Depending on the size of your business you might have a really small social media team. Maybe it’s even one person. And that can make the hiring process a lot tougher.

When you hire one person to manage social media you’re not just choosing who writes posts and content. You are choosing who represents the organisation when customers are angry, information is incomplete, something has broken, or nobody else is available.

It’s not about what they do, it’s about the surface area of your business that’s under their control.

With decades of experience leading social media and community management in organisations of all shapes and sizes, here are the things I think matter most.

They’re making decisions alone 

Weekly and quarterly goals
It doesn’t so much matter what they are, but you do need to think about them. What is it you’re bringing someone on to do? It’s not about the daily activities like answering comments or putting up posts, but the reasoning behind them.

Is it customer service, why? Are you maintaining status quo or building a reputation?
Expanding to reach new audiences or just being visible so people know you’re there.

Having a clear picture on the why behind what you want someone to achieve can help make sure you’re looking for someone who can stand strong. And it’s what’s best for them too. Someone who’s an expert in writing snazzy content might not have what you need in dispute resolution.

What are your risks?
Every organisation, industry even has different risk profiles and very different appetites for it. You should know what yours are, and how safe you need to play things. When you’re talking to candidates, do they have experience with your level of risk?

Someone who’s built strong followings and brought in plenty of sales sounds great on paper, but what if they’ve never been in a high risk environment? Knowing what counts as financial advice or who’s allowed to change a light switch is critical stuff.

You’ve got incredible knowledge on what you do in a thousand ways. You don’t need to find someone with experience in the specific things you do. But you need someone who can understand how they work.

Can they shift voice?
This is such an easy one to overlook, but your brand has a distinct voice. It does. Even if you’ve never written it down and made it a document. There’s an owner, a manager, someone who’s been in charge of marketing and you’ve spoken to your audience in a consistent manner most of the time.

Are you finding someone who can do that? Or are they coming in to post in their own voice? It’s more than just words and tone, it’s the way to tackle a problem or to deal with a crisis.

When did things really break for you?
When was your last crisis, and what was it? Think back to the last time something really hit the fan. It doesn’t need to be a national level incident, it could be a double bill to a critical client, or a large set of orders for someone exceptionally vulnerable.

But it’s important to know, to think about something specific. And assess someone’s experience and interview questions against that memory.

How would they have handled it? Is it how you wanted it handled? Did you manage last time or were there mistakes made?

Thinking about the specific worst outcome, and whether someone’s experience lines up with that or not.

Conclusion: Focus on what actually matters

It’s easy to write clean copy, you can just edit it til it feels right. It can be easy to create a nice looking feed, curating and culling to end up with the right images, templates and online tools make visual layout easier than it’s ever been for experts. But a visually interesting feed and some polished words isn’t all you’re looking for.

A solo social media person will always come with trade-offs. They might be exceptional at writing and merely capable at reporting, or brilliant with customers and less confident with video or ad targeting. That’s normal.

Know what matters. Know what you need them to be excellent at before a polished portfolio, clever content or follower counts start subconsciously making the decision for you.