By allowing more people to come into the fold and help you run your day to day, you open the door for taking on more work (and by proxy, raking in more money). 

BUT hiring isn’t as easy as posting an ad and waiting for someone uh-mazing to walk through the virtual door! There’s some major things to consider about who these potential team members are, as well as what tasks you’ll get them to handle for you.

Want to learn how to hire and manage your social media management team using the process I crafted for my own business? Let’s dig in.

Hire Someone You Know

Whether it’s a friend in your real life, someone you’ve met through a Facebook group, or a person that’s responded to an ad posted on your IG, hiring somebody you know makes everything feel easier.

So, take to your social media communities and get the word out that you’re looking for help!

Previous work and experience are important, but “fit” is a major part of the deal too. Your social media management team are the people you’ll be working with every day (not to mention relying on to rep your biz), so it’s important you guys trust and like each other.

And if you’ve got a built-in relationship with a team member before they join, it’s nothing but a win, baby!

Don’t Hire an Entrepreneur

Here’s the thing: entrepreneurs are the freakin’ BEST (duh, I am one), but not when it comes to hiring. People who desire to start their own social media management business are in it for the short term — which means way more work for you.

Do you want to have to search, vet, hire and onboard new employees every 6 months? Of course, not. We’re trying to create more time for ourselves, not spend the free moments we do have recruiting.

My advice is to find potential employees who are super savvy with social media and offer great leadership qualities but aren’t interested in starting their own SMM business any time soon.

Delegate Time Suck Tasks

As a team of one, you’re responsible for anything and everything in your social media management business, but when you hire out, suddenly, you get to choose!

The stuff you find super time consuming or just not that interesting anymore? Delegate it to someone else on your team (it’s why you hired them, friend).

If you’re an SMM who manages Facebook and Instagram accounts, do yourself a favor and delegate captions and engagement tasks to team members. Look for people who can write well, love diving into research, and understand the power of keeping up with engagement.

Pay You Team Fairly

I know I don’t need to say it, but just in case: pay your team what they’re worth! There’s nothing I hate more than hearing stories of people not getting paid a fair wage to work on someone else’s dang dream.

If you want your team to love what they do and care about the social media management business you’ve created, you need to value them. Treat them with kindness, provide smart leadership, but above all, pay them what you know they deserve.

Not sure what the going rate is for a social media manager? Do your market research! There are a ton of marketing agencies that release salary guides each and every year — use their information to help you calculate a number for the roles you’re hiring.

Steal My SMM Process

Once you’ve hired the social media management team of your dreams, it’s time to get your systems in place. You’ll want to organize an onboarding process before bringing anyone new into your biz, but a good system is always a work in progress.

Decide how you want you and your team to review content and communicate with your roster of clients. Here’s two things to think about as you put your system together: 

• Planning time: We work exclusively with real estate agents, and because realtors are in constant motion, my team and I only need to plan things out about a week in advance. 
• Tools: Slack + Google Drive (and specifically Google Sheets) is my jam! It’s easy for team members to work on things simultaneously, and it’s so simple to share ideas/gather feedback from clients there too.

The process you come up with will depend entirely on how you like to work with people, but this is what works best for us (feel free to steal):

→ Client uploads their photos to Slack or Google Drive

→ I drop their images into Google Sheets for the upcoming week

→ A team member writes captions Mon-Wed and on Thursday morning I review/edit/etc.

→ Thursday afternoon, we submit the finished captions to the client for their review 

→ Review the client’s feedback and make changes (if there are any)

→ I schedule the finished work on Sunday

Each step of the process allows my team and I, and the client to communicate so we’re always on the same page. I love it because I always know what’s going on, my team digs it because they know exactly what’s expected of them and when, and the client is a huge fan because they’re never confused about where the work is/what we’re *actually* doing.

It can feel a little overwhelming at first, but the true key to hiring a team for your social media management business is finding people you can trust. If you’ve got someone that cares about the quality of their work and respects the business (and reputation) you’ve built, you can count yourself lucky! 

Want to learn how to start or scale a profitable social media management business in 4 weeks? Check out my course, The Social Biz System!