There’s nothing like a successful relationship between a social media manager and a business owner. When it’s right it creates an amazing synergy between the two that leads to a great flow state and translates into incredible results for the client and growth for the SMM.
However, when it’s wrong all sorts of things can end up happening, the relationship can split with a business owner who may have felt they wasted their money, and more importantly no longer sees the value of social media for their business. For the SMM it can lead to a world of headaches from waited effort and more importantly a tainted reputation.
Through my experience as a social media manager for business owners I’ve identified 3 key things that business owners and SMM’s need to create a successful relationship.
How To Build A Good Relationship With Your Social Media Manager
#1. Communication
I put this important yet obvious key first because it by far is the least adhered to, especially in a remote working situation!
It is imperative that the social media manager and the business owner develop a great and consistent form of communication to have a successful relationship.
For the business owners, in the beginning you need to be very clear in communicating your desires and goals for your social media project to your new SMM. This will give your SMM the road map to start creating an expert strategy with projected mile stones that give realistic results. It’s equally important that you also make sure your SMM understands what your brand stands for, who your target market is, and what it is that they value; this will allow your SMM to get inside the minds of your audience and create the best content that will resonate with them.
As an SMM it’s important that you communicate your reasoning behind what you intend on doing for your client.
Most business owners know they need social media. They don’t always understand why they need it. You must educate them on the benefits of your strategy. Make sure they have a clear understanding of what their ROI for your service is.
#2. Trust
There’s a lot of psychology that goes into marketing, probably more than any one person realizes. From copy, to funnels, to email campaigns, to graphics, and even status updates an expert SMM knows how to tap into the psyche of their client’s audience and develop a strategy that nurtures relationships to ensure the highest conversion rates during product offerings.
The reason why I lead with that statement is because often it takes time to reap the fruits from such a strategy, but if you’re patient the payoff can be astronomical!
Most business owners have an innate sense of urgency to generate leads and increase sales through social media.
They don’t want it to happen today-they want it to happen tomorrow!
How-ever, an expert social media manager knows the importance of taking time to nurture the relationship funnel.
Every time you give value to your audience, you earn more trust.
Every time you ask them for money, you lose trust.
Ask too early and you could lose them all together!
Therefore, you as a business owner need to trust the advice and expertise of your social media manager. If the two of you have great communication, this should be easy to do.
#3. Commitment
When I speak to a potential client about exploring the possibility of managing their social media platforms I never use the phrase “work for”, I always emphasis the word partnership.
Why?
Because it takes a certain amount of commitment from both the business owner and the social media manager to create a successful relationship and a successful marketing strategy.
As a business owner, you must be willing to provide the proper social media tools. This helps your social media manager implement a successful strategy for you.
That includes making sure you take the time to provide them with the video and photos that they need to create great content for you. You may need to block out time to stream live videos at specific times.
Your SMM understands that you have a business to run and a life to live. However,to have a successful social media marketing campaign, you will need to partner with them to meet your goals.
As an SMM, you must be committed to following through on your word from the very beginning!
If you tell your client you’re going to post for them 5-7 times a week you have to follow through.
If you’ve told your client you’ll have an article ready to publish you have to follow through.
By not following through on your word you express a lack of commitment. You run the risk of ruining your own reputation. Ultimately, you also taint the integrity of our industry.
Do what you say you’re going to do. It grows a successful relationship and can also bring you future business.
I could give other key things that create successful relationships between a business owner and an SMM. I’ve learned that the three I mentioned are by far the most important.
From the very start of your relationship make sure that you communicate effectively. Develop a sense of trust in one another. Be equally committed to doing what it takes and you’ll lay the foundation for a successful relationship.
