Let’s put aside obvious reasons such as uncompetitive salary or lack of professionalism and dig a little deeper.

Hello everyone, my name is Yulia Arbatska and I have been working in the field of content production for 20 years. My experience is related to journalism (I was the editor of Cosmopolitan, Vk Lady, Timeout) and directly to social networks (both in large companies and in private blogs). Recently, the question of how to improve the efficiency of the company’s smm specialist so that he works long and productively has become relevant for me.

Today, the situation on the market is as follows: by the end of 2023, according to Avito Robota and Sbermarketing, the number of vacancies in the marketing segment has increased by 2.5 times compared to the same period a year ago. And the most popular specialist was the smm manager, for whom job offers increased 3.9 times.

Along with the growth of demand for employees of this specialty, the turnover of personnel also increased, which by 2024, by the way, also covered most other labor fields. This is what experts of large recruitment agencies and statistics of job search portals say.

More and more companies are starting to implement the promotion of their products and services through social networks and more and more managers and business owners say that finding a good Smm specialist is very difficult. And turning cooperation into a long-term — and quite non-trivial task.

Let’s try to figure out what could be the reasons for the turnover of garbage collectors in the company, in addition to the obvious: low competitive wages, unprofessionalism of specialists or their relocation.

1. Lack of clear kpi. Requirements for an smm specialist in the market are quite blurred, each company requires different sets of knowledge and skills from him, which often include experience in related fields: design, marketing, psychology and even sales. Managers are often not even able to fully formulate a list of tasks for the manager, and therefore the criteria for evaluating his work.

As you know, content can be made from the fence to lunch, that is, endlessly. And the number of publications with good coverage is no longer enough to make both the manager and the manager satisfied with the work done. Moreover, the lack of kpi makes the evaluation of the work of the manager subjective and provokes the emergence of hidden conflicts with the manager.

Entrance: draw up as specific a job description as possible for an SMM specialist and, based on it, formulate objective, clear kpi.

2. Inconsistency of social network development goals with available resources. Of course, a good smm specialist must understand marketing (write strategies and concepts), and understand targeting (engage in promotion), and make cool publications (write texts, make illustrations and shoot videos), and communicate with subscribers.

But, agree, it is strange to expect that one person working in an office will launch advertising companies, do analytics, prepare layouts, write newsletters, and organize media publications about the company. A specialist overwhelmed with tasks will quickly lose his bearings and burn out.

Entrance: soberly correlate the set goals with the resources and, if necessary, either adjust the goals or add a resource in the form of freelancers (designer, target specialist, copywriter).

3. Non-standardized work process. It often happens that the company has an entire content department, but the result of its work is also not satisfactory. This happens when the team does not work as a team, that is: does not realize common goals, does not have a plan and strategy, does not speak the same language and does not communicate with related departments – marketing and sales. It’s just that a few people are “putting out fires” with all their might – that is, endlessly and frantically trying to solve the tasks assigned to them.

Entrance: work out a content production system, implement planning, distribute roles and responsibilities, create mutual understanding.

Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg and general recommendations. But the main point that I want to convey: good smmshchiks do not just go like that. They leave because of burnout, a sense of the meaninglessness of their work. Due to the fact that they could not rely on clear criteria, thanks to which they would be able to assess the quality of their work. And yes, they are not kept even by corporate bonuses and a good salary.