Answer: Several months ago, a corporate client asked my firm to begin an exclusive search for a Director of Social Media. This was a management post reporting to a Communications VP with both “hands on” and leadership responsibilities. In this case, the head of Corporate Communications reported to a Chief Marketing Officer. The charter was to build a robust social media program that, until this point, was in its early stages of development.

The Chief Executive of this successful east coast company had determined that the most effective approach to attract clients was via social media. Their business model was based on personal referrals. Recommendations from a friend or a trusted source were what brought clients to the company’s doorstep. News media, advertising and feature articles (testimonials) were helpful but only served to support the primary reason for the decision to seek out my client’s services.

While the founder of the company knew SM marketing initiatives were critical to her success, she did not have the expertise of a senior SM professional on her team, with hands-on experience, to lead the program. Millennials who lived on-line and had been early adopters with first-hand, insightful understanding about how these tools could be used, would be the ideal candidates. A formal search would be the solution to identify, woo and hire the Director. The objective was to find a manager capable of creating a comprehensive plan and implementing it.