14 Jun Resume Qualifications that Show Your Business 'Gets' Social Media Marketing
Back in February, I wrote a blog post entitled Resume Qualifications that Show Your Business Doesn’t Know a Thing about Social Media. It was partly written as a showing of solidarity amongst the frustrated social medians (still working on a name for people that work in social media) out there who can’t meet the unreal expectations of businesses that are unfamiliar with the field. It was mostly written so that businesses that are interested in hiring someone to head their social media efforts would stop looking and asking for the wrong things. Since I’ve gone over what not to look for, I figured you should know a few things you should look for.
Blogging
Blogging may be the most important qualification you can look for because a good blogger has many skills that translate to successful social media marketing.
Good bloggers know how to use social media channels to drive people towards their blog, have an eye for pleasing aesthetics (few are going to read the posts if the site disgusts their pupils), have a consistent work ethic (you need one if you post every day), have experience injecting a little SEO-goodness into everything, and more. All those skills can easily adapt to any company. There’s also published catalog of their writing samples available to view at your leisure so you can determine if they have the style you like.
Most importantly, they know how bloggers think, which is essential in Social Media PR. As Ignite Community Relations Specialist Christian Sullivan explains, “Bloggers share stupidity faster than your regular reporters. Your typical reporters will scold you via email, and tell you how far off you are from knowing anything about his/her audience- a blogger will write an open letter on their blog which garners thousands of unique monthly visitors.”
A Background in PR, Marketing, or Advertising
I begin with a caveat. A person with many years (perhaps a decade) of PR, marketing, or advertising should not automatically be viewed as a better candidate than someone who has several years of social media marketing experience. Christian elaborates: “Social media marketing is so new and changes on a daily basis that no matter what prior experience you have in PR, marketing, or advertising, you’ll essentially come in starting with a blank slate. It’s a different world. Messaging is different. The way you reach your fans is different. The methods of engaging with customers (now fans) are different.”
That said, a person who understands marketing and has experience driving business results could be an excellent candidate. They will most likely have experience in campaign building, development, execution and client relationships. They will have to learn to think differently but they’ll have a good foundation.
Social Media Campaigns
Whether it’s fan acquisition, blogger outreach, a contest, or any other number of social media campaigns, there is a bevy of experience that they’ve probably gained during its execution.
Including but not limited to:
- Blogger outreach
- Channel Management (i.e. monitoring, responding, posting)
- Researching and mastering new engagement tools
- Helping develop strategic and innovative methods for both engaging current fans/followers
- Creating terms and conditions (i.e. how one can enter a contest, how winners are chosen, details of the prizes being given away, dates and times of the contest, who’s eligible, etc.)
- Customer service skills (dealing with passionate fans can be very tasking)
- Crisis management (Murphy and his Law can pop up frequently)
- Understanding of the technical side (if not coding themselves, they probably at least worked with someone and learned how to better communicate their ideas)
Best of all, if you bring them in for an interview, you can quiz them on the process and actually find out if they know what they’re talking about. This will help separate them from the so-called social media “experts.”
So, there you have it: a few things to keep in mind if you’re hiring someone to help manage your online reputation. Are there any other qualities you think help demonstrate that a company has got their stuff together? Share in the comments.
