Something I get asked about a lot is what skills someone should look for when hiring a social media consultant. While we can go into particular needs for the business, philosophies around social media skills and various hard skills, I don’t think we talk enough about the soft skills that are necessary for this kind of career.

Why? Those soft skills are the difference between someone with longevity and someone who will be moving on quickly. They’re the difference between someone who can create content and someone who can connect that content to the audience. They are what sets a social media consultant apart.

So what should you be looking for beyond those hard skills? Let’s talk about it.

Empathy

When it comes to a social media consultant, empathy is probably the most important of all the soft skills to look for. In the end, a social media consultant is a helper above all else. That means they have to take requests and questions from fans seriously and helping them get to what they need.

Not having empathy can make someone prioritize those fan needs and wants lower than content creation or just think they’re not important to get to at all. And it also makes it really hard to feel those needs and wants to create content that connects with them. It’s necessary to be able to feel like someone who is in the audience of your organization so they know those needs and wants before they’re even spoken aloud. That will put your social media strategy always in the reactive position instead of proactive. And that can put you behind a brand that does have someone running their social media who is empathetic.

Communication

One of the soft skills I would ask a social media consultant about is how they would communicate with you. You can then figure out if that’s a plan that will work for you.

Proactive communication is huge. I keep forms available for my clients to do post requests. These are tied to their editorial calendars which is both monthly and weekly. This makes sure that I have everything we’re doing in one location, and we can all track what is happening when without constant messaging.

I also get back to my clients within an hour of any emails sent during business hours and almost instantly to text messages (although I ask for these to be reserved for emergencies since they take me out of prioritizing what is important at that moment). I will also use whatever messaging service a client uses, because I don’t want to add checking yet another messaging app to a client’s workload. On the messaging app, I give any necessary daily updates that require a quicker response than email, but not as instantaneous as text. I’d get deeper into what I communicate, when and how, but that’s probably overkill here.

Your social media consultant will have their own version of this. Knowing their personal communication style will give you an idea of whether it’s a fit. A social media consultant can be amazing, but if their communication is lacking, it can be a hard no.

Teaching

This is one of the soft skills where I personally excel. If a social media consultant is a natural teacher, they will be able to teach you about what is important on social media, any applicable new features and anything that’s upcoming. Most importantly, they can teach you what not to care about. In a world where everyone thinks they’re a social media expert, having someone who can weed through it all and get you the information you need is necessary. This is especially true if you have loads more on your plate.

And why is it so important that they are able to easily teach you? We’re all fighting for a piece of a pie that is growing smaller and smaller. As budgets decrease, being able to talk knowledgeably about what you do and why it’s important is critical. A natural teacher will help you get there easily.

Collaboration

The job of a social media consultant is to bring the needs of many together to get the content to accomplish the goals. That means they have to work with many people and decipher what those needs are. And they have to work with several people to actually create the content. And then even more people to create the goals they need to be achieving. Being a social media consultant requires loads of collaboration. And if your consultant does not have that as one of their soft skills, you need to find another right now.

Not everything about work is fun, but it shouldn’t constantly be miserable. And working with a social media consultant who isn’t collaborative is going to miserable. And what happens when one aspect of your work is miserable? You put it off and give it less attention than other aspects of your work. And what happens when that aspect is working with your social media consultant? One of two things: Either they’re allowed to do whatever they want and stray further and further away from business goals or everything gets delayed and nothing gets done. Neither scenario is great. Avoid both by working with someone who is highly collaborative.

Finding the right social media consultant for your organization can be difficult. In the end, if you focus on finding someone you like who has some great hard and soft skills, you will get to that right fit.

What soft skills do you think are important for a social media consultant?