Recommendations and What To Expect If Using A Managed Solution

Social Media Specialist Or DIY

Depending on the size of your company, a wise investment may be hiring a social media specialist.  No not your brothers' wifes' sisters, 15 year old son.  The amount of potential out there for the taking vs the amount of time it really takes to build engagement on multiple platforms should be something that you keep in mind.  There are many systems out there for scheduling and automating, but the bottom line is that social is SOCIAL.  

Engaging your audience on a broad scale is not the hardest to do via social media but not always the most effective.

A good social media strategy does not adhere to the one size fits all approach.  

I have several people within my company that handle the social media management for clients.  What we typically do is actually hire and train the social media manager for a client.  It is the clients employee, but we give them direction and manage them.    

For the purposes of this workshop, I set up my own Pinterest account for our company and set about following the skills laid out in this workshop.  The technical side of it, keywords, titles, embedded images ... no issues.  The engagement side, for me a distraction as I have other more important things to consider.  

The View From 5 Miles Above

From a sellers position, generating relevant warm traffic is about as important as it gets.    Based on the amount a lot of sellers are spending on PPC, I really do not see how you cannot afford to take whatever steps are necessary to make low-cost and FREE Pinterest traffic a priority in 2019. 

The opportunities are laid out before your eyes should have you thinking about the future

• -On the one hand, I'd be thinking how am I going to get this done. 
• -On the otherhand, how can I afford not to get this done. 
• -Early adopters in our business are usually the ones that reap the biggest rewards.
  
  

I may own a good sized agency, work with CEO's, corporate boards and shareholders, but the bottom line is I am an entrepreneur just like you.  The recommendations I make are what I would do if I were in your shoes. 

Suggested Options Moving Forward

You have the knowledge to either build this out yourself, OR, set goals, structure and define direction while bringing in a Pinterest VA to lay the groundwork and get it ramped up.

Managing it then becomes easier with the different tools available and the knowledge/ understanding that you now posses.

On the current trajectory, Pinterest is here to stay and will become an even more important part of your marketing moving forward. Think back to the numbers in the category feeds 8 million, 30 million.

Even a feed with 20k members...get your pins appearing in 2 of those over a weekend and you might be freaking out come Sunday.

The remainder of this lesson will focus on what you should look as far as knowledge and job responsibility if you decide to bring someone in as a managed solution.

My recommendation is that you start laying the foundation based on the knowledge you have so far. Get your pin images developed and content developed, establish your account if you haven't already.

With only a few asins, you may find this fairly easy to do yourself. If all you do is assign an hours or two away from Facebook weekly, you will be just fine.

I would, personally, lay the foundation, hire someone to come in & focus on establishing the account, develop the following and get situated. 

Then I would re-evaluate the progress and consider scaling back the role since once established much of it can be automated.

Social Media Specialist Or Pinterest VA

The following are skills that we would hire for a position like this.  With your understanding of what needs to be done, your knowledge can provide the expectation and direction needed to cover some of these.

• Knowledgeable About Marketing Objectives
• Industry Knowledge
• Willingness To Learn about Your Products
• Research
• Engagement
• Content Curation
• Graphics
• Scheduling And Calender's
• Insights And Analysis
• Reporting
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A good Social Media Specialist would be responsible for:  

1. Strategy planning
2. Tactics and execution
3. Community management
4. Understand how content works on a social web
5. Optimizing content and technology
6. Creative mindset
7. Writing skills
8. Be on top of the latest digital marketing trends
9. Analytical skills
10. Leadership and communication skills

The best advice that I can offer from almost 40 years of owning and operating businesses is to set expectations upfront.  Do not be shy with clearly layout what you need accomplished.  Hire smart, this is not the position for a shy order taker.  You want someone with knowledge and the spirit to drive accomplishments.   The impact on your business level could be beyond your wildest expectations.