Kelly Rice [00:00:00]:
Your social media strategy needs to be part of and support your overall marketing strategy. Well, you should absolutely use social media to foster connection with your ideal customers and create content that is specific to each platform. It is also important to use social media to promote and share your blogs, your lead magnets, your sales funnels and all of your other content. So make sure that the individuals involved with your social media knows the ins and outs of your marketing strategy so that they can use social media to support your marketing efforts and your business goals.
Victoria Rayburn [00:00:37]:
Hey there, you're listening to the Priority Pursuit podcast, a podcast dedicated to helping small business owners and leaders define, maintain and pursue both their personal and business priorities so they can build lives and businesses they love.
Kelly Rice [00:00:48]:
We're your hosts, Kelly Rice and Victoria Rayburn. And today I'm going to say something that I never thought I would say pretty much ever. And that is, as a small business, you need to hire an in house social media manager. I said it.
Victoria Rayburn [00:01:03]:
I mean, I know it's true, but it honestly still seems so funny to hear you say that.
Kelly Rice [00:01:10]:
Let me give you some insight on why this seems so strange coming from us. So when I started Treefrog, I had the intention that our agency would handle every single aspect of our clients marketing efforts. And we did for a really long time. So while we still handle most of the aspects for marketing for our clients, including all of the aspects of the flywheel marketing and implementation and marketing leadership and coaching and all the other stuff inside the flywheel marketing method, we actually no longer offer organic social media services. And we made this decision to cut the service back in 2023. Because in order to implement effective social media strategies, our team was either going to have to be on site on our clients, you know, at our clients businesses to get photos and videos and all the other assets and coordinates, getting all the stuff from afar, it wasn't feasible because of all the extra hours it was going to take. So the other aspect of that was like, well, if we don't do it, then we're going to have to ask our clients to get us all of these assets. And that was just some more stress on them.
Kelly Rice [00:02:13]:
So really, either way, this was going to take a lot of time and if we were doing it, we're going to have to charge our clients for it. And basically, it just wasn't a wise choice, really, for them or for us. Because again, right, we don't just want to sell small businesses something, we want to be their partner. So we're constantly looking out for the betterment of their resources. Their marketing, all of that stuff. And it just wasn't, it just wasn't a great choice for us, even though it still is really, really hard to say yes.
Victoria Rayburn [00:02:42]:
And it's been months since we came to this conclusion, but, y'all, social media has just become so demanding, and it just requires a whole lot of time. And because of this, you know, we now encourage all small businesses, especially our clients, to hire an in house social media manager to handle their organic social media, meaning their posts and the content outside of their social media ads, which we'll still handle for our clients, but, you know, to add a social media manager to their team. Yeah. And with this in mind, in this episode, we want to explain just the three reasons why we highly recommend making your next hire a social media manager. So, kelly, I'm gonna let you take it from there.
Kelly Rice [00:03:29]:
Yeah, I'm gonna interrupt though, and I'm gonna say, before we talk about that, I really wanna make something clear. Organic social media and social media advertising, they're not one and the same. In this conversation, we are focusing on organic social media, which is any social media activity that is free. So the posts are great for creating engagement, you know, building authority for your brand, showing that your company is active, and even improving your SEO. So that's kind of what the organic side of it is. Paid social media, on the other hand, are paid advertisements that you run on social media. Basically, if you're putting any money towards promoting your content, that's a paid ad. So both organic social media and social media advertising are part of the flywheel marketing method.
Kelly Rice [00:04:19]:
But as we discuss the importance of hiring a social media manager, please know that this conversation is specifically in reference to managing your organic social media, not your paid social media. Is that fair? Yes.
Victoria Rayburn [00:04:34]:
And I'm so glad that you made that point before we dive into all of this. Okay, so, yes. Three reasons we recommend hiring an in house social media manager. First of all, y'all, social media, like we said, is now very time consuming. I mean, when I started my marketing career about twelve years ago, I could single handedly crank out a month's worth of posts in a few hours. And that included content across multiple platforms. But today, that just is not possible. I mean, a real alone can take a lot of time to create.
Victoria Rayburn [00:05:10]:
Between filming, finding the right audio, crafting a strong caption, editing the video, and creating a graphic for the reel cover, I really don't even want to think about how much I've spent creating reels over the last few years, honestly. And while social media used to primarily be text, photo, and link based. Every platform now has its own features, requirements, and preferences. And as a result, if you want a social media strategy that actually works, you need to create content specific to each platform. And doing this takes a lot of time. Now, please know that I mean this with nothing but respect. But with so much on your plate as a small business owner or leader, you can't manage your own social media well, or at least not long term, because the fact of the matter is that there are other aspects of your business that need your attention, and a lot of these areas are more important than social media. That is not to say social media doesn't matter, but there are things within your business that only you can do, and that's where your focus should be.
Kelly Rice [00:06:13]:
Right. And we talk about this all the time. You know, as a small business owner or even, you know, a leader within a small business, you have to learn to take things off your plate. And while social media is important, chances are there are even more important aspects of your business that require your attention and expertise. You simply don't have the time to be a social media expert and manager on top of everything else that you're doing.
Victoria Rayburn [00:06:38]:
So, and I mean, we say this, you know, firsthand, too, to be entirely honest, until recently, I handled tree frock social media, and Kelly sat me down and told me I had to stop. So.
Kelly Rice [00:06:50]:
Yeah, there's so many things that it takes, you know, you have to be an expert, really in it. I guess it's kind of like what we've already mentioned, you know, multiple times in the first three minutes of this episode already. There are so many social media platforms out there, and they all have different requirements and features and preferences. And then on top of this, almost all the platforms are consistently they're changing and they're adding new features all the time. So as a result, it takes a lot of work and expertise to be well versed in all of the things social media and to keep up with the changes, which, again, likely isn't something you or a current member of your team have time to do in addition to all of their other responsibilities. Right, because they're just not focused on building your social accounts.
Victoria Rayburn [00:07:34]:
Absolutely. I mean, you know, being a social media manager requires so much expertise that even social media managers are niching down. For example, I shot a job posting specifically looking for an Instagram manager the other day.
Kelly Rice [00:07:49]:
Right. And as time goes on, I think each platform is likely going to require more work. And who knows, maybe get a few years and we'll have to do an episode on why you need an entire social media team as a small business.
Victoria Rayburn [00:08:01]:
Yeah, I mean, I didn't really ever think we would be having this conversation, so I guess we'll see. But speaking of expertise, in addition to being fluent in every platform, social media managers also need to be good at several other things, including strategy development, copywriting, photography, videography, and possibly design if you don't already have a graphic designer. Plus, they need to be detail oriented so you can ensure consistency and quality across all platforms.
Kelly Rice [00:08:31]:
Right. And for the reason, it's very important to work with someone who has experience and developed skill sets. I mean, we often hear small business owners and leaders say things like, well, just hire my kid or my cousins, whatever, to handle my social media, because they assume they just need someone that's tech savvy to handle this part of their marketing, and they're wrong. So, I mean, I don't know how to say it nicely. Like, you know, you may be able to get. They might have been able to get away with that, like, ten, you know, maybe even five years ago, but social media is just so much more complex now. And for the sake of your brand's reputation, you don't want to risk a high school or college student or someone who just isn't experienced when they release. You know, they could potentially release, like, poor quality videos, you know, post with misspelled words in them, poor grammar, or, you know, even publishing, like, social media content that isn't true to your brand because they thought it was cool or whatever, right?
Victoria Rayburn [00:09:30]:
Absolutely. And not to mention, it's like they have to know the tech side of things, but they also have to understand your message and know how to communicate your message. So please don't hire a child to do this job. We will get into how to hire the right social media manager in a bit. But yeah, Kelly, I'm so glad that you brought that up. Now really quick. Another reason we want to recommend hiring an in house social media manager is because they can respond immediately to all things social media. So, for example, if something happens that you want to highlight, your social media manager can be right there to get the images or footage needed to create content.
Victoria Rayburn [00:10:07]:
If there's an Instagram audio trend, your social media manager will have the capacity to take advantage of the trend. And this is important because when you capitalize on trends early, you'll likely get more organic reach, which, you know, yay. Also, your social media manager will be able to give your audience some insight into what your business looks like behind the scenes, which humanizes your brand, builds trust, and helps prospects better know, like and trust you, which is only going to increase sales. And y'all, this is important because you, with as many other things on your plate, like, you don't have the time to casually be grabbing videos, let alone to do something with them later on, right?
Kelly Rice [00:10:46]:
And to be honest, the inability to immediately respond is so much of why we stopped offering social media services. I mean, we just couldn't drop everything and send a member of our team to go grab a video for a reel on a whim, you know, especially considering we have clients all across the country. So social media moves so quickly these days that you simply need a dedicated person who can kind of handle all of the things that, you know, you discussed. So let's really talk about who you should hire and what you can do in the meantime. If you're just not ready, you know, maybe your budget's not there to hire a full time social media manager yet.
Victoria Rayburn [00:11:25]:
Yes, because, you know, like we mentioned, a social media manager needs to have several skill sets, so it's hard to find that person and, you know, their salary has to match their capabilities, right?
Kelly Rice [00:11:36]:
So typically, small businesses, you know, like the owners or the leaders or team members, we all wear like 300 different hats, right? Our plates are usually full and we do all of the things. And while a social media manager's sole responsibility is social media, that your team members have to do a lot of other things to do this job well. Right? But having a social media manager, their sole responsibility is to grow the accounts. And they're not going to be able to do all these other things because they're literally busy doing five jobs in itself with a copywriter, designer, a videographer and editor, and, you know, all of that stuff. But first and foremost, a social media manager has to be able to think strategically. They have to have the know how to develop and execute a social media strategy that is aligned with the company's goals and objectives. This includes selecting appropriate social media platforms based on your ideal clients, setting measurable goals, and defining key performance indicators to track processes. This individual also needs to have experience with content creation.
Kelly Rice [00:12:40]:
After all, they'll need to be able to write, post, engage with your audience, and create content that resonates with your target audience across multiple platforms. Social media is just not a place to just throw up stuff like, up there and be like, oh, great, we put up a post today. Here we go. Right? So your social media manager must be a strong writer and communicator, and they also need to have some level of photo and video experience, and the extent of this experience really depends on your brand. So, for example, if you're a casual burger restaurant, you could certainly have high quality brand photos taken for your website or, you know, to share on social media with videos and those types of things. But for your other social media post, you can absolutely get away with cell phone videos or photos to share specials, or take behind the scenes footage for stories and pretty much do everything else on a day to day basis because your brand is more casual. But if you own an auto detailing business that details luxury vehicles, your brand needs to match the quality of such vehicles. So you're going to need to hire a social media manager who either has the photo and video experience needed to make sure that your social media imagery is high quality or can at the very least oversee and produce the photo and video shoots to get the imagery needed.
Kelly Rice [00:13:54]:
Your social media manager skills need to be able to match your brand requirements.
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Kelly Rice [00:14:32]:
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Kelly Rice [00:14:44]:
Many small businesses dont have an effective marketing strategy and because of this they try one tactic after another without seeing results. This not only prevents consistent business growth, it makes managing marketing efforts more difficult than it should be. As a marketing agency for small businesses, we understand how frustrating it can be when hard work doesnt deliver the results that you want. Because of this, Treefrog has developed a proven four step marketing system that will help any small business grow. On our website, you can also schedule a 30 minutes discovery call to discuss working with Treefrog to build a marketing strategy that will allow your small business to finally see the growth you've been working so hard to achieve.
Victoria Rayburn [00:15:22]:
Yeah, exactly. For the sake of keeping your visual brand consistent. You know, if you have a grainy iPhone video of a I'm not a car person, like why? Why can't I even think of a really nice car right now. But, you know, you get the point, right?
Kelly Rice [00:15:35]:
It's dark that, you know, it's not lit, it's not, you know, if you have any voiceover on it, the sound is bad. I mean, it just, it just breaks your, you know, the brand aspect of what you're trying to portray. So you have to be very mindful of that.
Victoria Rayburn [00:15:47]:
Yes. And, you know, for the record, a lot can be done with a cell phone these days. And I think it's fair to say that most social media managers don't need any more than that. But like you said, Kelly, it just depends on the brand. As if this is enough. Social media managers also have to be able to interpret and analyze data. They need to understand how to build systems to track and analyze key metrics such as engagement and reach, impressions, conversions, and whatever other metrics matter for your specific goals. And they need to have the problem solving skills that are necessary to make adjustments based on data to ultimately make your social media efforts successful.
Kelly Rice [00:16:28]:
Right. And what you said is just key. I mean, you don't just need someone to create social media content for you. This content has to support your overall goals. So in addition to all these skills and understanding, each platform that you need to be on, a social media manager needs to be detail oriented to ensure everything released supports your brand well. It's creative and innovative so that they can create engaging content. They have to have excellent time management and organizational skills and be capable of adapting quickly because so much of social media changes quickly. So I guess what we're really trying to say is that you need a highly skilled professional, not a 17 year old high school kid, to do this.
Kelly Rice [00:17:13]:
Well, yes.
Victoria Rayburn [00:17:13]:
Yeah. Summary of this episode. Don't hire a child, but.
Kelly Rice [00:17:16]:
Right.
Victoria Rayburn [00:17:17]:
It's a lot. And honestly, when you list out a social media manager's responsibilities and skill sets, you know, it just quickly becomes clear that small business owners and leaders and their existing team members truly don't have time to also serve as their own social media managers, at least not long term. Now, at the time of this recording, the average social media manager salary is about $65,000 a year. That said, depending on their level of experience, you could easily expect to pay six figures for this role. That said, we know that adding someone to your team at this level of compensation may just not be possible for your small business right now. And, you know, while we highly recommend hiring a social media manager as soon as you can, there are a few things you can do in the meantime. So first, you can handle your own social media content development or designate it a member of your team to do so. And if you'd like some help with this, I want to encourage you to go back and listen to episode 119, a simple social media strategy for small businesses.
Victoria Rayburn [00:18:25]:
Again, we do not recommend doing this long term because one, social media likely isn't the best use of your time, and two, a lot of expertise is needed to handle social media, as we've discussed. But you do need a social media presence, assuming your ideal client is on social media. If your ideal client is anti social media, just for the record, like disregard this whole episode. I'm not really sure why you're listening it, to be honest. But assuming your ideal client does use social media, and you know, most people do, a simplified social media presence is better than nothing. Now, we'll discuss this more thoroughly in a moment, but I want to note that it's important for almost all small business owners to have a personal brand as well. After all, people buy from those they know, like and trust, and social media is a very helpful tool for fostering connection. As a result, it's important for you to have at least some social media knowledge.
Victoria Rayburn [00:19:21]:
Yes, you could have your social media manager manage your personal brand social media accounts, and there are likely aspects of it that they should certainly handle, like scheduling posts or even writing some of your copy. However, people are naturally good at sniffing out in authentic inauthenticity. I don't know why that word is so hard to say. As a result, we want to encourage you to create much of the content for your personal brand or, you know, or at least have a heavy hand in it. So just for example, Treefrog has its own social media accounts, but I also have an Instagram account for my personal brand. And while we have staff members who are specifically in charge of Treefrog social media, it just would not make sense for them to write my posts about marriage or motherhood or grab behind the scenes videos for my Instagram stories when I can grab that so easily. It makes more sense and is more authentic for me to do these things. But anyway, if you aren't in a place to hire a social media manager right now, either you or a member of your team will need to embrace this portion of your marketing strategy for the time being.
Victoria Rayburn [00:20:28]:
Because again, you're there, you're going to be able to get things more easily than an agency can. And again, we want to encourage you to go back and listen to episode 119 and use the advice angel provides to make your social media strategy as simple and as effective as you possibly can in this season of business, and you can find this episode in the show notes or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Kelly Rice [00:20:50]:
Now, in case you're listening and you're thinking, we just won't utilize social media until we can hire a social media manager, we don't have time. I do want to caution you and give you a potential alternative. So first, I want to caution you, because choosing not to use social media can certainly cost you business. Not only will you miss out on opportunities to foster connection and get your business in front of prospects, you'll also likely harm your brand, reputation, or at the very least, make people question whether or not your business is legitimate. I mean, how many times have you, like, visited a business's Facebook page or Instagram account and you quickly discounted them when you see that? It's been like years since they posted, right?
Victoria Rayburn [00:21:33]:
Yeah, I mean, I know I do this all the time. Lack of content makes me question whether or not a business is open and doubt that they'll be responsive. And then this typically results with me just using another business. And I know I'm not alone in this. You know, 62% of millennials are more likely to support a business if the business engages on social media. Because, again, you just doubt they're open, or you doubt that they're helpful if they're not taking the time to post to social media.
Kelly Rice [00:21:59]:
Right? And for those reasons, failing to utilize social media, it limits your business growth. So if you aren't in a place to hire a full time social media manager and you and your team don't have time to manage it, we want to encourage you to work with either a freelance social media manager or a social media agency. Not a marketing agency, but an agency that specifically focuses on social media. And this will essentially give you a part time social media manager. Now, if you work with someone local, like if they're local to your business, the chances are that they can come to your office or wherever else, you know, on a scheduled basis to get photos and videos they need. For example, they might come once a month to get footage. You know, you might be a contractor and get the different stages of a build or internal something or other. They can come and they can grab enough footage for them to be able to create the posts that they need to make.
Kelly Rice [00:22:51]:
And the advantages of working with a social media management freelancer, an agency, are that you'll likely still pay less than bringing on a full time team member. And you don't have to worry about social media personally. And this individual agency will have the expertise needed to handle your social media marketing. However, the disadvantages are that you won't have a lot of flexibility in the amount of content you'll receive. It will be limited. It's kind of like what we discussed. An in house social media manager can be ready and available to grab photos and videos or to capitalize on a specific trend. Because social media is their biggest and only priority.
Kelly Rice [00:23:26]:
A freelancer or an agency is going to have multiple clients and as a result, they just can't be as responsive. Because freelancers and agencies have multiple clients, they'll likely have packages that include, like, so many hours or so many posts a month, and that if you fail to plan far enough ahead, this can actually be limiting for you if you forget that you have an event or a thing that's happening. Right. So again, your small business can't really afford not to be on social media. In an ideal world, you will hire an in house social media manager. However, if it's not an option for you, you and your team, you can do it. Just be smart. Again, how? We've kind of talked about how you're going to do it and don't do it for the long term, or you literally can outsource it to an agency or freelancer.
Kelly Rice [00:24:09]:
And again, if you want a simple but effective social media strategy, go back and listen to episode 119, which again, we'll link in the show notes. Because whether you do it yourself or you hire someone to do it, you can utilize that as a guide to kind of jumpstart your social media.
Victoria Rayburn [00:24:24]:
Absolutely. I mean, angel does a great job of simplifying organic social media in that episode, which is why I think is at the third time that we've brought it up. So, yes, please go listen to it. Angel is great. And yeah, before we do wrap up this episode, though, we want to make one more thing clear. Whether you hire a full time social media manager, handle social media yourself, or outsource this key marketing element, it is so important that your social media strategy be congruent with the rest of your marketing strategy.
Kelly Rice [00:24:56]:
Yes, I am so glad that you brought that up, because a big mistake that we often see small businesses make is treating their marketing strategy in their social media strategy as two entirely different strategies. However, your social media strategy needs to be part of and support your overall marketing strategy. I'm not sure I could say strategy so many times, but I mean, you get it.
Victoria Rayburn [00:25:18]:
You get tripped up, right?
Kelly Rice [00:25:20]:
Yeah, but, but the idea is that your social media strategy is part of your overall marketing strategy. So while you should absolutely. Use social media to foster connection with your ideal customers and create content that is specific to each platform. It is also important to use social media to promote and share your blogs, your lead magnets, your sales funnels and all of your other content. So whether you hire a full time social media manager or you use one with the other options we kind of discuss with the freelance or the agency. Make sure that the individuals involved with your social media knows the ins and outs of your marketing strategy so that they can use social media to support your marketing efforts and your business goals. So, for example, we communicate with our client social media managers on a regular basis and even oversee some of their work to ensure that it coincides with our clients overall marketing strategies. They have to work together and they have to be seen as social has to be part of your overall marketing strategy in order to be effective.
Victoria Rayburn [00:26:25]:
Exactly. And also, if you'd like to learn more about how social media fits into your marketing strategy, I feel like we've now said like it needs to be part of it. It needs to be part of it. But we haven't really clarified yet how necessarily I do want to encourage you to check out our free guide, which is called the most effective marketing strategy for small businesses, the flywheel marketing method. This guide details the exact strategy we use in full to help our agency clients grow some of by update 100%. And you can visit the link in the show notes or visit treefrogmarketing.com flywheel to access this guide. And you know, there's just nothing we want more than for your small business to explain to succeed. So again, visit the link in the show notes or visit treefrogmarketing.com flywheel to access this guide and you can make the strategy that we use to help small businesses grow your own.
Victoria Rayburn [00:27:15]:
And again, that does include how social media fits into your overall marketing strategy. Because if you have listened to any episode about the flywheel method, this should all just function together just seamlessly and beautiful. And I will not talk about the flywheel method now because we have tons of episodes about that.
Kelly Rice [00:27:32]:
So on that note, thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Priority Pursuit podcast. And if you enjoyed this episode, we hope you'll take a moment to share it with your small business friends to leave us a review on Apple Podcast, and that you'll join us next week for even more marketing boundary and priority driven tactics you can use to build a life and small business that you love.