When I talk to Etsy sellers about what they want to outsource the most in their business, a lot of the time social media comes up. So today I want to address of the biggest mistakes that I see Etsy sellers making when they start making a plan to outsource their marketing and social media and answer the questions of “Should I hire a Social Media Manager for my Etsy shop?” once and for all.
What does a social media manager do?
The social media manager has a wide variety of tasks. They can do everything from coming up with your social media strategy and creating content to taking the content you’ve created and scheduling it on your platforms for you. Social media managers will also assist you with influencers and collaborations.
The benefits of hiring a social media manager for your Etsy shop.
Social media marketing is something that a lot of Etsy sellers don’t excel at. Look, I get it. We start our shops to make products, not to go viral on Instagram. So hiring a social media manager can save you a ton of time and have better results for your brand for visibility and sales.
The drawbacks of hiring a social media manager.
The biggest drawback to hiring a social media manager is that your budget really makes a big difference in what you are going to get as far as services go. And these two expectations need to match prior to you hiring anyone. I see a lot of Etsy sellers with budget for a virtual assistant to post their content for them who want to hire someone to act as so much more than that. So sometimes when Etsy sellers go to hire a VA, they’re really disappointing to learn that they still have to write all the content and the virtual assistant is essentially just scheduling it all and not coming up with the big strategy.
To get someone to create content and strategy for you, you need the budget for a person or team that has skills or training in that area.
How to determine if hiring a social media manager is right for your Etsy shop.
The very first step in determining if it’s the right time for you to hire is to determine your budget and what you want to get for that budget. If you are shopping around for social media managers and not finding anybody that will do what you want them to do for your budget, you need to reassess this step and figure out where the disconnect is coming from regarding your budget.
The next thing you should do before deciding to hire a social media manager is to set some goals. When I hired my virtual assistant team, my goals for social media when it was just to be consistent with posting. I had been so busy that I was not posting on my social media accounts or emailing my list regularly and I wanted to get back to that so I could get back that know, like, and trust factor with my audience.
Your goal might be to increase followers or to get more traffic and sales to your Etsy shop. Whatever that goal is, you need to have these numbers documented both for you and for whoever you end up hiring. Then when you get to the end of their first 30 or 60 or 90 days, you have those goals to look back on to know what is working with your strategy with this new hire and what’s not.
Tips for finding and hiring the right social media manager for your business.
Finding a social media manager on the platform you want to focus on is a great first place to look. You’ll be able to learn more about their personality and strategy for their own business. You should also be able to learn more about their current clients from their profile.
I also suggest looking in Facebook groups for virtual assistants or social media managers.
Need help with your social media, but not ready to hire anyone yet? Join me in Etsy JumpStart. This training course gives you hundreds of social media prompts and marketing ideas, so you’ll never run out of things to say to your audience again. Grab it here.
