- Neighbourhood Post
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- ✨ Hiring great social media talent
Hey 👋
Welcome to Neighbourhood Post issue #17 - easy to implement digital marketing ideas straight through your metaphorical letterbox.
I hope you’ve had a good week.
We’re hiring for a Social Media & Email Executive. Do you know anyone who loves digital, lives and breathes social media and is excited about working in an ambitious digital agency start-up? Send them my way!
👉 By the way, if you’ve missed previous newsletters you’ll find them here.
📩 And if you’ve been forwarded this email you can subscribe here.
Next to my desk I have a post-it note with David-Brent-esque words:
“Recruitment will be your biggest challenge, so do something about it now”
We set the bar high, and we only recruit the best.
But we’re not the only ones that struggle.
I often get asked for advice on how to hire for digital roles generally, and social media roles specifically.
It’s a hard one to get right.
For those of you who are considering building a social media team, or will need to in the future, here are a few considerations.
Firstly, knowing what’s needed - succeeding at social requires 4 key skills:
Strategy
Content creation
Project management
Data analysis
Chances are you won’t find one person who can do all four of those to a high standard.
And that’s where most organisations go wrong.
They’re looking for a unicorn 🦄
You might get lucky, but chances are you won’t find one.
The solution still poses a challenge. Splitting it into multiple roles simply isn’t an option for some budgets.
So let’s break down those key skills; the two that are least compatible are strategy and content creation.
At the very least, I’d recommend resourcing strategy and content creation with different solutions. High quality graphic design and videography doesn’t tend to sit alongside the ability to stay at the forefront of the fast-paced, ever changing wave of social media.
If you can only hire one role, aim for a social media strategist but also put aside budget to outsource graphic design and videography to freelancers.
So where should you look for a social media strategist?
The next tip is an important one:
Don’t assume any young person will be good at social media.
I’ve heard it so many times:
“Let’s hire a graduate straight out of uni because they must know how the Tick Tock works.”
Firstly, it’s a little patronising to those of us who have spent over 10 years honing our craft to become the best in the industry. (We forgive you)
Secondly, and most importantly, it hardly ever works out.
Being a Gen-Z digital native doesn’t guarantee a strategic thinker, a creative brainstormer, a master collaborator, a solid copywriter, a spreadsheet-whizz and countless other skills required to do this job well.
Instead you should look for someone with proven experience at translating business objectives into social strategies.
If anything, hiring an experienced social media strategist and an inexperienced freelance designer is better than the other way around.
A few final tips:
Be prepared to hire a remote role - experience over geography
Strategy, project management and data analysis are easier to group together into a role than content creation
Trust them to deliver - they’ll probably suggest ideas that are uncomfortable, but that’s often the path to social media success
If you have the budget consider hiring three roles: Strategist, content creator and project manager.
Take probation periods seriously, set a high bar and if it’s not working, do something about it.
Just to address the elephant in the room 🐘
Sometimes outsourcing to agencies or freelancers allows you to access top tier talent across all stages of social; strategy, content creation, project management and data analysis.
It’s not perfect for everyone, but it helps you punch way above your weight, stay on the forefront of trends and save money compared to hiring four separate people.
If you think it might be for you, let me know.
Anyway, I’d love your help in sharing about our new role, and if you have any questions, simply respond to this email - I see all the replies.
See you next week ✌️
What we’re looking at 👀 and listening to 👂
🎧 Have you heard “Re-Echanting” yet. It’s a podcast with stories, guests and interviews that can re-enchant our vision of culture, science, politics and art with the Christian story. We’ve loved working on it, and there’s great episodes with politician Rory Stewart, journalist Helen Lewis and mythologist Martin Shaw.
📺 Rosie couldn’t sleep the other night, so to calm her mind she watched a thriller about a woman who has to rescue a haul of cocaine from an angry shark (no, really). Deep Fear is on Netflix, but Night Nurse is probably better to help you sleep.
Before you go - we’ll never use these newsletters to directly sell you our services, but we’re always here if you need any expertise or support 👍