Social Media Marketing Consultants & Experts for Hire

About a year ago a friend of mine wanted to connect on Linkedin.

We weren’t the closest but of course, I wanted to help out a friend I knew personally, so I went to his profile to connect.

Under his headline was the heading “Social Media Professional”.

I just stared at his profile, no picture, no summary, no education, etc.

I knew he was active on Facebook so I went to his profile there and saw that he wasn’t very active.

Then I realized he must have just thought that because he could use Facebook, social media was easy- he was an expert.

Of course, he wasn’t really a social media expert.

He was just versed with using Facebook as a regular person and thought all social media was that easy.

This is a problem a lot of companies and businesses have- they hire a family member, recent graduate or intern and have them ‘handle social media’ because it’s so easy right?

Realizing that a lot of people still think this I wanted to put together a list of activities I actively do for clients, because the more I help people realize social media is more intricate than simply posting an update on Facebook, the more I save these same people the headache of a social media crisis that is damaging to their brand.

What Your Social Media Professional/Manager Will Do On Your Website

1. Post icons to your social media profiles, where visitors click the links and profiles are opened in another tab or window so that visitors do not have to leave your site.
2. Post options so visitors can follow your profiles without leaving your website.
3. Add an area for visitors to easily share every page on your site.
4. Add options that allow visitors to easily follow your blog or get notifications for your updates
5. Add additional functions that automatically send new blog posts to other people who will share it- Triberr or other programs
6. Use a program to track where visitors come from, so that you can measure the return on your social media investment
7. Choose best social media platforms for your social media campaigns
8. Make sure your website is ready for sharing to social profiles by using appropriate size photos, descriptions, titles and code
9. Promote content based on timing and importance- landing pages, blog posts and guest posts will have their own sharing provisions
10. Add social sharing options to your email newsletters
11. Choose appropriate tools you can use to further push your social media results

Activities A Social Media Manager Will Handle On Facebook 

1. Check for comments, new likes, private messages, and posts from other people or fan pages
2. Respond to all comments, messages, posts, etc
3. Comment on other fan pages to get their fans to see your fan page
4. Welcome new likes, tell them about newsletters, current contests, etc
5. Plan monthly updates that entertain fans, and encourage them to visit your site, join your newsletter, etc
6. Design images to use for updates
7. Find related articles, images and fan pages your fans will enjoy
8. Share things from other fan pages and websites your fans will find valuable
9. Share your newest blog posts
10. Participate in Follow Fridays, Throwback Thursdays, and other popular themes on Facebook
11. Talk to other fan page owners around your topic to build relationships with them and their fans
12. Watch the stats Facebook shares about when the largest amount of your fans are online (to share updates at these times for the highest reach)
13. Watch your advertising ads
14. Improve your wording on ads by using testing methods for better results
15. Choose the best images for your ads and change them regularly to get more attention,
16. Carefully decide who should see your ads, based on their behavior, likes, ages and location
17. Set up tracking in your ads to make sure you can see exactly what ads are bringing results
18. Regularly read Facebook business updates to make sure your fan page and business are using the site for the best results, while following their rules
19. Blocking spammy fans
20. Quickly responding to customer service or fan issues that left unanswered can be detrimental to your business
21. Asking fans to share your fan page or updates on their own profiles to get more exposure
22. Encouraging fans to help each other and participate in conversation to build a community
23. Make sure your updates are a variety of videos, links, images, text, and shares from other places
    Helping you design promotions that can include your Facebook presence (i.e.: Follow us on Facebook at /my-awesome-fanpage)
24. Fix images, albums and tabs
25. Change the cover image a few times a year
26. Add descriptions to all images posted
27. Change About text to make the page easier to find, and your website easier to navigate to
28. Change page settings if needed for search or performance reasons

What Is There To Do On Twitter?

1. Post multiple tweets per day, about you, your topic, your blog posts, and news
2. Respond to direct messages, and mentions
3. Respond to several updates per day by your followers to encourage conversation
4. Watch Twitter for conversations about your topic, brand, and names
5. Respond to those tweets to start a conversation
6. Follow others who tweet about your topic
7. Follow those who follow popular people in your topic
8. Follow back those who follow you (assuming they are not spam accounts)
9. Check for spam followers and the people you follow to remove them
10. Unfollow inactive accounts
11. Retweet messages more popular accounts post to begin building relationships with them
12. Look for opportunities for you to guest blog (if you are interested)
13. Build a list of followers who will gladly share your tweets when asked
14. Build lists of potential sales or business opportunities
15. Build a list of users who post the best content for your industry
16. Keep a calendar of tweets for weekends, holidays and other times to keep followers interested
17. Reshare your old blog posts to get more traffic to them months after they were published
18. Participate in sharing communities where you can share relevant links and others will share yours
19. Design images to include in your tweets
20. Find funny, interesting, and educational quotes, statistics and tips your followers will like
21. Choose hashtags to use in your regular tweets, and for promotions
22. Participate in topic chats where you get to connect with dozens of other people who enjoy your topic
23. Run a chat or party on your behalf around your topic to build conversation and relationship
24. Choose the best tools for your automation – where necessary
25. Twitter management and use them to save you time and money on your investment
26. Provide reports on new followers, retweets, mentions and traffic each month to easily monitor growth
27. Fix your cover and profile pic- covers should be changed a few times a year or when there are platform updates
28. Write your bio information to include a call to action to your site
29. Include hashtags in your bio to make sure your account shows up in search results

On Pinterest, what does a social media professional do?

1. Perfect your Pinterest profile. Your username should match your real name or business name.
2. Upload a profile photo or business, preferably a headshot. People are more likely to follow a real person, so avoid icons and logos.
3. Share & pin to your Pinboards
4. Visit the “Popular” feed twice a week and comment on the most popular pins
5. Follow some Pinterest accounts with similar interests every day
6. Connect your other social media accounts via Pinterest settings
7. Display your Pinterest activity on Facebook. Add a link to your Pinterest in your Twitter or Facebook bio
8. Promote your most popular boards
9. Invite followers to contribute to your boards
10. Analyze what Pinterest users are pinning from your website. Use Pinterest Analytics to understand how Pinners are engaging with content from your site and Pins from your profile
11. Display your Pinterest info on emails, business cards, online and offline ads, etc.

And On Linkedin

1. Create and regularly update your company page
2. Fix your profile photo by choosing a professional shot, if needed
3. Rewrite your headline to get more interest in your profile
4. Rewrite your profile or help you write the summary
5. Fill in your profile with projects, images and other media options
6. Campaign to get you more recommendations
7. Help get more endorsements for your abilities
8. Join groups based on your industry, to become an industry leader
9. Join groups where your buyers communicate
10. Share your blog posts, landing pages and updates across your profile and appropriate groups
11. Keep a list of groups you can share your blog posts to, watching for changes in spam terms
12. Participate in discussions in your groups to increase exposure for your name and brand
13. Start discussions based on your questions, blog posts and other topics to bring you more attention
14. Build connections when and where appropriate- only accept connections worth your time
15. Watch for new groups and changes in group activity to keep you active where necessary
16. Make connections with users for potential business partnerships- not just client sales opportunities
17. Share news and business information on your profile to be helpful to your connections
18. Respond to other connections’ updates, celebrations and profile changes
19. Stay in touch with connections based on your level of interest in building a relationship with them
20. Handle job posts, inmails, messages and other Linkedin specific features for possible growth options
21. Following up with new connections for potential sales calls, Skype chats or other social following possibilities
22. Find business opportunities for your business to consumer company
23. Endorse and recommend connections based on your approval
24. Build your Linkedin blog and following
25. Follow relevant companies
26. Check to see who is looking at your profile
27. Maintain connection notes to keep your Linkedin CRM up to date
28. Over see Linkedin advertising campaigns

When Working With A Business Owner

1. Answer your emails and concerns promptly
2. Discuss strategy, results and changes in activity
3. Notify you of platform or terms changes that need extra attention
4. Recommend new platforms and activities
5. Provide feedback on customer service, sentiment for brand and content performance

Social Media Professionals/Managers Have A Lot To Do:

As you can see, a social media professional has a lot of work to do. There is a high level of responsibility to handle the reputation of your brand, and to make sure your fans are entertained, all while providing an ROI in a timely manner.

You’ll notice that I only listed the top 3 networks here, because I knew the list would be long as it is. While I focus my attention on these 3 platforms, I hope to have guests come and list out similar lists for Instagram, Google+, Pinterest, and Youtube.

What Next?

Print out this list and use it as a social media assessment of sorts to see where you stand in social media. Or go over and read about 20 Industries that are successful in social media to get some inspiration on your own social media profiles.