The short answer: they’re not 100% responsible for sales.
The long answer: keep scrolling!
Why is This a Question?
When hiring a social media manager, you want to see a return on investment. As a business owner, the simplest way to measure ROI is money. If you’re spending $2000 per month on a social media manager, you’d like to get that back and more, right?
That’s completely understandable.
But it’s not entirely realistic.
Social media isn’t like a digital search ad, where you’re highly likely to make a return because you’re targeting customers who are ready to purchase.
Social media is more like a local market, where you’re able to reach new people, engage with them directly, and if done right – convert those people into customers by sending them to your website.
It’s not realistic to expect social media to have an ROI like a digital search ad because they have two very different functions.
Social media is about brand awareness and engagement. Direct sales will happen, and they should! But they won’t happen at the rate of digital ads or email marketing.
How Should You Measure Your ROI?
The #1 piece of feedback I get from my clients is that they’re most happy about having their time, energy, and sanity back.
They’re excited about the increased brand awareness, engagement boost, community growth, and of course the sales – but they’re most excited about how they feel about their business now that their social media is handled by an expert.
That being said, when you invest in a social media manager, part of the initial conversation should be around goals and expectations. When I develop a social media strategy for a new client, we identify 3 objectives, a plan to achieve them, and how we’ll measure success. Sales is rarely part of the measurement.
Wait…What About Sales?
I do want to say that while social media managers aren’t 100% responsible for sales (just like you wouldn’t hold your email marketing manager or website designer to that standard), your overall sales should increase after investing in social media.
For example, one of my clients had their best sales month ever after three months of managing their social & email marketing.
You might not see a lot of direct sales from social media, but overall you should see your sales increase.
What Are Social Media Managers Actually Responsible For?
Every social media manager is going to be responsible for different things, depending on their services, your business needs, and your business goals.
Generally speaking, social media managers are responsible for ensuring your social media presence is on brand and follows best practices, that the content supports your social media objectives, and they’re responsible for reporting on progress and adjusting the social media strategy to continually improve.
For example, one of my client’s social media objectives is to increase brand awareness. In social media terms, that’s reach. Which means I’m responsible for increasing their reach. I do that by researching best practices, digging into what’s working and what’s not, adjusting the content calendar, and providing feedback to my client, especially feedback that relates to photos and videos created by her team of content creators.
What Do I Do Now?
If you haven’t invested in a social media manager, there’s lots to do.
Before working with one, ensure the rest of your business is set up for success.
Ask yourself…
- Is there a market for your product?
- What’s your unique selling point?
- Is the price competitive?
- Do you have a crystal clear understanding of your customer?
- Do you have consistent brand design?
- Is your website user-friendly?
- Does your site have great mobile design?
- Have you set up email marketing?
When you’re ready to invest in a social media manager (here’s how you’ll know), find one that understands how social media fits into your business goals, how they can use social media to achieve those goals, and how social media will work with your other marketing channels.
If you’re ready to invest in social media management and want growing your community to feel easy as pie, get the details here.
If you’re not quite ready to invest, but want DIY support, click here.
First things first, hi! I’m Sarah—social media manager for food & wellness brands. If you liked this blog post and want more marketing tips, tricks, and bev recs, here are a few ways to do just that:
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