Social media is a compelling advertising and marketing channel. Using platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn can gain new traffic to your website and increase sales. According to social media statistics, 42% of internet users rely on social media to learn more about brands, and 27% of them discovered new brands through social media ads.

Hiring the best social media team for your brand is one of the most critical decisions you can make as a business owner or marketing director. Here are my insights and recommended steps when hiring the best social media team for your business.

Step 1: Evaluate Your Current Situation

Several factors about the current state of your business are going to affect the decisions you make concerning your social media team. For instance, you need to evaluate your current budget and see how sufficient it is to support the social media marketing team you want to hire.

The other factor to look at is the resources at your disposal. These resources can be assets like articles written by your content team or photographs by the media team. One measure you can take to strategize with the full scope of your business in mind is to enact a digital transformation, including conducting a digital marketing assessment. This will help you investigate areas for opportunity such as having the best marketing technology prepared for your developing team.

Step 2: Set Your Social Media Goals

After examining your business’ present situation, the next step is to set social media goals that address your needs and define how the social media team should help you. Your objectives and needs may include the following:

• Content Development

• Engagement Growth

• Brand Awareness

• Customer Service

• Public Relations

• Graphic Design

• Analysis

Having goals plays a crucial role in motivating your team to perform at their best. The goals you set also help you decide on the right size of the team. Again, this is where your digital transformation and digital marketing assessment results can help set priorities.

Step 3: Determine Your Social Media Team Structure

Once you decide on the size of your social media team and the needs they’re to meet, the next step is to figure out the team’s structure. Some of the common roles social media team members fill are:

• Content/Copywriter

• Paid Ads Campaigns Manager

• Graphic Designer

• Influencer Marketing Manager

• Social Media Marketing Trainer

• Analytics Specialist

If you’re building a designated social media team for your company, you’re most likely going for a centralized structure. Each team member has a specific role or assignment, answering upwardly to the marketing director (or the business owner, for smaller companies), and less interaction with the other team members or their assignments. Another common type seen is a holistic structure, wherein assignments are more horizontal among the team members. This emphasizes self-management, best suited for social media employees with significant experience and proven mastery of your company’s branding. No matter how you choose to form your team structure, though, make sure you have the necessary communications platforms in place so they can coordinate content with ease.

Building Versus Outsourcing Your Social Media Marketing Team

Social media is a great way to interact with your active and potential customers, but it does involve a lot of work. Since social media is not your core business, your existing employees may lack the expertise necessary for your social media marketing to succeed. So, you have three options: recruit an in-house team from your current personnel, hire individuals to form an in-house team, or outsource to a digital marketing agency.

If you’re dedicated to coaching up your current staff to build an in-house social media team—and have the appropriate resources—you’ll need to invest in training. Note that social media marketing training is not a one-and-done endeavor! Social media shifts constantly, from the trends to the technology, so be prepared for your team to train regularly.

To hire on an in-house social media marketing team from scratch, you’ll of course, vet candidates based on how their credentials match up to your social media marketing goals, company culture, hiring budget, and company/industry personnel standards. Again, be aware that your social media team will need regular training and resources.

Your brand may lack the resources – both financial and human – to spend the time on growing your own social media marketing team. Or, you already have a marketing team, but they’re too booked driving current traditional campaigns to take the time to research and split-test new digital strategies. Then it’s time to outsource to a digital marketing agency. Those take the effort on for you so that you can focus on your primary business operations!

Pro Tip: You can have the best of both worlds. Using your own team for your regular and/or majority of social media marketing, then bringing in an outside agency to handle a certain project or to enhance existing processes, is perfectly acceptable! In fact, it may be more cost-effective depending on the campaign or your business size. This includes only outsourcing specific team roles, such as a graphic designer or influencer marketing specialist, to a freelancer while the rest of the roles are in-house.

For more insights on social media marketing, check out my blog and 10 Minute Marketing podcast. To learn more about what social media marketing can do for your business, contact me!