As a small business owner who’s drowning wearing all the hats, marketing is usually on the forefront of your mind. Yet it’s the hardest task to tackle. Everyone says you have to be on social media to grow. So obviously, you think when you hire a social media manager, it should fix everything.
You bring someone on, hand them the keys to your Instagram, and wait for the followers, the leads, the sales to start rolling in. Except that’s not usually what happens. And it’s not because you hired the wrong person. it’s because most businesses aren’t actually ready to make that hire just yet.
A social media manager can only build on what you give them. So before you post that job listing or sign that contract, here’s what you need to have in place, and what to actually look for when you’re ready.
What You Need Before You Hire a Social Media Manager
1. Have a clear goal
What do you want to get out of social media for your business? Is it more brand awareness? A stronger community? More sales? A better lead funnel?
Having the answer to this question before you hire is going to save you a lot of disappointment in the long run. Because this answer determines what approach to social media your manager is going to take.
That’s because organic and paid social aren’t the same tool, even though they live on the same platforms.
Organic is about visibility and community. It’s the slow build, the trust, the “oh I’ve seen this brand everywhere” effect. Paid is all about conversions. It’s built to move people toward a purchase, fast.
They work beautifully together. But if you’re prioritizing sales and only have budget for organic, your goal and your strategy are already fighting each other. You need to know which one you’re actually funding before you hire someone to run it.
2. Be ready to provide content, or invest in creating it
Content is the whole game on social. If you’re leaning on stock photos and stock video to tell your brand story, you’re not going to get very far, no matter how skilled your social media manager is.
The same goes for the other extreme: handing over a handful of low-quality photos and expecting magic. That’s not setting your social media manager up to succeed, and it’s not setting you up either.
If you’re investing in a social strategy, you’re investing in either the time or the resources to create the content your social media manager identifies as necessary. That’s not optional. That’s the foundation everything else sits on.
3. Have your brand identity established
Your social media manager, and honestly your social pages themselves, are not responsible for defining your brand. That work happens before hiring, not during.
Before you bring someone on, you need to know who you are, what you do, and your why. And you need the assets to back it up: a logo, a color palette, approved fonts, a visual direction. Give your social media manager a brand to represent, not a brand to invent.
4. Have a website or somewhere to drive traffic off social
Here’s the thing nobody tells you: you don’t own your following.
If your account gets hacked or the platform changes its algorithm overnight, you can lose everything you built, instantly.
That’s why you need somewhere for your audience to land that you actually control: your email list, your website, your purchase funnel.
Social is where you meet people. It’s not where you should be banking your business.
What to Look For When You Hire a Social Media Manager
Once you’ve got those four things locked in, here’s what separates a great social media manager from a mediocre one:
- A unique strategy, not a trend-chasing one. Anyone can jump on the latest audio or format. You want someone building something that still works when the trend dies.
- Real understanding of analytics. Not just reading numbers, knowing which numbers actually move your business forward and which ones are just noise.
- A strong eye for design. Your feed should feel intentional, not like it was assembled at random.
- The ability to brand match. Can they sound like you, look like you, act like you online? Because your page should look like it’s run by your company, not by a social media manager.
Here’s the honest truth: the best social media managers are the ones no one ever notices. Not because they’re invisible, but because their work looks just like you.
Ready to hand this off to someone who gets it?
If you’ve got your brand, your content, and your goals in place, the next move is finding a team that actually knows what to do with them.
That’s where we come in. Let’s Bee Social has helped 100+ small businesses show up online like they mean it, and we’ve got 40 five star reviews from people who’ll tell you the same thing: this isn’t a cookie-cutter agency. As an award-winning team, we give hands-on, personalized service, not a template with your logo slapped on it.
If you want to skip the trial and error and start with a strategy built like a pro would build it, check out our Custom Social Strategy offer. It’s the perfect first step before you hire a social media manager.