12 Reasons To Hire A Freelance Social Media Manager
If you own a product, bar, restaurant, hotel or any brand for that matter, then you may be wondering if you need a freelance social media manager.
Social media is something essential to growing your brand. For the most part you’re probably already aware of this. So we wont focus on it to much in this article.
However, at this point you are probably handling your social media accounts yourself or you may have a dedicated marketing team looking after your social media for you.
Whichever the case may be. You are probably wondering if hiring a freelancer to take care of your social media is worth it. The short answer is yes!
Saving you money as well as growing your social media accounts are just a couple of the reasons why hiring a freelance social media manager is worth the investment.
If that doesn’t convince you then not a worry. I have 12 more reasons why hiring a freelance social media manager is worth it.
I’ve been working within the food and drink industry for years and specialise in running food and drink specific social media accounts.
For that reason, this article will be mainly aimed at the food and drink industry. Although all the reasons to hire a freelance social media manager are transferable.
1) Priority
Social media is something that needs to be prioritised. It’s your gateway to direct engagement with your customers or customers to be.
Having consistent social media posts and consistent engagement is proven to build your brand.
When you engage with customers who have bought your product or visited your bar, restaurant or hotel. You show your appreciation, which keeps that customer coming back.
The issue is that as a brand or establishment, there's a lot on your plate. Usually social media gets pushed to the bottom of the list. You simply don’t have the time to prioritise. That’s where a freelance social media manager comes into play.
A freelance social media manager will prioritise your social media growth so you don’t have to.
2) Time investment
Time investment poster.
Running a consistent social media account for your brand or establishment seems like a small task at first.
However, as your account grows the time you need to invest grows with it.
The more successful your social media becomes, the more time you spend creating content, engaging with your followers, Posting daily Instagram stories, analysing data and tracking reports.
Investing all the time you need into social media growth is a difficult task. A freelance social media will have the time to invest for you.
Which brings me to my next point…
3) Time management
One issue I see brands have a lot with social media is bad time management. How this normally goes is something like so.
A brand owner runs a social media account.
Social media account grows and so they push the social media management onto someone from there marketing team. Or even worse and what I see most in bars and restaurants is that they push the social media onto a bartender, supervisor or general manager. Pretty much anyone they can.
Whatever the case may be, the person they push the social media onto has no idea how to correctly manager the account. Or has the time to dedicate to growing the account
Maybe they have a decent social media following themselves. Maybe they can take a few good photos or have a way with words.
They spend all their time creating content but not using it strategically.
They engage with a lot of people but never convert them into customers
They write great captions and copy but none of it is relevant.
A freelance social media manager has done this a tone of times and will use reports and your brand identity to perfectly manage their time into what exactly works and what exactly coverts customers.
4) Save you money
Money saving poster.
Do you know the most popular reason why brands, bars, restaurants and hotels do not hire a social media manager?
It’s because they don’t want to spend the money.
Social media can be difficult to track return on investment. It’s not an instant return. Building a social media presence is usually a slow process.
You won’t be able to track the ROI as easily as saying “I spent £200 on a new sign and made £400 more than I usually would”
With social media, it’s more a case of building up a presence and getting the word out. What you do in June will pay of in August.
So brands, bars, restaurants and hotels don’t bother with the risk of investing. BIG MISTAKE.
Hire a social media on a 6 month contract then look back and watch how your investment has paid off. Take a look at what people are saying about your brand and the reviews you’re receiving.. You will see the importance of social media management.
The difficulty is that hiring a full time social media manager is a big commitment and secondly an expensive salary.
The beauty of a freelance social media manager is that they will only prioritise your social media without a huge marketing manager salary.
Meaning you can have a professional who successfully grows your social media presence for as little as £350 a month. That’s £4200 a year.
£4200 A YEAR. To not have to think about social media. To not have track reports, create content, engage with followers.
Just one singular social media campaign that a freelance social media manager would run could easily pay that £4200 off in the first month. The rest is cold hard profit.
5) Content content content
One of the tricky parts of social media management is content. Coming up with engaging content day after day, week after week without sounding fake or repeating yourself is difficult.
It gets even more difficult once you add photos into the mix. People engage more with visuals. Visuals show the quality of your brand.
Sourcing all the stock images that resonate with your brand identity and the rights to use them is a never ending task.
Taking them photos yourself is even more difficult. Which leads me onto my next point.
6) Original Photos
Original brand photography and videos is your best way towards building the brand identity you want to build.
It’s something I talk about in my post on the reasons why you should hire a freelance photographer.
Unfortunately, this is the one brands get wrong the most. Especially in the hospitality industry. You may think that dim lit photo you took of your bars cocktail is great. But for the most part, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news. It’s not.
I hate when I hear about a new bar or restaurant, check out their Instagram account and see the most unappetising food and drink photos. Or worse, I see no consistency in the photos.
Some of my best advice for hiring a freelance social media manager is to check out examples of their ORIGINAL content.
If you’re lucky, you will come across a social media manager who is also a photographer and uses that skill to create amazing looking and engaging photos for you.
7) Brand identity
Brand identity is something I speak about all the time.
It’s so important to build a brand identity so people can associate a certain feeling or look with you.
Just take a look at what Hendricks gin has done with their brand identity. Crafting this usual and creative vibe.
Every photo you post, caption or copy you write needs to follow a certain brand identity that people can associate with you.
If someone sees a photo without any of your branding on it, they should still know its you because of the brand identity you’ve made.
8) Consistency
When is the best time for you to post on social media? When should people expect to hear from you?
Are they going to see your brand 5 times in the space of one day then not at all for 2 months?
Are you going to constantly change the look of your social media?
Consistency is key. Having a specific posting schedule (Not from a third party, automatic posting app by the way) and knowing exactly what you're going to post a month in advance is a way to archive consistency.
When I manage a social media account. I come up with a mood board to help me build a consistent brand identity. I know exactly what i’m going to post and what time I will post it long before I even click that post button.
9) Engagement
Engagement poster.
Running a social media account means dedicating time to engagement. The difficulty with hiring an agency or full time employee is that they are on the clock.
They might work 9-5. Meaning anything after that and they won't engage until the next day. Heck they might take the weekend off. Meaning you have 2 days of no engagement!
This is where hiring a freelance social media manager comes in handy. A freelance social media manager will always be on the clock. Whether that's 8 in the morning or 10 at night. If there's a comment, a reply or an inquiry. They will be there to reply.
If there's one thing people love its quick response times.
Social media engagement is one of the most important types of engagement because its usually done more informal. As opposed to when someone enquires through a website contact form where the response is a lot more formal and “professional”.
Social media has the leeway to be more real with your customers. Which people love.
So making sure you spend a lot of time on social media engagement is essential.
10) Campaigns and projects
Another plus to hiring a freelance social media manager is to run a short-term campaign or engagement project.
Whether it is live product masterclasses, new product launches or a giveaway.
A freelance social media manager will ensure you get the best out of your campaign.
11) Social media strategy
Crucial to managing social media is coming up with a social media strategy. How will you run your social media? How will you grow it?
This is something a freelance social media manager will do perfectly for your brand.
12) Reports and analytics
Tracking analytics and reporting is essential to see first hand if what you are doing is working. If the money you budget for social media is paying off.
Any professional freelance social media manager will make sure you get monthly reports and handovers so you know EXACTLY what is going on, what is working and what isn’t.
This will give you great insight on what you need to do to improve your social media and get ahead of your competition.
My Freelance Instagram Management Packages
Fancy a taste of what a freelance social media manager can do for you? Get in contact to discuss the below Instagram management packages.