You need a social media team because managing social media well takes more than just posting occasionally. It involves planning content, engaging with people, and paying attention to how posts perform.
How a team looks depends on the type of business. In a small business, the social media team might be just one or two people handling everything. In an agency, the team is usually larger and more specialized, with people focused on strategy, content, community management, and analytics. For big corporations, social media teams often work closely with other departments like marketing, PR, and customer service to keep messaging consistent and handle larger audiences.
Working together, the team makes sure the brand stays active and connects with the right audience. They help build relationships, increase visibility, and handle any issues before they become problems.
Without a dedicated team, social media can easily become unorganized or inconsistent, which can hurt the brand’s reputation. So having the right people focused on social media helps the business grow and keeps communication smooth.
Creating a winning social media team requires a strategic approach. Here are the steps to building your social media team:
- Define your goals and objectives
- Identify key social media roles and the skills you need on your team
- Choose your recruitment strategies
- Foster team collaboration and culture
- Invest in training and development
- Create a solid social media strategy
- Monitor and analyze your social media performance
- Celebrate wins and learn from failures
1. Define your goals and objectives
Before you build or restructure your social media team, get clear on what you actually want to achieve. Your goals should guide the team,not the other way around. Start with these two questions:
- What are our business goals?
- How can social media help us reach them?
Here are some common social media goals to consider:
- Build brand visibility
- Drive traffic
- Build trust and credibility
- Re-engage and convert
- Generate leads
Goal 1: Build brand visibility
If your priority is getting your name out there, your team needs to focus on consistent, engaging content. Think regular posts, short-form videos, and behind-the-scenes footage. Bringing in a content creator or videographer can help produce content that feels more authentic and professional.
Influencer partnerships can also work well here, especially when the content is personal or educational (e.g. tutorials, testimonials). These types of posts are more likely to be trusted and shared.
Image Source
Goal 2: Drive traffic
If the goal is to bring more people to your website or product pages, your content should include clear CTAs and links. You’ll need someone focused on writing compelling captions, designing attention-grabbing visuals, and tracking what drives clicks.
Strong hooks, teaser copy, and trackable links in Stories, bios, or captions all contribute here. Your team should regularly test and refine what content types are actually moving people to take action.
Goal 3: Build trust and credibility
Trust takes time and consistency. If this is your focus, your community manager plays a big role. They should be leading conversations, replying to comments and DMs, and sharing real feedback from customers.
UGC (user-generated content) is especially useful here – photos, testimonials, or reviews posted by real customers can make your brand feel more approachable. A 2023 Statista study found that 4 in 5 Gen Z consumers trust UGC videos when deciding what to buy.
Goal 4: Re-engage and convert
If you’re losing potential customers at the last step (abandoned carts, unfinished signups) your social media team should work closely with your strategist or performance marketer to run retargeting campaigns.
These might include ad reminders, time-limited offers, or social posts aimed at pulling people back in. This often requires collaboration with a designer and someone who knows how to analyze user behavior and campaign results.
Goal 5: Generate leads
For businesses focused on growing an email list, booking calls, or getting new signups, lead generation should guide your content strategy. Your team should know how to create high-converting ads, forms, and landing pages and how to promote them across channels.
Example: A fitness trainer might offer a 10-day workout plan in exchange for an email signup, or run a limited-time promo for new clients, like the one shown in the Exclusive Fitness Studio post.
Image Source
Once your goals are clear, you need to make them measurable. This helps your team understand what success actually looks like.
Examples of social media KPIs:
- Increase engagement rate by 5% within six months
- Gain 10,000 new followers
- Drive 200 leads from Instagram
- Boost link clicks by 30% compared to last quarter
A strong social media team knows what they’re working toward and how to track whether it’s working.
2. Identify key social media roles and the skills you need on your team
A good social media team needs more than just people who can post content. You need a mix of creative minds, strategic thinkers, strong communicators, and data-savvy social media team members.
Below are the essential social media team roles to cover, and what skills each one brings to the table:
- Social media manager
- Content creator / designer
- Community manager
- Social media analyst
- Paid advertising specialist
Social media manager
Your social media manager oversees everything. From campaign planning and calendar management to team coordination and brand tone, this person keeps your social media efforts aligned with business goals.
Soft skills needed as a social media manager:
- Strong communication skills
- Organized and good under pressure
- Cross-functional thinker (connects marketing, sales, and content under the social media management umbrella)
Hard skills needed as a social media manager:
- Experience with scheduling and publishing tools (e.g. Buffer, , SocialBee)
- Platform knowledge across Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok and other social media channels
- Familiar with reporting and analytics dashboards
Content creator / designer
They create the visuals, write the captions, and often shoot or edit the videos for your social media posts. Their job is to make content that grabs attention and fits each platform’s style and audience.
Soft skills needed as a content creator:
- Creative thinking
- Attention to detail
- Ability to adapt voice and tone
Hard skills needed as a content creator:
- Design (Canva, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop)
- Video editing (CapCut, Premiere Pro, TikTok native tools)
- Understanding of trends and platform-specific formats
Community manager
The social media community manager is the front line of your brand. They reply to comments and DMs, start conversations, and make followers feel heard and valued.
Soft skills needed as a community manager:
- Empathy and emotional intelligence
- Patience and problem-solving
- Friendly, brand-aligned tone
Hard skills needed as a community manager:
- Experience managing social accounts or communities
- Familiarity with inbox tools (Meta Business Suite, Sprout Social)
- Customer support
- Social listening and moderation experience
Social media analyst
The social media data analyst looks at the numbers to understand what’s working and what’s not. They help your team make smarter decisions based on performance and trends.
Soft skills needed as a social media analyst:
- Analytical mindset
- Clear communicator (especially when explaining data to non-technical teammates)
- Detail-oriented
Hard skills needed as a social media analyst:
- Proficient in Google Analytics, Meta Insights, and LinkedIn Analytics
- Data visualization/reporting tools (e.g. Looker Studio, Excel, or Sprout reports)
- Familiar with key performance indicators like engagement rate, reach, CTR, follower growth
Paid advertising specialist
They manage ad campaigns across platforms like Meta, LinkedIn, and TikTok. This includes building the ads, monitoring performance, and adjusting based on results.
Soft skills needed as a paid advertising specialist:
- Strategic thinking
- Comfortable testing and iterating
- Focused on results
Hard skills needed as a paid advertising specialist:
- Experience with Ads Manager platforms
Knowledge of targeting options, budget pacing, and social media campaigns optimization - A/B testing and conversion tracking
3. Choose your recruitment strategies
Hiring for your social media team isn’t just about finding someone who knows how to post on Instagram. You need team members with the right balance of strategic thinking, platform knowledge, and real execution skills.
There are two key areas to focus on when building your recruitment plan:
Where to find the right people
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, but here are a few places to start depending on your budget and timeline:
- Job boards: Platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed work well if you’re hiring full-time employees for your social media department.
- Social media platforms: Post your job in groups like “Remote Social Media Jobs” on Facebook or use hashtags like #hiring or #socialmediamanager on Instagram or Threads.
- Networking and events: Attend industry conferences or online events focused on digital marketing or social strategy. It’s a great way to meet freelancers or agencies face-to-face.
- Freelance marketplaces: If you’re after flexible support for social media services like content creation, analytics, or ad management, try marketplaces like Upwork.
Once applications start coming in, it’s not just about the CV. You want to get a feel for how someone thinks, creates, and communicates.
Go beyond basic interviews with these ideas:
- Give them a short test task: Ask them to audit your current social media pages and suggest three improvements. Or have them mock up a short content strategy or video script.
- Invite them to shadow your team for a day: Let them sit in on a call or review how your content creation team works internally.
- Ask how they stay on top of industry trends: Do they follow social media agencies, subscribe to marketing newsletters, or use audience research tools?
- Dig into tools and workflows: Ask which social media management tools, analytics dashboards, or social listening tools they’ve worked with and how they used them to measure campaign success.
You’re not just looking for someone who can schedule posts, you want someone who can contribute to your overall social media strategy, collaborate with the broader marketing team, and help deliver real results.
4. Foster team collaboration and culture
A collaborative social media team doesn’t just happen, it needs structure, intention and a productive work environment.
One of the first things to establish is how your team communicates. That might mean setting expectations around how project updates are shared or using tools like Trello, Asana, or to make task ownership and deadlines clear.
But tools alone aren’t enough. Real collaboration happens when you create space for it. Regular check-ins (not just status meetings) give your social media team members a place to brainstorm new content creation ideas, share what’s performing well, and flag issues early, before they affect the campaign.
Just as important is building a culture where people actually speak up. If your social media community manager doesn’t feel comfortable pointing out when something isn’t resonating with followers, or if your content creator feels like their input isn’t valued, it hurts the quality of your social media strategy.
That’s why feedback (both giving and receiving) should be a regular part of how your social media department works. Whether it’s through post-mortems, async feedback on design drafts, or informal review sessions, the goal is to build a team culture where people aren’t just completing tasks, they’re actively improving how the team works together.
5. Invest in training and development
Trends in social media shift fast. If your social media team isn’t staying up to date, your strategy will start falling behind. Regular upskilling helps your team create better content, use the latest tools confidently, and make more strategic decisions.
Start with online training that fits your team’s needs. For example, SocialBee offers a dedicated course on Udemy – Become a Social Media Manager – which covers both the strategy and day-to-day execution needed to run strong, consistent campaigns across platforms.
You can also encourage team members to join industry webinars and virtual workshops hosted by platforms like Moz, Social Media Examiner, or LinkedIn Learning. These often dive into topics like emerging tools, algorithm updates, audience behavior trends, or even strong copywriting skills, skills every social media marketing team needs.
And don’t overlook events. Conferences like Social Media Marketing World or VidCon offer your team the chance to connect with other professionals, gather fresh ideas, and bring back insights to improve your next campaign.
When your team keeps learning, your social media strategy keeps evolving.
6. Create a solid social media strategy
If your social media team is posting without a plan, you’re not going to see results, at least not the kind you can track or improve. That’s where a solid social media strategy comes in.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. But it does need to be clear. First, figure out who you’re talking to. Your social media team members, especially the social media strategist or brand manager, should have a good grasp of your audience’s interests, habits, and what they actually want to see on different social media platforms. This usually starts with basic audience research tools and a bit of common sense.
Once you know your audience, map out what kind of content creation makes sense for them.
Your social media manager and content creation team should work together to define a mix of formats (think: short-form video, UGC, carousels), tone of voice, and a rough posting rhythm. No need to over-plan here, but don’t wing it either. A shared content management system or internal content tracker is enough.
From there, the social strategy should be shaped by a few smart decisions:
- Choose 2-3 platforms you’ll prioritize, based on where your audience is, not just what’s trending.
- Decide how your community manager will handle replies, DMs, tags, and mentions.
- Agree on how you’ll measure progress. You don’t need to track everything, just focus on key performance indicators that match your goals (reach, engagement, site clicks, lead gen, etc.).
A strong social media marketing team uses both creative ideas and analytical skills to stay flexible. They check in on performance, adjust based on what works, and stay up to date on industry news and platform changes.
Once your social media department has this structure in place, you can spend more time actually creating content and connecting with people and less time second-guessing your next post.
7. Monitor and analyze your social media performance
If your social media team isn’t reviewing results regularly, you’re guessing, not optimizing. Tracking performance helps your team stay on top of what’s working, spot weak points early, and continuously improve your social media strategy.
Say your goal is to drive more traffic to your website. One way to measure success is by tracking link clicks from your social media platforms, combined with website data from tools like Google Analytics. If you’re seeing a spike in traffic after publishing short-form video content, that’s a clear sign to lean further into that format.
To keep your social media marketing team aligned with your key performance indicators (KPIs), make sure you’re tracking things like:
- Engagement rate
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Follower growth
- Conversion rate
- Cost per lead (for paid campaigns)
Tracking performance is essential for optimizing social media efforts. Your team can continuously measure success and make data-driven decisions. These help improve engagement, increase conversions, and refine content strategies.
To track your performance, you can use platform-native tools like Instagram Insights, LinkedIn Analytics, and Facebook Business Suite for deeper platform-specific metrics. For website traffic from social, Google Analytics is still a go-to.
