What To Look For In A Media Manager

If you’re like most musicians, you’d rather spend your time creating new music than working on social media. The problem is that we all know how important social engagement is when it comes to maintaining and growing your audience. As a result, many artists would rather have a dedicated person handle their online presence. The problem is that most artists aren’t sure exactly what that entails. For some guidance, let’s look at what most companies are looking for in a media manager.

PostBeyond looked at 1,000 advertisements to find out exactly what makes a good media manager and what responsibilities were expected from that position.

The top 5 tasks that were expected of a media manager were (in order of importance):

• Media strategy

• Paid social

• Brand awareness

• Community management

• Public relations

Even if you don’t use paid social advertising, media strategy, brand awareness, community management and public relations are all tasks that an artist needs even if you’re not aware of it. Just knowing that these tasks are expected will eliminate many applicants that aren’t up to the job.

Skills

In terms of skill sets, most media managers are expected to be proficient in these platforms:

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Instagram

• YouTube

Understand that the data was collected from a wide range of businesses, so they might not correlate very well with the needs of an artist or label. In fact, you might want to add TikTok near the top of the list and maybe even eliminate Facebook and Twitter if your audience isn’t on those platforms.

Other Skills

Media managers were also sometimes expected to have additional skills in design tools like Adobe Creative Suite and Canva, as well as some video editing experience as well. That said, it doesn’t much matter how the media creation gets done and what tools are used as much as that it happens on time and looks representative of the artist’s brand.

Be Specific

The real key to finding a media manager that fits with your business is to be as specific as possible about the tasks that are expected. That might include some of the tasks outlined above, but might include some others that are specific to your needs. The key is to spell them out in advance.

Try to get some examples of past work, and even supply a small job before hiring to make sure of the fit. Some businesses use a paid trial period with an hourly raise after that period ends as an incentive, which also gives you an out if the person’s skills aren’t up to your expectations.

Above all, don’t hire someone just because “they’re on TikTok all the time.” Using a platform is about as far from managing and promoting as an apple tree is from an apple pie. In order to accomplish your online strategy, you need a pro, or at least someone that can grow into one. Being clear on what’s expected from them will make it easier on both of you.

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