If it isn’t already apparent, social media marketing is integral to generating brand awareness and new business. Yet, for many advisors, it’s something they do—or have someone else do—whenever they get the chance. If you want to realize the full potential of social media, now may be the time to hire a part-time employee or intern fully dedicated to ramping up your social media marketing.

Keys to Hiring the Right Person

It may very well be impossible to find a part-timer or intern to have the combination of investment knowledge, client understanding, writing skills and social media savvy that top-level marketers may have, but with your direction and input, someone with strong social media credentials might be all you need.

To identify the right person for the job, consider:

• The channels you wish to focus on, e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. This will help you evaluate candidates to see if they have experience in the platforms most important to your business.
• The relevance of the background of candidates to your goals. Does a candidate’s ability and record of achievement match your objectives? Remember, social media marketing is about accomplishing business goals (e.g., brand awareness, “likes,” new accounts, etc.)
• Inquire of candidates how to improve the use of social media platforms and your digital marketing efforts. This will provide you insight into how strategically the individual thinks and how well they know the power of these platforms.
• On a more practical level, candidates should have a basic ability to analyze data gathered by Google Analytics or Facebook Analytics, for example, and experience with content management tools (e.g., WordPress, Tweetdeck, etc.). Knowledge of CSS and HTML might also prove valuable.

Benefits to Your Practice

Hiring a part-time employee or intern to assume your digital marketing responsibilities can accrue a number of benefits to your practice, including:

• Freeing up current employees to do their primary job functions
• Gaining a fresh perspective on your social media efforts from an “outsider”
• Identifying an exceptionally talented and hard-working future employee
• Gaining a new brand advocate in your community

Hiring new staff is always a big decision, but pursuing the part-time or intern route can help advisors evaluate the bottom-line impact of social media marketing before committing to a permanent fixed cost.

See referenced disclosure (2) at https://blog-dev.americanportfolios.com/disclosures/