Yesterday, I promised you a post that would help hiring managers identify key skills and abilities needed in a prospective hire looking to fill a social media manager role. Note that we are talking about management, not just content creation or community relations. Before I get into it, a few considerations:
1. This list isn’t complete. It is meant to help guide you and point you in some key directions, but you’re going to have to add a few requirements of your own and ignore the ones that don’t apply to your specific needs.
2. Every company has different capabilities and objectives. Every company will also look at social media’s role in a completely unique way. Some will see it merely as a digital marketing function while others will see it as a fully integrated component of an organization-wide communications ecosystem. Because every company is unique, every social media management position’s requirements will also be unique. Keep that in mind.
3. Are you hiring someone who will help you build a social media program from scratch, or are you hiring someone who will manage an existing social media program? Because the requirements for each won’t be the same.
4. Are you a small, medium, local company, or are you a global consumer brand? Because again, the degree of complexity (internal to the org and external to the org) will require completely different types of resumes.
5. Are you looking to fill a strategic role or a tactical role? Strategic = more vision and planning oriented. Tactical = more day-to-day, operationally oriented.
6. Are you a niche or specialty brand in an obscure industry, or an international superbrand? Because again, the req is going to look different based on that.
7. Is your social media program purely internal or are you working with one or five or twenty agencies as well?
8. Is your social media program focused on lead generation and fan acquisition, or is it also focused on customer development, customer retention, and/or organic WOM? Again, huge differences in skill-sets and abilities to consider there.
9. How many departments will this role be working intimately with? Mostly digital marketing, or also HR, Customer Service, Product Management, Technical Support, PR and R&D?
10. Is your brand a challenger? A rebel? Conservative? Academic? Irreverent? Political? Apolitical? These things matter. Hire someone who understands who you are and will fit within your culture and brand ecosystem.
Right off the bat, you kind of have your work cut out for you. Building out a req for your social media management role is going to require a little more work than just throwing together some bullet points and filling the blanks on a standard x years of blogging experience bullets. This is not an exercise in generic job req design. There is nothing generic about this hiring process.
Here are a few bullets for you:
Basic skills & qualities:
- Applicant has had a continuous professional presence in the Social Media space (via blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Ning or other platforms) for at least two years.
- Applicant has managed a business blog and/or business community for a minimum of one year.
- Applicant has built or managed a community for longer than one year. (This could be as a product manager or customer service rep, for instance.)
- Applicant demonstrates a thorough knowledge of the Social Media space, including usage and demographic statistics for the most popular/relevant platforms as well as a few niche platforms of his/her choice.
- Applicant demonstrates a thorough understanding of the nuances between Social Media platforms and the communities they serve.
- Impeccable communications skills.
- Applicant understands the breadth of tools and methods at his/her disposal to set goals and measure success in the Social Media space. (Applicant’s toolkit is not limited to Google analytics.)
- Applicant has been active on Twitter for more than two years.
- Applicant knows who Scott Monty, Frank Eliason, Jeremiah Owyang, Porter Gale and Christopher Barger are, and can explain why these names are important to the social media profession.
- Applicant can explain succinctly why buying followers and fans is both unethical and counterproductive.
- Applicant demonstrates a high level of proficiency working with popular Social Media platforms and apps such as FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Ning, Seesmic, YouTube, FriendFeed, WordPress, Pinterest and Tumblr. (As applicable.)
- Applicant is capable of mapping out a basic Social Media monitoring plan on a cocktail napkin.
- Given 5 screens to play with, applicant can build you a social media monitoring control center in just a few days.
- Applicant can cite examples of companies with successful social media programs and companies with ineffective social media programs. He/she can also argue comfortably why each was either successful or unsuccessful.
- Applicant has spent at least one year working in a customer-facing role, preferably customer-service related.
- Applicant is more excited about engagement, building an internal practice and finding out about your business’ pain points than he/she is about firebombing you with the awesomeness of their personal brand.
Advanced skills & qualities:
- Applicant has developed and managed marketing programs before. Not just campaigns but programs. Find out about them. What worked? What didn’t work? Lessons learned?
- Applicant has at least two years of experience managing projects and working across organizational silos. What worked? What didn’t? Etc.
- Applicant has managed a brand or product line for more than one year.
- Applicant has demonstrated a strong ability to forge lasting relationships across a variety of media platforms over the course of his/her career.
- Applicant understand the difference between vertical and lateral action when it comes to customer/community engagement – and has working knowledge of how to leverage both.
- Applicant has managed national market research projects.
- Applicant is comfortable enough with business measurement methods to know the difference between financial impact (ROI) and non-financial impact. He/she also knows why the difference between the two is relevant.
- Applicant demonstrates the ability to build and manage a Social Media practice that works seamlessly with PR, product marketing, event management and customer support teams within the organization.
- Applicant has managed a team for more than one year. He/she was responsible for the training and development of that team.
- Applicant has spent at least one year in a project management role outside of an ad agency, PR or other Marketing firm.
- Applicant has been responsible for managing a budget/P&L.
- Applicant already has the framework of a Social Media plan for your company before he/she even walks through the front door, and thankfully, it doesn’t involve setting up a fan page on FaceBook.
Enterprise & Global CPG skills:
- All of the above, but with 5 – 10+ years of experience instead of 1 – 3.
- For everything else, scale up.
What you shouldn’t waste a whole lot of time worrying about:
- The applicant’s age.
- The applicant’s Klout or Kred scores.
- The applicant’s number of followers on Twitter or fans/likes on Facebook.*
- The applicant’s SxSW or blogworld stories.
- How many Top 10, 15, 20 or 100 lists the applicant is on.
* Less than 1,000 Twitter followers is suspect. Unless they are a media celebrity, more than 75,000 Twitter followers is suspect as well.
All right. You still have some work to do, but that ought to get you started.
Other sources:
Social Media ROI – Managing and Measuring Social Media Efforts in your Organization – Particularly Chapter 6 (pages 73-82).
The Social Media Strategist: Build a Successful Program from the Inside Out – by Christopher Barger
Smart Business, Social Business: A Playbook for Social Media in Your Organization – by Michael Brito
I hope that was helpful.
Cheers,
Olivier
* * *
Social Media ROI – Managing and Measuring Social Media Efforts in your Organization was written specifically to teach managers and executives how to build and manage social media friendly business programs and incorporate social technologies and networks into everyday business operations. The book is divided into four parts: social media program strategy & development, social media program operationalization, social media program management, and best practices in measurement and reporting. If your boss doesn’t yet have a copy, time to fix that. If everyone on your team doesn’t yet have their own copy, fix that too. It makes for a great desk reference.
(Now available in several languages including German, Korean, Japanese and Spanish.)
CEO-Read – Amazon.com – www.smroi.net – Barnes & Noble – Que
Brand Building and Online Marketing Blog 
I was looking forward to this post today! This is a fantastic breakdown of what specific skills are needed, and also gives a basic idea of what people who want to get into the business can work on to get there. Thank you for writing this.
You’re welcome.
Crap. I have some homework to do! For me!
We all do. 😉
As you mentioned, it’s a good start. But there’s a lot of assumption based in here. You’re assuming that simply by managing or running a program for a certain number of years, the applicant understands how social and digital impacts business. You also assume that said applicant can translate digital and social across different business disciplines. This list seems to put a lot of emphasis on social and digital as a silo or separate entity. The problem is putting too much focus on social and digital and not bringing someone in who truly understands how a business operates.
Also, I could care less if they knew who “the social media players” are. That’s like saying because I know the importance of Michael Jordan, that helps me run a professional basketball team. I don’t want someone who’s interested in the circle jerk that comes with social.
But a good start and hits on a lot of important qualifications.
Actually, John, no.
The list goes through social media specific skills, AND business (non-SM) skills as well. The social media specific skill sets and experience are listed as such. For instance:
– Applicant has had a continuous professional presence in the Social Media space (via blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Ning or other platforms) for at least two years.
– Applicant has managed a business blog and/or business community for a minimum of one year.
– Applicant has built or managed a community for longer than one year. (This could be as a product manager or customer service rep, for instance.)
– Applicant demonstrates a thorough knowledge of the Social Media space, including usage and demographic statistics for the most popular/relevant platforms as well as a few niche platforms of his/her choice.
The sum of these points on the checklist forms the foundation of the applicant’s SM management experience.
Other bullets (like the ones that follow) speak to the applicant’s experience with other functions in the business. Marketing, PR, customer service, etc.This addresses the “assumption” that the applicant can translate social and digital across different business practices in that it removes the assumption altogether. It makes sure that the recruiting manager is NOT assuming anything about the applicant. The recruiting organization, by going through this checklist, can map precisely where the applicant has experience and where he (or she) will need a little bit of work. Look:
– Applicant has developed and managed marketing programs before. Not just campaigns but programs. Find out about them. What worked? What didn’t work? Lessons learned?
– Applicant has at least two years of experience managing projects and working across organizational silos. What worked? What didn’t? Etc.
– Applicant has managed national market research projects.
– Applicant is comfortable enough with business measurement methods to know the difference between financial impact (ROI) and non-financial impact. He/she also knows why the difference between the two is relevant.
– Applicant demonstrates the ability to build and manage a Social Media practice that works seamlessly with PR, product marketing, event management and customer support teams within the organization.
Etc.
The idea is to remove assumptions by asking the right questions about their background.
As for knowing who the “social media players” are, it is important. Not knowing who these folks are is a red flag. It means several things:
1. The applicant is not tapped into the social media profession. At all. This is a problem. It would be like a game designer who has never heard of Blizzard of Eidos, or a military officer who has never heard of Patton or Rommel. You can’t be proficient in this business without at least some cursory knowledge of the folks who built the most successful models so far, and how they did it.
2. If they have never heard of Owyang, Monty or Eliason, they probably have no idea how businesses are moving forward with social media integration. Monty is building a macro case study in enterprise social media integration at Ford. Globally. Eliason wrote the book on social customer service at Comcast by creating the first working model of real-time digital customer service there. I can’t spend two minutes around him without learning something new and valuable. Owyang and his Altimeter group consistently produce some of the most informative and thorough reports on social media adoption, social business, social commerce and social intelligence out there. If an applicant isn’t reading them, something is wrong. We aren’t talking about the circle-jerk, here. I picked those names carefully because they are legitimate pros doing real work.
An applicant shooting for a social media management position cannot operate in a vacuum. They have to demonstrate a basic knowledge of where to get info and insights. It weeds out the folks who have no fucking idea what’s being done in the space and just applied for the job because they think they can do a job that involves posting stuff to Facebook.
And yes, actually, if you are managing a basketball team and don’t know who Michael Jordan is, perhaps you don’t need to be there. Sorry, but WTF. 😀
Excellent list! I love it. Apparently I need to find a way to spend a few minutes around Eliason so that I can be considered worthy. 🙂 🙂
I agree that you need to know who some of the leaders are but there are many. There are far too many social media people operating in a vacuum and not taking the time to reach out and learn from leaders and peers.
I really appreciate your list of ‘what you shouldn’t waste your time worrying about’. We all know ‘social media gurus’ who spend all of their time marketing themselves. I often wonder when they find the time to do the same for a client.
Thank you.
Excellent starting point. I’d certainly (as you noted) prioritize some elements above others, but on the whole I think this is a good list.
As for the personalities, I’d take that with a pinch of salt when it comes to the particular names, but the common theme there is an awareness of the people who have moved the profession forward in some way, whether in high-level frameworks, exec-level engagement within an organization, building notable programs or other areas. Is that a must-have? Not necessarily. Would I be more impressed with a candidate who cites Owyang’s ROI pyramid as a way of framing conversations about measurement? Probably.
Good stuff.
That’s the idea, yes. Thanks, Dave.
Love this list. I get asked this question all the time by clients. It’s amazing how many people skate by without being asked to prove experience out there.
But their Klout score is awesome. 😀
Impressive and obviously tremendous thought and effort Olivier.
I am with you and @MargieClayman that we still and will always have a lot of learning to accomplish. I certainly agree we need to continue to evolve in PR and social media management…. I just hope I have enough years left!
I would need that cocktail napkin for its intended purpose to address this job interview ;).
Thank you.
The best interviews involve cocktail napkins. And little paper umbrellas.
Having reread this now that I am not crunched for time, I have four questions which you may not want to answer as they might fall into the brain-picking category, but hey. It’s worth a shot 🙂 Also, I’d like to point out I’m being transparent about my ignorance in these matters, so while I might lose some social media credibility in asking these questions, my human-ness is sure to skyrocket.
1. You italicized professional up there – professional social media experience. So, in a scenario where a person who has been using social media to sell their wares (say an artist or an author) is applying for a social media manager position, would you categorize them as “professional” in that case, or does the italics mean business/corporate professional exclusively? Marketing for a company is different in a lot of ways, of course, but I wonder if social media experience is going to be harder and harder to define/differentiate in the months and years to come. Would you turn down a person who did a great job, but for themselves?
2. How do you define the community the applicant should have managed? Are we talking about a community that extends from platform to platform (as they often do) or a community in one place, like a company blog, FB page, etc? It would be easy for me to argue that I’ve attempted to manage my online community (aka mah peeps), but lord knows I haven’t kept *anyone* on message. Is a corporate community one that only talks about that brand, or can it be more loose?
3. I am completely ignorant as to what you mean by creating a social media monitoring center using 5 screens, although it’s possible I know what you mean and would just describe it differently. Or I might be uneducated. In either case, can you expand?
4. What size cocktail napkin?
Alright. That’s all I’ve got.
1. I would consider that professional experience, yes. That person was using SM for a legitimate business purpose and not just to post vacation photos or party updates. It’s up to the recruiter to decide whether that experience is sufficient, but it is professional experience.
2. Either. A community is a community. Managing a blog’s community counts, IMO. Again, the recruiter will have to determine if that’s enough, but yes.
3. Well… if that’s the case, then that could be a problem. Look at the Gatorade, Dell and Edelman Digital control centers. They’re basically multi-screen workstations where an operator can monitor conversations, keyword mentions, sentiment, etc. You might be looking at Radian 6 on one screen, Tickr on another, Google Analytics on a third, etc. How would you build it if you were, say, Batman.
4. 4.5 x 4.5.
Can I run Bottlenose on one of those screens? 🙂
Back in early 2010 I wrote a similar post geared towards enterprise level capabilities. Mine was more holistic/big picture/enterprise-y stuff and yours is more specific but both compliment each other rather well.
The bottom line is though we’re getting more folks in the field, we still need those seasoned vets-regardless of age (clears his throat). Where do I see a huge need and gap is in the management and measuring of programs, and initiatives, number one and number two, in understanding how it all contributes to what’s next. It’s no longer about the platforms and tools themselves.
Here’s the link: http://directmarketingobservations.com/2010/03/29/the-social-media-self-assessment-checklist-22-questions/
That actually should say-Where I do see a huge need and gap is in the management and measuring of programs, and initiatives-number one and number two-In understanding how it all contributes to what’s next.
It’s no longer about the platforms and tools themselves.
In my haste and excitement typos and clarity took a back seat.
🙂
This is just a great condensed list any hiring manager should have. I would add that in order to become proactive hiring manager and not just another person baffled by the possibilities and limitations of social media and be able to fully optimize social within a firm, the hiring manager has to have basic knowledge themselves. This depends largely on where social media falls into the organization. If it is marketing, chances are the firing manager has a lot of catching up to do to understand some of the basic concepts in digital and social media.
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I would like to thank you for not adding “college credits/ degrees” to the list. I have been in business(s) for many years, I have extensive skills in marketing, pr, customer relations and I am driven by small business success stories. There are many of us out here who lack the college degree, but can certainly manage and market business. Social Media/ Network managers need to have 1 quality not on your list-
Candidate must have experience in business.
Thanks for article.