How to Hire the Perfect Social Media Manager

Mountain Mojo Group - How to Hire the Perfect Social Media Manager Blog Cover


Hey Business Peeps!

A couple quick questions for ya…

Question: What is the most powerful and inexpensive way to brand your business?
Answer: Social Media!

Question: Why is the intern in charge of your #1 marketing tool???
Answer: Most small businesses cannot afford a full time marketer.

Last Question: If you have to hire an intern to do your social media, what type of new hire are you looking for?


The Shakedown

Small business owners often delegate the widest reaching portion of their branding and marketing efforts to the newest and typically the most disconnected person in their business, the intern. So why would you work so hard to build a brand that you want to share with the world, only to nonchalantly give the responsibility of telling YOUR beautiful story to someone who is just figuring out where the kitchen is? Now, to be fair to all the hard working, highly intelligent and quickly perceptive interns out there without years and years of marketing experience, you can excel with just some social media fundamentals (social media basics blog) and a few other basic traits.

So, to everyone out there with an internal marketing person/department, make sure you let your hiring manager(s) know what to look for when hiring one of the most important roles in your company, the social media manager.

5 Traits that make up the perfect SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER (SMM)


  1. The Storyteller (the brand)- you know the type of person that everyone is standing around at a bbq waiting for them to tell that one story for the 10th time because it’s so dang good? Storytellers aren’t always the extrovert, often times, they enjoy writing short stories, screenplays and even poetry. When delivering a story, they are the special ones who paint the perfect picture, carefully placing a thousand words into one tiny post. When interviewing potential SMM’s, ask them if they write and watch to see if they get excited about the opportunity to share their stories!
  2. The Empath (the feel)- the ability to communicate a strong and effective message is to ‘know thy audience’ and who better to do that than, an empath? These lucky folks feel what others are feeling…in real time!
  3. The Analyzer (the message)- Not just book smarts here, but perceptively adept at seeing how your business behaves and translating that into a message that inspires your audience to engage. It’s one thing to give them direction on your “deals”, but it’s another to see beyond the deals and into a fun way for people to psychologically relate and later be reminded about those deals. Look for that creative who seeks to understand you before trying to hear about your “monthly specials”.
  4. The Hustler (the call to action)- Without fully understanding what it is you’d like folks to do, your SSM might just post about your business with no clear direction. It’s one thing to tell people about your product or service and it’s another to give them the clear path and direction to use it. The easier the path, the more likely your customer is to convert.
  5. The Painter (Amateur Designer)- The basic understanding of aesthetics is a lot different than a trained graphic designer here. There are a ton of software apps and programs (External links here) that help to assist a storyteller with ensuring that your brand colors, fonts, shapes and overall aesthetic are consistent in each of your posts.


Now that you’ve found ‘the natural’, don’t forget to teach them about the different platforms in which to deliver your brand’s story and how the back end of each of them work. Spend time to teach them the value proposition, budget building, measurement of analytics, projected ROI, and conversions.

Now I am a strong believer that you can train your team to support your business, but you can’t train traits like these. People are born with them and organically succeed when put in the right place (putting your aces in places). So don’t just give this list to your HR department and hope for the best. If you have true buy in with your company and it’s your story, than it’s up to you to interview, vet and hire what we think is one of your most important positions, the social media manager!
