Seems like a simple question right? Aren’t we all in charge of social?  Out there building our personal brand and help establish brand credibility for the company we work for?  But, who’s that person in the background that implements a social strategy for your company, manages all the company social accounts, engages with customers in not only happy conversations but the bad ones as well?  Who is the person that is monitoring trends and exploring new tools? What about implementing social campaigns and analyzing the social metrics to provide the benefits of participating in social media?  Who is that person that is building social awareness inside the company and encouraging you to participate? 

photo: stoneysteiner

That is your social media manager!  Does your company have one?  So many companies think just because they have a Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram account they are being social. There is so much more untapped value in that space. I think the problem is most companies think that someone should be doing all of this ON TOP of their daily duties. I don’t think that is a fair expectation. More than likely this person is going to exhausted and what’s worse is your online presence and your customers will suffer. There needs to be a dedicated person that will build your strategy, define the process, place it into action, review the results, and then learn from the mistakes while sharing the benefits. There’s a great article titled “The 6 Things Your Social Media Manager Must Do To Expand Your Online Presence” that breaks the role down into 6 parts.

What do you think?  Do companies need this Social Media Manager?