Aibu about social media following

[POmonstermunch]

Someone in my network recommended a person to help me with my small business who describes herself as

• a social media whizz
• digital marketing expert

She really doesn’t have a great following on Facebook/Twitter/insta about 500-700 on each platform whereas I’d expect a lot more.

AIBU to think a ‘social media whizz’ should have a much larger following? Or do her own numbers not reflect what she can do for others? Think maybe I’m being a bit old fashioned in my outlook!

It may be a case of the cobbler's children having no shoes.

My business involves social media marketing and some of my socials are a bit neglected because I'm busy looking after other people's.

Ask her for evidence of how she's grown the following and engagement of other paid clients. Better still, ask if you can speak to one or two of those and get a reference for her.

Do you need someone to do it for you? I have around 30k insta followers just from posting commenting and liking posts daily

I'd expect someone who does it for a living to have way more that 30k

I’d totally expect them to have many followers. There’s many people who sell ‘business skills’ that I question. For example PTs who sell how to fill your practice up, if they had a full practice why are they making it their business to sell to others iyswim.
Could you find out from your local enterprise centre if they’re running any marketing courses? I’ve always found them useful.
I was able to get fully funded SME course on digital marketing last year.

How many followers do her clients have?

What level of social media engagement does she generate for them?

Unless she can show you an example of a high quality/successful campaign or project she has done for a client, I'd question whether her services are worth paying for.

It's reasonable to expect someone who's a "social media whizz" to have a large following themselves. However, it's also possible that her skills lie more in the strategy and content creation side of things rather than building a personal following.
In my experience, hiring a Social Media Manager has been very helpful. They focus on growing your business's following and engagement, which is what really matters. So, while her own numbers may not be huge, she could still be great at helping your business thrive on social media. It might be worth having a chat with her to see how she plans to approach your business in particular.

I work in this industry and I don't think her following is a reflection of her skill set. She may be very skilled at SM content and growth for clients, but not necessarily want to have this for her personal account. She should have a portfolio or stats she can share that reflect this.

Think of it like a cook wanting to throw something in the oven at the end of a long day versus cooking a slap up meal.

@northchesterforest is right. I'm in comms, including social media, and have helped increase followers for various companies, writing engaging content and creating multi platform strategies to get messages across. However, my own socials are just my friends, and even then I'm using it less and less as I get busier with my family life. There's a difference between creating authentic comms content to grow a business and having your own platform for personal likes.

The only difference maybe would be their LinkedIn profile, because if they engage on there it can help the business they are responsible for. To be fair, my LinkedIn is pretty empty so I should take a look at my own advice there.

But agree with pp's - ask for campaigns they've worked on and judge that, as they may be a whizz for others.

Love the chef analogy!