This presentation discusses the following What roles do you need to have on your social media team. Where to find the talent. Who to hire. Full of practical tips in helping you build your dream team.

1. HIRING FOR SOCIAL MEDIA
Salima Valji
Vice-President, Managing Director, Toronto
s.valji@sonicboom.com
@salimavalji

2. BUILDING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM
Finding great talent has always been a
challenge, finding really great talent with
fantastic social media chops is even harder.

3. AGENDA
• What roles do I need in my organization?
• Where do I find them?
• Who do I hire?

4. WHAT ROLES DO I NEED IN MY
ORGANIZATION?

5. THE COMPOSITION OF A SOCIAL MEDIA
TEAM
Source: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2011/12/22/data-composition-of-a-corporate-social-media-team/

6. AVERAGE COMPOSITION OF A CORPORATE
SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM

7. HOW TO APPLY THIS DATA TO YOUR
ORGANIZATION
• Team headcount dependent on your
company’s size and maturity of your program
• Use the ratios as a baseline
• Multiple hats required in smaller teams
• Your organization’s understanding of social
media will impact the investment they make
• This model does not include agency support

8. Source: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2011/02/10/spend-wisely-finally-an-investment-roadmap-for-social-business-buyers-altimeter-report/

9. WHERE CAN I FIND THE TALENT?

10. LOOK WITHIN
• Find your ambassadors
• Sometimes the least suspecting are huge
influencers
• Have a writing competition to identify your
blogging team

11. LOOK WITHIN
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/stevenvanbelleghem/social-media-around-the-world-2011

12. USE SOCIAL TOOLS
• Go where the candidates are
• Likely participating in multiple social networks
• They are following people in your organization

13. BE SOCIAL
• Social media
enthusiasts attend
social media week,
twitter chats, tweet-
ups, Podcamp, Third
Tuesday, Geek Girl
dinners, etc.
• Best candidates are
already in jobs, so be
out there with them

14. SHOWCASE CASE STUDIES
• Trail blazers want to work on exciting new
stuff
• Showcase your wins and losses in social media
• Invite them to be part of the solution
• Don’t be shy, but be certain your case study is
worth talking about

15. EMPOWER EMPLOYEES TO RECRUIT
• Chances are that your employees participate
in the same social networks that potential
candidates do
• Empower your employees to recruit through
their networks – leverage their social equity
• Track your links with bit.ly and learn how your
job postings are being socialized, that can give
great insights

16. WHO SHOULD I HIRE?

18. THERE ARE NO SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERTS
• Your social media employees are always learning
• Technology is always evolving
• Follower/fan count is not an indication of
influence
• Look for someone who is engaged in more than
just facebook, twitter and has a blog
• Co-ops or interns are not the right choice for
engaging with your customers, would you trust
them with your key PR messages?

19. QUALITIES TO LOOK FOR
• Passion
• Service DNA
• Nimble and can react quickly
• Thirsty for staying up to date
• Risk tolerance and ability to fail fast
• Innovative self starter
• Have the same value system and voice as your
brand
• Personable
• Demonstrated marketing experience

21. QUESTIONS TO ASK
• How do you measure social media?
– Everything needs to be measured
– If they don’t have a straight answer, move on
– “Social media is too new” doesn’t cut it anymore
– Look for the same principles in marketing
– Take a baseline and measure against it

22. QUESTIONS TO ASK
• How do you measure and derive insights from social
media?
– Familiar with the tools
• Radian6, Sysomos for pulling large amounts of data based on
keyword searches
• Klout, compete.com for measuring influence of people, brands
and websites
– Integrate monitoring of traditional media and social
media
– Have a thorough knowledge of entire environment and is
able to make connections using historical and real time
data

23. QUESTIONS TO ASK
• What’s your favorite case study?
– Go beyond the usual examples like Dove, Ikea or
Old Spice
– Social media enthusiast are always looking to
learn so they will be familiar with other case
studies

24. QUESTIONS TO ASK
• How do you stay up to date in this industry?
– Ask for specific bloggers or influencers they follow
– Jeremiah Owyang, Steve Rubel, Guy Kawasaki,
David Armano, Joseph Jaffee, mashable.com,
readwriteweb.com, etc.
– Friends in the industry
– Do they attend any of the free events e.g. Third
Tuesdays, PodCamp, Social Media Week, Case
camp, tweet ups, etc.

25. QUESTIONS TO ASK
• What is the value of integrated marketing to
social media?
– Success rarely happens on it’s own
– Need other media to support
– Leverage the support of email, advertising, PR,
etc. to get maximum benefit

26. QUESTIONS TO ASK
• What is your target customer’s relationship
with social media?
– Are they on facebook, twitter, youtube, G+, etc?
– Look for a true understanding of your customer’s
online behaviour
– Be cautious about the latest social media tool
e.g. pinterest

27. USE CASE STUDIES TO IDENTIFY THE BEST
• Go beyond the interview
• Some candidates are really really good at selling
themselves
• But can they actually engage with your customers? Can
they put together a strategic plan?
• Depending on the role you are looking to hire, give
them a case study to prepare
• Demonstrates their approach, their experience, their
ability to present
• Gives the candidate an idea of what kind of challenges
they will be faced with in the role

29. CASE STUDY
• Objective
• The ask
• The required elements
• How they will be measured
• 15 -20 slides max
• 15 mins to present

30. CASE STUDY EXAMPLES
• Social Media Strategist
– Provide a scenario that exists in your organization
today e.g. reposition your brand to be hip
– Provide an objective of what you would like to achieve
via social media and/or other integrated channels
– Ask them to identify the opportunities and to develop
a plan to harness those opportunities
– Look for an understanding of your business, budget,
measurement, resources to execute the plan and how
the roadmap maps back to corporate objectives

31. CASE STUDY EXAMPLE
• Social Media Analyst
– Identify a marketing campaign (Toronto Auto
Show) or a topic your are interested in e.g.
Alzheimer patient support
– Ask for campaign reach, influencers, volume,
sentiment and consumer insights
– Have them present their findings
– Understand the tools they used
– Look for how they tell the story so that it’s
meaningful to your organization

32. CASE STUDY EXAMPLE
• Blogger
– Write a blog post in your company’s brand and
voice that is informative yet engaging
– Choose a topic that your customer would be
interested in (ask for the rational)
– How would they drive traffic to the post
– What sources would they use to develop
additional content for the blog
– How would they write the post for other social
channels

33. GIVE FULL SUPPORT
• Support your team to evolve the corporation
• Get the most out of your investment
• Give opportunity to take on risk safely
• Clear road blocks internally
• Reward with challenges and compensation

34. REMEMBER
• Understand the roles you need to meet your
objective
• Look within
• Leverage your employees social influence
• Be Social
• There are no social media experts
• Ask the right questions
• Use case studies to identify the best
• Support your team

35. Find this deck -
THANK YOU AND GOOD LUCK
BUILDING YOUR TEAM!