Many businesses now have a social media manager, a digital manager or an online brand manager... there are a few difference between each of the roles, but for now lets just highlight the social media manager - ie: the person that manages your social media accounts.

We are the people that the millennials think must have the coolest job, while others think we spend the day 'playing on facebook all day' . Both are right and both are wrong.

It's not the coolest job, while it is pretty nice, there are things that grind us as well, like any job, but when you have a passion for it, the negative seems pretty small. Finally, No, we don't 'play' on facebook all day, theres generally a strategy or thought behind a lot of what we do. We juggle branding for multiple people, content calendars and those pesky unique national holidays.

So what would many of us like you to know...

1. It doesn't happen over night.

Even though you are paying someone to manage your accounts, growth does not happen overnight.

With the rules and changes that many of the different platforms have now, no longer can you expect and immediate overnight success. You don't want to participate in the old 'hacks' to grow your accounts anyway

1. they no longer work

2. your accounts will get punished

3. You will not have authentic followers (meaning they will never translate into sales)

Generally speaking, for the first few months we are testing the audience to see what they respond to, whether they want quotes, tips, stats, pictures, real life...etc. We are listening to your audience and seeing what they want.

2. We hate when you hire 'amateurs' and we can spot them!

Yes, we can tell when you've hired some person that has never gone to school, never participated in social media training or events... we can. Your customers may not notice but they will notice once you do finally hire a professional. There are people that have started businesses on the fact that they 'know facebook' but there are tips and best practices that are never used that make these people easy for professionals to spot.

Think about this, your brand, your online presence is part of your marketing, your image and your brand... would you hire anyone less than a professional to give you a facelift? Would you hire someone good with numbers to manager your accounting?

3. We value your feedback, but trust us

While we really appreciate when you give honest feedback regarding the tone, design or something your didn't feel was authentic, too much feedback takes the enjoyment out of the process and can affect the overall objectives we are aiming for. Most of us will have built a strategy, a timeline of events, structure to our posts and designs etc, so there is generally more to it than just pushing out a post.

4. Don't be weird.

By this there are a number of things... sending personal messages that are person under the accounts we manager - is weird.

Don't like your own posts (ie if your page posts, don't like it AS your page) its weird.

Don't respond like a hot head to responses or reviews you don't like, let us manage it so that we can act professionally and get it resolved without the personal attachment or acting like its a direct attack - we can likely come to a great resolution.

5. It should be a balanced relationship

We know you want us to get posts out on a timely basis 9we have software for that) so when you bombard us with additional posts, we may think

1. it feels 'spammy' on your account to over post

2. We have things to balance in life, so we may not be able to get to it asap.

3. Being a good SMM means we work daily, so if we ask to have a break and ask you to just keep an eye out for a few hours, be kind, even we need a break.

4. We will have breaks, unless you are hiring us for 24/7 support, we do need to eat and sleep, we may not tell you, but we don't live off coffee and memes all the time.

5. Yes you pay us, but everyone will do more if they feel appreciated, a little kudos goes a long way, you would never ignore any of your other employees without gratitude.

6. Engaging is just as important as posting.

You may not see the engagement, the responding, the liking etc of other people/pages stuff. Your name is now showing up in places where your audience may be so it's just as important as your own post, and at times can have better visibility.

Many 'bosses' think the only thing to look at is the number of posts you put out, thats not where you should be looking. Sure thats great but there are a heck of a lot of other factors you should look at as well. (that will be reserved for another post).

7. Give us something to work with.

Just graphic posts are fine but what your audience wants to see as well is the real life things that are happening, the behind the scenes, the charity work and real customers.

Blog, its great for a number of reasons, additionally adding real professional content to your posts. Show yourself as the educated professional you are through a helpful blog post.

Add videos if you can, they can be a nice balance of professionalism and insight, giving you personality.

8. There will be rises ... and drops.

People leave social media, the disconnect during periods, so you will see fluctuations, its normal, don't panic and it doesn't always mean something bad, be patient.

Finally...

There is a lot to know about social media, one of the big things is that it is not going anywhere, so if you are going to hire it out, work with your social media manager, you'll end up with better results, and don't expect and overnight miracle.

Julie Boake,

Awedity Creative

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