve those results?
• How often do you review and adjust the strategy?
• What information do you need from me before getting started?
• How involved will I be in the content creation process?

Pay attention to how they answer.

You shouldn’t just be looking for someone who gives you the answers you want to hear. You’re looking for someone who can demonstrate that they actually understand the reasoning behind their approach.

Final thoughts

Not every social media manager is created equal.

And that’s something I wish more business owners understood before handing over one of the most public-facing parts of their marketing.

Social media management is more than creating graphics, writing captions, and scheduling posts.

The right social media manager should be able to take the time to understand your business, collaborate with you, develop a strategy, and create content with a purpose.

So before you hire someone, don’t just ask:

“Can you manage my Instagram?”

Ask:

“Can you help me use social media to achieve my business goals?”

That question will likely lead you to a very different kind of social media manager.