Ever hire social media experts or know one?

My daughter is a communications and marketing major. She is doing an internship this semester with a PR company that also organizes craft fairs. She has been writing social media plans and press releases for them. Do you have specific questions? I'm sure she would be happy to talk to you about it. If you're open to a long distance situation, she could probably also help you out for way less than $250/hour.

The only problem with hiring someone is that it's not just a one and done kind of thing due to the changing nature. Just tomorrow Etsy is making a huge change and SEO is going to be affected; instagram is on the verge of a change that is going to affect views and tags/content/engagement will be even more important than it is now. The whole social media scene is constantly changing and unless you are hiring someone to constantly monitor it (and not just set it up), then you are going to have to at least stay on top of it.

I belong to a group consisting of presentations by experts that do a lot of branding, SEO, photography (you've got that one covered!), etc. There are monthly themes where they present videos and have an open Q&A afterwards. They even have a magazine (Handmade Seller), not sure if that will apply, but it's a pretty phenomenal magazine. I'm attending a 2 day conference in Atlanta where they are going to discuss sales funnels, mindset mastermind, Small Business Storytelling: Sharing Your Passion Profitably, SEO and Keyword Research using the Google Keyword Planner, Email Marketing and how you can use it to get more traffic, creating a stunning digital visual catalog for your products, how to grow your business on Facebook, Wholesale Buying and how to knock out the middle man, Pinterest for your Business, an interactive Product Photography demo and workshop, and tips & tricks to selling on Handmade at Amazon.

The group itself is about $15 a month; the 2 day conference is $189, which is a steal (only open to group members).


As you said, you don't necessarily want to do it yourself, but if you (or anyone) is interested, it's really a great group for building an online business/social media.

I have a mom friend that's SAHM, left her PR/ writing job. She's turned her volunteer work, begun when social media was new, into a small consulting business. Her rates are comparatively reasonable due to low overhead and being a hobby/heart type of job. But she still brings her big time corporate skills to the problems.

Maybe you could look for someone like that?

 I am a SMM for a large fabric company and I agree with this. I also would suggest hiring someone who is very familiar with the market you are selling in. I have had several people want to hire me in their fields of interest, but I try to focus on the craft/quilting/sewing industries to keep the content relevant to my expertise - Not that it can't be done, it's just easier when you relate to your audience on a personal level. I also suggest a flat monthly fee. That makes it easier than trying to break everything down. For example, you might say 12 Facebook posts, 20 Instagram posts, 20 Twitter posts a week for X amount each month. I have been doing this since 2009 and it works the best for my clients and for me. Hope this helps!