Study the top entrepreneurs and leaders in social media and internet marketing and you’ll quickly notice one thing: Most of them operate with a team of assistants and specialists. If your goal is to join them at the top, plan for your team from the beginning, even if it doesn’t yet make sense to run around hiring or contracting even a VA (virtual assistant).
How many team members do you need?
This depends on the extent of your marketing operation. If you are simply going to write posts and guest posts, write a book and haunt the social platforms of your choice, you might not need a specific networking team (though a virtual assistant is probably something you’ll want to plan for).
If, on the other hand, you envision yourself traveling all over the country several times a year, speaking at conferences and television talk shows, and holding live webinars while getting another book off to the press and so forth, a team to make sure everything runs smoothly and on schedule will be an essential part of your success.
Team members – how many and what positions they fill – will depend entirely on:
· Your vision
· Your budget
· Your own areas of expertise
· Time at your disposal
· Areas you cover
You might have:
· A tech manager – to handle webinar, video and podcast set up
· A coach – perhaps specializing in a specific area, such as branding or public speaking
· A personal and/or virtual assistant – to take care of the zillion and one details in coordinating and organizing your schedule (including travel arrangements)
· Help Desk or customer service staff
· A publicity or promotions manager or assistant
And behind the scenes, you might discreetly make use of:
· SEO experts
· Graphic artists
· Video production companies or teams
· Stats analysts
· Ghostwriters
Where to find them? Google and LinkedIn searches are a place to start, but look for recommendations from people you know and trust – and always check all references and recommendations.
You can also train interns, and offer the best ones employment at the end of their training. (Note that interns are not unpaid labor: Check out your local rules and make sure you have a curriculum and set goals in place. Also make sure interns know that completion of your program will not guarantee a position.)
Outsourcing to a company that specializes in social media is yet another option; as is looking through freelance directories for people who specialize in social media roles.
Make sure that no matter who you hire, they:
· Understand your brand
· Understand and meticulously follow your rules, policies and guidelines
Have regular meetings with your team via video Skype (which is free) or even Google Plus Hangouts. If you live stream the latter, your meeting will be recorded – but make sure you create a separate Circle for your team and restrict your privacy settings so that only your team is able to view these recordings.
