Blog / Buying Guide
How to find a social media manager: a practical checklist
Where to actually look
A job board or freelance platform gets you individual candidates, one at a time, and you carry the interviewing and vetting yourself. A referral from another small business owner is faster to trust but limited to whoever they happen to know. An agency or flat-rate partner gives you a team and a process on day one, so you're evaluating a system, not just a single resume.
What to evaluate before you hire
Ask to see real work, not a highlight reel, and ask what part of it they actually made versus templated. Ask exactly who has final say before something publishes, and how fast they reply when you have a question. Ask what the contract actually commits you to, and for how long. The answers matter more than the pitch.
Red flags worth walking away from
No approval step before content goes live. A portfolio that looks identical across different brands. A contract with a long minimum term and no clear way out. And any answer to "who's my point of contact" that's vaguer than a name.
If you want the search to be shorter
Most of this checklist, an approval gate, a named contact, no long-term contract, is what a flat-rate partner like Creovus builds in by default, so there's less to verify yourself.
Book a free 20-minute call. We’ll look at your channels together and show you what a month with Creovus looks like. No pressure.
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