After one of my high school class reunions, I joined Facebook in 2009, and at same time opened a Twitter account. A few years later, I joined Instagram. I do not use these social media outposts for business but have clients who use Facebook Pages to promote their business, and also use Facebook advertising to target-reach their desired demographic client.
We all know that data is being collected daily about us, that our expectations of privacy are more or less out the window, and yet we don’t know what the data is being used for. There are plenty of companies which analyze and promote digital marketing. And some people in business are either unwilling or unable to keep up with social media marketing.
In the past I have encouraged small to mid size companies to outsource the digital marketing responsibilities. It seems like good advice given that times can be tough for many companies and it’s not time to add to the payroll a social media marketer. In most cases, this is a truism. It all depends on how much money the Company is spending pursuant to engaging digital marketing consultants.
I’m not aware of any business rule of thumb regarding when to add a social media director. But given the realities of marketing, I now encourage companies to spend time with this question rather than dismiss it as out-of-bounds. It could be more cost effective to make a full-time or part-time hire, offering benefits, rather than continue to outsource. Social media promotion and marketing is a necessity for many companies. We’ve seen platforms like Tik-Tok–formerly just a playful lark of short video vines–now being used to market products and services to a younger audience. And altnough Apple has made privacy a company policy and reduced the ability of companies like Facebook to access iPhone users’ data, companies still find cost benefit to Facebook advertising.
In short, it’s no longer a time when a “Social Media Director” position can be dismissed as an unnecessary luxury.
