5 Tips for Hiring a Social Media Marketer

Once a week we hear the same question: what should I look for when hiring a social media marketer? It's an important question and one becoming more critical as companies build their online presences.
Social media marketers can seem like an elusive new and unique breed, with super-human qualities. They can speed text, post more Facebook pictures than grandpa had taken in his lifetime, and have the magical ability to hold the phone just right for the most flattering selfies on Instagram.
But while their talents might seem mysterious, great social media marketers are really just smart marketers. Finding someone who understands the profession and the latest digital tools can be a tricky process but it's one that's made a little easier if you keep the following points in mind.

1. Find a true marketer. Marketing is a discipline and a trade. Too often, businesses believe that anybody with a Facebook or Twitter account can do social media marketing. But while anyone can write a Facebook post, not everyone understands a company's marketing needs. Find someone with proven experience building an audience, promoting a brand and working with a team or agency to acquire and retain customers.
2. Get a critical thinker. Good marketers analyze, test, take risks and balance new hypotheses with proven strategies. They know that marketing is an ongoing test-and-learn cycle and don't expect results overnight. They also realize the marketplace is competitive and that today's strategy won't be a winner forever.
Ask potential hires about a hypothesis they've tested in their past work to get new customers. Have them explain how they crafted that theory, tested it and what the results were. A solid candidate will give you a thoughtful, detailed answer and won't shoot from the hip.
3. Execute to perfection. An idea is only as good as its execution. Social media, being so tactical in nature, requires someone who has that patience, focus and know-how.
A few months ago I got a call from a small business that tweeted daily but wasn't seeing any traffic to its site. The company wanted to know what it should do differently. I looked at their past tweets (they were using a system that recorded all past posts) and we found that none of their tweets had links to the website. Zero links will certainly lead to zero visitors. In this case they'd put an intern in charge of the social media who simply needed more supervision and training. Their problem wasn't lack of resources, but the intern's faulty execution.
Keep execution in mind when you talk to your new hire's references. Ask them how realistic and practical your candidate was in their prior work. Did they prove they can execute? Were there any quality issues with the work? Were there any missed deadlines? Ask about common mistakes or blind spots this staffer had (since even All-stars have them).
You should be asking your potential hire these questions and matching them with that staffer's work samples to get a fuller picture of what they'll bring to your projects. Additionally, ask your candidate how they would go about a very specific, but small objective, such as how they would get 50 people to read a new blog post you published. Watch for specific and practical answers. Watch for simple solutions. Red-flag anything that seems too big compared to the small objective.
4. Don't look for social media celebrities. That's not to say you don't want to hire a social media influencer. But you need people who aren't so focused on their personal brand that they can't adapt their voice and tone to yours. Look critically at their personal feeds to see how they've built engagement and kept followers, but check their professional work, too, to ensure they can be loyal and represent a brand first.
5. Once you've hired, be involved. Since social media isn't magic, so expect to spend some time translating the culture of your company to your new employee. You have all the stories that would make you attractive on social media. They don't. So, once they're hired, help them with those stories, as well as with the content and images. Don't expect them to make miracles happen while you're off playing golf.
You should also help clarify expectations and put in the time needed to understand the long-term value of the work done. Show your commitment to seeing your social media efforts through. You can also help by holding your marketer accountable to goal-setting and follow-through. You are in this together, and you will succeed together.

How to Find Great Candidates by Looking Past the Obvious

When your business is growing fast -- faster than you could ever possibly imagine -- it's likely that you will consider bringing in an expert who has "been there and done that" to help your business go where you want it to go. But whether you are inventing something completely new, creating a new business model or merely shaking up the status quo (and aren't we entrepreneurs always trying to do that?), an expert from the trenches of business-as-usual may not be the perfect fit for your company.
It's not that you don't need an expert. Most growing businesses could benefit from a seasoned point of view. But you need a very special kind of expert, someone willing to help you build the business you want to build, not the one she thinks you should be building. That kind of expert is not so easy to find.
To avoid making costly mistakes (and I'm speaking from experience), here's what we try to do at my company, Lolly Wolly Doodle:
Don't start with the title.
Old-fashioned job titles can send you down a rabbit hole. Even if you're sure you need a vice president of operations, you should identify the top three things that you want accomplished by the person sitting in that job. Be as specific as possible. Then, when the VP of operations from the big-box store down the road walks in for an interview and shares her experience with you, listen for those three things.
Prepare three scenarios and ask how she would react to them. If she answers differently than you expect, don't discount the expert right away, but explain how your company reacts and listen carefully to how she responds. That will give you clues as to how her experience might align with your needs.
Get granular.
If you're interviewing a candidate from a traditional top-down company for your new and growing business, don't gloss over the specifics of his experience. Startups require someone who is hands-on and flexible and who has been close to the ground recently enough to understand not only how to manage people and develop processes, but also how to roll up his sleeves and do it themselves.
If you're looking for an expert in enterprise resource planning, ask each candidate how many systems he has implemented. What went right and wrong? What was his specific role? You may be in apparel, like Lolly Wolly Doodle, and the candidate may come from the grocery business, but you may find that his experience dovetails with your needs. You won't know unless you ask for specifics.
Don't compromise.
It's so easy to be dazzled by the promise of experience when you're determined to succeed. But tread carefully. A wrong hire can prove costly -- in time, in money and in business progress. Make sure the cultural fit is right. If you're gutsy and fast-paced, then your expert -- no matter whether he hails from a traditional role in corporate America or the startup in the office next door with the magnetic black walls and neon chalk -- better share your values and vision.
Know exactly what you need.
If we knew exactly what we needed, we might not have sought an expert in the first place, right? Well, not exactly. As someone who built a business from the ground up, I still feel the urge to do everything myself, but realistically I can't. So if you wind up hiring an expert who doesn't work out (and it's bound to happen at some point), reevaluate those top three things that you thought you needed in the first place.
The best way to revamp that list is to do the job yourself. If the person you hired was perfect on paper but didn't work out, it may be that you didn't fully know what you needed. You probably won't be able to do the job perfectly, which means you will quickly learn what skills you are seeking to fill your knowledge gaps. After all, isn't filling gaps in knowledge what working with an expert is all about?

5 Hiring Practices to Keep You Out of Hot Water With the IRS

If you need more help for your business, should you hire new employees or engage independent contractors? The decision will be based on the nature of the work, your business culture, what you can afford and perhaps, most importantly, government rules.
For the IRS, the question of worker classification -- as an employee or independent contractor -- is high on its audit list. States also scrutinize worker classification when claims are made by workers for unemployment compensation and workers’ compensation. If you decide that independent contractors better suit your needs than employees, make sure your treatment of these workers will be respected by the government.
1. Check both IRS and state rules.
You can’t arbitrarily put the label of independent contractor on a worker and make it stick. It has to be appropriate, based on the degree of control you exercise over the worker. Boiling this down, if you have the right to say when, where and how the work gets done, likely the worker is your employee.
No one factor is determinative. The IRS uses 20 factors that fall into three categories -- behavioral control, financial control and the relationship of the parties -- to determine this. Familiarize yourself with them.
To complicate things, states don’t necessarily agree with IRS classification. A worker may be treated as an independent contractor for federal employment tax purposes but an employee for purposes of state unemployment benefits or workers’ compensation. Check with your state to learn its rules.

2. Use a written agreement.
One of the factors used by the IRS for determining worker classification is the intention of the parties. You can spell this out by using a written agreement with an independent contractor. The agreement can state that the worker understands he or she is not an employee and is personally responsible for taxes, insurance and other expenses. The fact that there may be reimbursement to the worker for certain expenses, such as travel, won’t nix the relationship spelled out in the agreement.
But understand that while this agreement is certainly helpful, it is not binding on the IRS or other government agencies. The government does not have to follow the classification created by the agreement because it is not a party to the agreement.
3. Issue Form 1099-MISC.
If you pay $600 or more to an independent contractor during the year (not necessarily all at one time), you should send IRS Form 1099-MISC to report the annual payments. When doing this, one copy goes to the worker and another to the IRS. Doing this is another indication that you view the worker as an independent contractor. It is also essential for obtaining penalty relief, which I detail below, if it is ultimately determined that the worker is really an employee.
4. Know your industry practices.
If there is a long-standing practice in your industry in treating certain workers as independent contractors, you probably can follow suit. The practice exists if at least 25 percent of your industry follows it.
If you follow long-standing industry practices (and issued a 1099 where required), even if the IRS successfully reclassifies your worker as an employee, you can minimize employment tax penalties by using Sec. 350 relief. This relief is not a section in the Tax Code; it’s the section in a 1978 law that created it.
5. Be consistent.
You should treat workers who are performing the same work in the same way. You can’t treat some as employees and others as independent contractors. And you can’t change treatment from year to year. Stay consistent.
Again, consistency will help you in securing Sec. 530 relief if you need it.
If you still have questions, talk with a tax advisor or employment law expert. Don’t wait until the government challenges you. Get your worker classification right from the start so you can secure independent contractor status for workers if that’s your aim