How to Build a Better Social Media Team

How To Build a Better

SOCIAL TEAM

How to Build a Better Social Team 2

HOW TO BUILD A BETTER SOCIAL TEAM

Introduction Social media marketing is getting more challenging by the day. With more budget going to digital marketing, more pressure from executives, and more tactics for social media marketers to choose from, it can be difficult to know where to start.

Luckily, social is also a more established channel than it once was, and some of the world’s top companies have started to develop a playbook of how to think things through.

In this guide, we’re sharing practical lessons from interviews with social marketing leaders, and surveys of hundreds of social media marketers.

What to Expect A quick look at the state of social marketing.

A survey of how social media teams are structured across different organizations and industries.

The four core competencies needed for social media teams.

Job description templates for some of the most common social media roles.


The State of the Social Marketing Social media is no longer a reactive function, having moved beyond basic social listening and channel-specific engagement metrics. While those aspects are still important, social strategy has become a more complex, integrated effort. Social media is integrated closely with many other marketing activities, and its share of attention, budget, and staffing needs is only continuing to grow.

We’ve interviewed and surveyed hungreds of social media marketers to come up with a framework for structuring a social media team, and across the board, social media professionals have pinpointed three essential components of success:

1. Centralized strategy and planning

2. Direction tied to business goals

3. Dedicated tactical execution

In order for these three components to be put in place, a company must first make social media a priority.


“A problem comes when the social team is not a priority within the org. Social media is a really important channel in today’s MarComm world —

when you de-prioritize it, that’s the core issue.”

Kipp Bodenar, CMO at Hubspot

Sources: Gartner and CMOSurvey.com


In order for social media to be a priority, a marketing organization must understand how it fits into the broader digital marketing mix.

The number of employees and job titles will vary with each company’s overall size, goals, and needs from a social team.


PROTIP: TEAM BUILDINGWhen organizing your social media team, lay out the different functions and areas of responsibility that need to be accomplished on a regular basis. By separating these roles into strategic and tactical func-tions, it will be easier to determine the personnel needed.

This exercise will also help when it comes to assigning responsibilities and success metrics to your new team.


In many organizations, the number of social media-specific roles is limited. Our recent Simply Measured survey of over 350 social media marketers found that 65% of teams have between 1-3 people dedicated specifically to social media.

The role of “social strategist” may be a function of the director, or a social media manager. Multiple community managers may not be needed. A coordinator might be a luxury that the team doesn’t have budget for, but the strategic and tactical elements to this framework are a must. A successful social team needs to dedicate time and resources to planning and strategy, tactical execution, and measurement and optimization.

This framework is not meant to imply that community managers don’t think strategically, but rather that their core function is execution.

THE TRAITS OF COMMON SOCIAL TEAMS


The most common role we found is that of the social media manager. Over 60% of respondents said that at least one member of their team has this role. Social media manager can often be a “catch all” title, responsible for the entire social marketing process, from planning all the way to measurement and optimization.

Other common roles were the social media strategist, community manager, and director of social media. Thirty-one percent (31%) of respondents said that they or other members of their team are social media strategists, 30% of teams have community managers, and 28% have a director of social media.

In the “other” category, roles ranged from social media coordinator to content marketer and designer.

Each of the people filling these roles need to bring subject matter expertise that is specific to social, but as social media becomes more integrated, it is becoming more critical than ever for social marketers to understand other areas of digital marketing.

“I look for candidates who can think strategically in terms of the broader digital landscape. It’s fantastic if they have experience on social media, but having email experience or website development experience is icing on the cake. Can you connect strategic points for our clients, beyond traditional

ROI? That big-picture perspective is great.”

Steve Sack, Vice President of Digital at Edelman Digital



The majority of social media teams are a part of the marketing organization. However, at large enterprise companies, communications or public relations departments are often separated from marketing. In some cases, social media lives there.


PROTIP: GOAL ALIGNMENT Understanding which department your social media team reports to is just the first step. Next, it’s im-portant to learn what the broad goals of that department are. How is social expected and able to make a contribution to those broader goals?

If this exercise becomes an impossible task, it may be useful to step back and ask if social is really sitting in the right part of your organizartion.


4 COMPETENCIES A SOCIAL TEAM NEEDS

Social Teams Are Not Generally HugeAs we found in our survey, most social teams only have between 1-3 people on them, yet social media is one of the most dominant digital activities that exists. Social media is still proving itself as a viable marketing channel, so limited resources are to be expected This means more work for fewer people.

Social Media Everything Else Social Team Email Team Analyst TeamAnalyst Team (maybe) Paid Search Team PR Team Display Ad Team Content Team SEO Team Website Team

The Core Competencies of a Successful Social TeamWith fewer resources available for all of the activites required to run a successful social program, it’s more important to find and cultivate the key competencies every social team needs than it is to find a specific person to fill that role. The core competencies needed in social are broken into four areas:

1. Community Management 3. Analysis2. Strategy 4. Content CreationThese four competencies can each be owned by separate members of your team, or by one individual, depending on the resources available to you.


4 COMPETENCIES A SOCIAL TEAM NEEDS

The Four Social Media Competencies Your Team Needs

Community Management Each social team needs someone who can dedicate time to engagement and interaction with customers, fans, prospects, and industry influencers.

Whether this is a component of a team member’s broader responsibilities, or their sole focus, a social media program is useless without someone to focus on execution.

Analysis As is the case with any marketing channel, a social team needs to research competitors, best practices, and opportunities in the market, analyze performance, optimize tactics, and report on findings.

This should be a primary focus of any social program. Without analyzing your program, you don’t know what to improve.

Strategy In order to execute any social media program, you need to have a social media strategy.

This strategy can be as basic as determining which networks to post to, or as sophisticated as coming up with targeted personas, goals for interactions, and a research-based posting cadence.

Content Creation Any social team needs content to share. This can be Tweet copy, blog posts, or videos, but that content starts somewhere. Whether this action is handled by the community manager or a full content team, the need exists at any stage of a social media program.

If you look at your team and one of these competencies is missing from the picture, it might be worth considering a new role on your team. To help with that decision, over the next four pages, we’ve included sample job descriptions for four of the top jobs from our social media organization survey. Enjoy, and good luck!


SOCIAL MEDIA JOB DESCRIPTIONS

Director of Social MediaEnsures the social media department’s work aligns with overall digital marketing, as well as provides strategic direction, coaching, and management to the social media team.

Responsibilities- Oversee social media strategy planning, implementation, and measurement, including defining business and brand goals and digital strategies based on consumer insights, trend analysis, and business objectives- Collaborate with other teams, such as content marketing, sales, public relations, product marketing, and customer success, to define and track shared goals- Work with key internal partners to ensure consistent and optimized tone and messaging throughout company communications- Manage a budget, providing forecasts as well as reporting on results, all the way through to sales- Make recommendations to senior leadership on how to develop and advance the company’s social media capabilities, including talent, skills, tools, and platforms- Manage a team of social strategists, social media managers, analysts, and community managers, and support their professional growth- Establish and communicate global social media guidelines and best practices to ensure key brand strategies are deployed appropriately in regional markets- Manage both external vendors as well as internal resources to maximize the efficacy of social media programs- Lead regular business review and discovery sessions with colleagues- Develop frameworks for strategy development, alignment to business goals, and the valuation of all efforts for iterative testing, learning, and growth

Skills- Ability to project manage big initiatives- Can provide useful coaching and career support to members of the social media team- Thorough understanding of, and passion for, online technologies and social media trends- Strong communications, writing, critical thinking, leadership, presentation, and interpersonal skills

Requirements- 5-10 years experience in a related position or digital marketing role- Reports to the CMO or VP of Marketing - Proven track record in and understanding of social media programs, monitoring tools, and implementing social media best practices- Experience partnering with executives on social media programs in support of business goals- Experience working collaboratively across complex teams- Solid understanding of how influencers, communities, native advertising, and user generated content play roles in brand campaigns



Social Media ManagerManages social media programs end-to-end, acting as a project lead and executing tactics.

Responsibilities- Develop and drive social media marketing strategy on brand-appropriate social channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc.) to grow followers, increase engagement, and raise traffic to webiste- Evaluate competitive benchmarks and understand best practices- Build a social media influencer and brand advocate strategy to increase the company’s presence on social- Maintain a social media editorial calendar and collaborate with a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders to develop and execute on the calendar- Set goals for driving social media channel growth (fans, followers), engagement (comments / shares per post), reaching specific personas, and other KPIs- Ensure consistency of brand messages across multiple platforms and channels- Provide daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly reports of relevant metrics on social media channels- Educate business partners and leaders on how to integrate and align social media with their specific business outcomes and the company culture- Facilitate coordination between internal teams, such as PR, customer success, and content marketing - Manage one or more community managers to execute on the social marketing plan, and provide professional development and career guidance

Skills- Deep expertise in social media planning, execution, tracking, and measurement, and the tools needed for those tasks- A solid understanding of established and emerging social media channels (especially Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) and their application to marketing strategy- Strong project management skills, including scheduling and setting deadlines- A digital native, with strong command of social media and content marketing disciplines- Highly motivated and proactive problem solver- Ability to continually scan the horizon for new tools and technologies which may add capabilities to the company’s social marketing efforts- Strong presentation and interpersonal skills, with the ability to motivate and drive collaboration with other departments and stakeholders

Requirements- 3-5 years of experience in digital marketing - Reports to Director of Digital or Social Media Marketing, Head of PR, or VP of Marketing- Proven track record of leadership and collaborating across teams- Excellent analytical and communication skills- Able to thrive in a fast-paced environment, working toward shared goals and deadlines



Social Media StrategistResearches, plans, and measures the success of social media campaigns and programs.

Responsibilities- Analyze, review, and report on effectiveness of all paid and organic campaigns - Assist with data analysis and report preparation for all weekly/monthly/quarterly marketing meetings- Manage paid campaign budgets and advise on recommended campaign ROI optimization- Ensure campaign delivery, performance, and goals are being fulfilled as scheduled- Identify and monitor effective benchmarks for measuring the impact of social media programs- Stay educated on the latest social media apps, platforms, trends, and tools- Experiment with and explore emerging social media platforms- Play an active role in developing social media strategies and content calendars, and implementing these strategies, especially contests, sweepstakes, and giveaways- Uncover data (behavioral, demographic, etc.) on the current audience, as well as target audiences, determining not only how to reach them but turn them into brand advocates and ambassadors

Skills- High level of technical proficiency in Excel and PPT, as well as any needed data and analytics tools- Project management and task delegation ability- Detailed knowledge of company products, industry, and business goals- Strength in evaluating and interpreting data- Ability to translate complex data into strategies, effectively communicate metrics and progress with target audiences, and lead efforts to document and articulate business ROI for social media

Requirements- 5-7 years experience in a data analytics role - Reports to Director of Social Media or VP of Marketing- Basic knowledge of social media platforms and strategy, deep knowledge a plus- Experience working in a dynamic, deadline-driven environment and a proven ability to collaborate with team members- Presentation skills are a plus



Community ManagerManages the tactical execution of social media programs, including planning and publishing content that supports the established plan.

Responsibilities- Engage in hands-on, day-to-day management of company’s social media channels, acting as the primary voice of the company on all channels- Curate all content and determine what to share, how to share it, and when - Complete regular testing of content types, posting frequency, and other campaign characteristics with target audiences, then optimize tactics based on results- Focus on acquiring on-target audience members, as well as increasing engagement with all fans and followers- Report daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly on network audience size, engagement, web conversions, and other KPIs - Ensure all social content is on-brand, consistent in style, quality, and tone of voice, and optimized for search and user experience on all channels- Listen daily for conversations and relevant trends, providing insights to the content development team

Skills- Interest in seeking out new content and recognizing which stories will build audience engagement- Ability to take calculated risks with content to test audience preferences- Appropriately push the brand’s message, but also empower the audience to have a voice- Mastery of social media publishing and analytics tools and regular use of them- Flexibility and ability to respond quickly to new events or information- A calm attitude in response to negative feedback on social- Ability to work independently or as part of a large team- Extremely creative- Self-motivated and able to independently structure and manage workflow and priorities- Fluent in pop culture and able to translate this knowledge into conversations with followers- Excellent relationship-building skills

Requirements- 1-3 years of experience with digital or social media marketing- Reports to Social Media Manager or Director of Social- Highly active profiles on social media- Passion for the company, industry, and/or product- Experience using Photoshop or Illustrator a plus, though not required- Available to work evenings and weekends, as needed - Passion for engaging in social media conversations and thinking creatively about new ways to use the medium


CONCLUSION

The success of your social media program is dependent on your understanding of how your social team and the members of that team drive value for your organization. You should now be armed with key insight about social marketing, including:

A broad understanding of the state of social marketing in 2015.

Insight into how social media teams are structured across different organizations and industries.

The four core competencies needed for social media teams.

Job description templates for some of the most common social media roles.

With this insight under your belt, you’re ready to start building your team. Have fun!

The State of Social Marketing - 2015 15

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How to Build a Better Social Media Team