Many businesses would like to have a simple equation for the perfect social media
team size. Unfortunately, there’s no magical equation – it varies based on the size,
scope, vertical and social media following of your company. Even two businesses
where those structure and figures are nearly identical will certainly have a different
makeup for their social media team.
Part of that is to be expected in any position. After all, each individual has a different
set of skills, knowledge, and past experience that he or she brings to the table. So no
two situations will be exactly the same and no two teams will be identical.
That being said, brands grow their team the right way by identifying the signs of when
it’s time to expand the number of people on staff. These two approaches can guide
you to healthy, efficient team growth.

A Rough Equation: Grow Before Burnout

Social media professionals run a high risk of burning out. The job makes 24/7
demandson a social media pro’s time, and that can drain their passion for the
work. That’sdamaging for them on a personal level, which is bad enough, but
it can also start to hurt the quality of their work and eventually your company.
To prevent that burnout, you’ll want to grow at a steady rate and anticipate
problems before they happen. A full workload is normal, but make sure that
both the social teamand your human resources staff are alert to the possible
signs of burnout such as apathy or continuously dropping the ball.
Burnout can be a risk no many how many people are on your brand’s team,
however, it is particularly important when you’re still at the stage of a lone manager.
When a singleperson is in control of everything, even at a small company, you’ll
want to be extra alert to their needs. It’s possible to give them support from employees
at other departments, but when many other people are chipping in a few hours a day,
it’s probably more effective to bring on a new hire.
Since there’s no set formula about growing your team, there are no hard numbers for
avoiding burnout. But periodically check in with your staff about the number of
incoming messages needing response, the volume of posts from your brand accounts,
and the average interactions needed in a day. Be mindful of the actual hours of
workload for your people. Having this data can help your company to have a
rough idea of how and when scaling has happened in the past.

When to Expand Your Social Media Team

Know Your Team: Goals, Roles, and Skills

Other important considerations with expanding your social media team are your needs
as a brand. What are your goals for social media? How do you plan to achieve them?
While your social media team will most likely collaborate with people in other
departments, it can also expedite your plans to have them be experts in their own right.
And of course, those goals can and should change over time. In the early stages of
building your social media presence, the focus might be on building brand awareness.
At that point, you’ll want your team to include people who excel in branding and
outreach. If there’s no expert already on your staff, it might be worth the investment
to hire somebody with that knowledge. Do you have a social media manager already
but want to get more people on board to promote your brand? Then it’s time to hire
a community manager.
While this might seem like a reactionary way to structure your social media team, your
business can develop a long-term plan for your goals that would guide your hiring.
Also, rather than seeking an equation based purely on numbers, consider building your
team based on skills. Just as other departments can help the social team to avoid
burnout, the rest of your company can shoulder some duties. Is there a person in your
marketing team who’s already giving great analytics power to your company? They
can probably handle those responsibilities for your social crew. If that individual
doesn’t have the bandwidth to meet all of the social team’s needs, then somebody
new should come on board.