Did you know that 81% of social media users are influenced to buy products based on what their friends post? Or that 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation? There are endless facts and figures behind this one simple idea: It is more important than ever for brands to establish a strong, positive online presence.

How are you using your online presence?

At this point, you’re probably saying, “We do have a social media presence.” After all, almost 9 in 10 companies in the U.S. are using the internet. The question is, are you using your presence intelligently and effectively? Establishing your brand online is more than dumping some information on Twitter, taking a picture for Instagram, and paying for a few ads on Facebook.

Let’s take a crisis for example. There was an episode of The Office where an obscene watermark made its way onto reams of paper, and customers were calling in to complain. If that episode aired today, a majority of those complaints would have come in via the internet. Let’s say you have someone in your company update your social media accounts when they get downtime at work. They might not notice that these complaints are coming in. With no one moderating, the situation will escalate and your customers will get the impression your company doesn’t care about them. At best, you look disengaged. At worst, you lose business forever.

A social media manager’s job

This is where the social media manager comes in. They’re the pros who understand how to quickly and effectively respond to negative posts and complaints online. They are dedicated to addressing issues with an appropriate tone and a cool head, both of which are extremely important when dealing with angry customers.

On the flip side, they’re also around to respond to the positive reviews. Your manager can curate happy testimonials to boost public opinion. They can retweet a positive message, or respond to a happy comment on Facebook. Other consumers see that one, people are happy with your product or service; two, you are engaged. Have I said engaged enough? It’s kind of important.

Bringing in a human touch

It may be tempting to automate your responses. I know this because a lot of companies do it. Do not fall into this trap. Machines can’t understand things like jokes or sarcasm. A human manager, however, can. Hopefully. 

Your social media manager will also be able to bring a human voice to your accounts that a machine wouldn’t be able to. No one trusts a bot, and people are simply uninterested in dull, lifeless writing. They’ll also be able to tell the difference between what’s appropriate for a brand account vs. what you’d post on your personal accounts. It’s not as easy a distinction as you might think. Many companies have run into issues with content in the past, and we absolutely have not seen the last questionable post. 

Why a dedicated employee?

A social media manager allows the rest of your employees to focus on their jobs. Honestly, with how much information on the internet influences decisions, managing an online presence is a full-time job. If you’re taking employees from other departments away from their job to manage accounts part-time, some part of their work is going to suffer. Most likely, both will. Having an employees whose main duty is to manage your company’s online presence allows them to worry about who the audience is, how often you post, what platforms you should focus on, etc. Most importantly, they’ll be able to track analytics. Does anyone in your company have spare time to collect data, interpret, and adapt strategy based on the results? I sure hope not.

Social media managers make everyone’s jobs easier. They’ll bring humanity and humor to your social media accounts, and level head when dealing with customer satisfaction. They’ll give your company one professional voice, and they’ll give everyone else time to do their main jobs. If you don’t have a social media manager already, why not?