Hiring a candidate who can manage multiple social media platforms, writes well, and understands your brand voice might not be enough to help your company run effective social media campaigns. If you're still resistant to the changes that come with digital marketing, your company's social media efforts might be in vain.

One such change is the demand for transparency in business operations.

"Sure, social media transparency is just one component. . .but it’s an essential component," writes Ryan Erskine, the Director of Client Services at BrandYourself.com, in a Forbes article,

"Not only do consumers want to know what a business stands for, they also want to know the name of the people running the company. . .When brands are transparent and develop a history of transparency, nearly 90 percent of people are more likely to give them second chances after bad experiences and 85 percent are more likely to stick with them during crises."

But this kind of transparency can't be delivered by your social media manager without your permission.

Another change that internet marketing enforces is the need for businesses to adopt an inbound mindset.

According to Hubspot,

"Inbound is a method of attracting, engaging, and delighting people to grow a business that provides value and builds trust. As technology shifts, inbound guides an approach to doing business in a human and helpful way. Inbound is a better way to market, a better way to sell, and a better way to serve your customers."

At its best, social media is an inbound platform. And an inbound strategy requires your business to invest sufficient time and resources. While the results can be phenomenal, your social media manager's efforts (and yours, in supporting the research, content creation, content distribution, and performance analysis) must be tremendous, too.

"It takes a long time to endear a valuable community member," Dan Norris, Australian entrepreneur and bestselling author, writes in the book, Content Machine. "Much like physical communities, you can’t just waltz in and expect to be at the top right away. It takes time for you to learn what the community members like and for them to learn that you are a valuable contributor."

Avoid Sabotaging Your New Social Media Manager by Adapting the Right Mindset

Your social media manager will need you to be patient, supportive, participatory, and optimistic. Here are three tips to get you started.

1. Get clear on the costs.

Companies that want to use social media effectively should be ready to spend.

According to DustinStout.com, a leading online social media publication, every day there are 300 million new photos published on Facebook, 95 million photos uploaded on Instagram, 140 million tweets on Twitter, and three billion snaps posted on Snapchat.

To get the attention and trust of your target audience amidst all these competing messages, you'll have to employ every tool at your disposal, including money, time, and influence.

That's why four million businesses were paying for Facebook advertising as far back as 2016.

However, a benefit to social media management is that you can spend as little or as much as you want on your campaigns.

Choosing the right social media budget depends on your business and social media goals, how your audience uses social media, and the amount that your competition spends. You can figure this out by working alongside your social media manager.

Getting clear on costs will place you on the same page with your social media manager at all times.

2. Be ready to participate.

In today's business environment, it is has become increasingly important for business owners, chief executive officers, and senior executives to be active on social media and to contribute to their organization's social media efforts.

Hiring a social media manager to work in isolation will hurt your business's social media efforts. Rather, you must be an active part of your business's social media efforts -- and your other employees should, too. Here are some ways you can do this:

• Everyone in your team should follow, like, and share all your company's social media posts.
• Everyone in your team should make regular appearances in your company's social media posts; they can be interviewed in videos, be recorded in pictures while at work, or reveal industry tips in posts.
• Every employee should engage with your target audience outside the corporate social media platforms. According to Brandwatch, 96 percent of people who discuss brands online do not follow those brands' owned profiles.
• You can reach out to your industry contacts to find influencers and industry experts who may be willing to get featured on your social media platforms and to share and comment. This will add credibility to your social media efforts.
  
  

3. Be ready to adopt an inbound mindset.

Bestselling marketing author and entrepreneur Seth Godin best sums up the idea behind inbound marketing: "You don't find customers for your products. You find products for your customers."

Hubspot explains further,

"Inbound marketing is a business methodology that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them. While outbound marketing interrupts your audience with content they don’t want, inbound marketing forms connections they’re looking for and solves problems they already have."

Understanding the inbound strategy is essential to helping your business succeed on social media. This is because social media is an inbound platform; an avenue where your target audience only cares to read, like, or follow content that's tailored to their needs and interests. The free Hubspot inbound marketing course is a good place to start learning about inbound.

When you understand the inbound process, you'll be able to integrate your company's social media efforts with other corporate activities and increase your social media results.

Stanley Igboanugo is a freelance copywriter who is passionate about entrepreneurship, health and wellness, the energy sector, and women's football. He is a regular contributor to major publications like Thrive Global, Tekedia.com and Africanwriters. You can reach him on LinkedIn.