Key Traits to Pinpoint in Hiring Social Media Manager

For a brewery to find its way through the noise of the social media world, a Social Media Manager has become a vital part of the team.

“This is not a part-time, sometimes job,” said Rob Day of Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers. “Someone has to be thinking about it all day, every day. It’s essential in today’s marketing environment.”

The main thing that the Framingham, Massachusetts brewery’s social media manager brings to the role is a volume of communication and perspective. Hiring for that spot meant taking a step back and understanding the type of person and the qualifications needed to be successful in the role along with being able to build the brand in this space.

The main things Day said he was looking for are

  • a desire to do well
  • an eagerness to create and communicate
  • a natural curiosity to learn more and do better

“Those personal characteristics are a must and then we sort out the technical skill sets,” he told Brewer. “The hard part about this role is that it spans such a wide spectrum of talent and is extremely hard to capture in a single person.”

Being organized, driven, and proactive are very important traits for a social media coordinator, added Empyrean Brewing‘s Misty Vandergriend.

“They have to be self-driven to consistently research marketing trends and stay up to date on all the algorithm changes,” she said along with having a good solid brand and sticking with it for all digital marketing is key to building a strong brand people will remember.

READ MORE: 4 Ways Your Brewery Can Keep Up With Social Media Trends

MadTree‘s Trevor Self explained that the hire has to be personable, conversational, empathetic, creative, fun, and can answer all sorts of questions and comments quickly and effectively.

“They take each interaction with a consumer on social media with a perceptive eye and don’t let the “low” experiences bring them down or the “high” experiences go to their heads,” he said.

In a perfect world, one person would be excellent as a skilled photographer, videographer, editor, graphic designer, strategist, data analyst, with a customer-service mindset, and the ability to span multiple platforms.

“There honestly is no one person who can walk in and cover all of those with expertise,” Day said. “So what I try to do is to identify the person’s strengths and support the weaknesses. This approach combined with the personal traits goes a long way.”

With that thought in mind, Short‘s has quite a few people that touch its social media presence.

Christa Brenner said they just moved one of their fest and events team members over to help manage the Michigan brewery’s social community.

“In that case, he was a dedicated team member who loves learning,” she said. “We hired a new marketing manager about a year ago with an advertising background and she has brought new strategies to the table, in terms of paid advertising on social platforms and creative development.

“That’s really helping us reach new audiences and grow engagement.”

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