4 Pro Tips for Building a Social Media Team

By: Ashley Sasnett, Porsche Cars North America

April 4, 2018

It shouldn’t have to be said, but being a social media professional is a real career.

Social media marketers straddle the strategic and tactical responsibilities of marketing, media and communications, making them an indispensable access point for your social channels.

Hiring professionals who understand the ins and outs of what the role requires is an essential first step. But businesses must also realign their preconceptions and expectations of what a social media marketer’s job entails.

So, ahead of my panel at The Social Shake-Up Show May 7-9 in Atlanta, which will address how to build a social media team, here are four things organizations need to keep in mind when populating their social media strategy.

Ashley Sasnett, new media and social engagement manager, Porsche Cars North America

Social media marketers are racehorses. If your organization treats social media as a last minute “bolt on” to a marketing or business strategy, then you’re not going to attract top talent. If you do have top talent, then you need to let them run. Leaders need to integrate their social team into their organization, help them build relationships and then set them free. They also need to be able to build content calendars, workflows and measurement schemas, which they can’t do with another director hovering around all the time.

Social media will not save a sub-par product. Trying to manipulate review sites, constantly hosting contests to drive engagement and neglecting to cultivate a customer care presence on social is not a business strategy. Like it or not, people are going to talk about your business on social and you won’t be privy to a bulk of those conversations. This means that what happens with people on the phone, in a store and in a meeting is all part of your social presence. Be aware of the optics around your business.

Social media is both an art and a science. The creative matters. The copy matters. The media, and the media’s optimization, also matters. Measurement matters. All of these things matter, which is why staying mindful of the first two points is so important.

Some things don’t matter. Follower and fan counts are not as relevant as you think. The platform the executive leader’s kid thinks is cool probably isn’t important. Most awards don’t matter, either. What matters is that leaders invest in social strategies that add value to their business, supporting those strategies with staff, content and tactics to bring them to life.

Ashley Sasnett is the new media and social engagement manager at Porsche Cars North America headquartered in Atlanta.

Follow Ashley: @AshleySasnett