Who Should I Hire for my Media Squad

A proven method for sales people looking to capture and create content.

Mark my word, in the next decade there will be a number of sales people who walk around with a videographer following them around. Why? Well that’s simple, content is King! That’s right, he or she who is able to be in front of people most frequently, ie. in their phone, will win. The easiest way to do that is to simply document what you’re doing on a daily basis and cut that up into useful, educational or entertaining content to be consumed in the medium of your audience’s choice.

By medium, I mean, through audio, video, visual, or the written word. Think of yourself throughout the day; perhaps in the morning you like to read about a topic quietly on your phone while sipping your coffee, then on your way to work you like listening to podcasts, then when you’re home waiting for dinner you like to scroll through beautiful Instagram images, and by the end of the night you’re watching video after video on YouTube until you fall asleep.

Given that you know how you like to consume content, doesn’t it then make sense to produce content for your audience in the same manner? Yes, yes it does. Of course, content production isn’t always easy; you may not know how, you may not know what to talk about, or at worse, you may be scared to put yourself out there. This is where having a team, or squad, of people who can help becomes extremely useful.

I’ve gone through the hiring, firing and rehiring process so many times that it would be rude if I didn’t share what I’ve learned along the way. Below are the Top 4 positions I think you should hire for, in order, and our strategies for finding talent.

1. Creative Director

At the start, what you really need is a “jack of all trades”; someone who can set up a camera, shoot, edit, create some clips, run some ads, design images and logos, and bring his or her creativity to the table. This individual needs a wide range of skills, making them highly versatile, but at the same time may not be the best in the industry at any one particular task.

As the team grows, this individual may act as a project manager, running point on the execution of each piece of content.

This person should ideally be detail oriented, deadline-conscious, aware of branding, and aware of how technology can help the team be more effective.

For a good starting point, budget $50,000CAD for this position.

2. Videographer

Once your Creative Director has maxed out and is no longer able to keep up with the quantity of content that you need, the next best person to hire is a Videographer. This person can take the load off of the Creative Director by shooting all new content allowing the Creative Director to simultaneously be working away at editing the content previously shot. The team can then begin to function as an assembly line, increasing efficiency.

A videographer will come with new ideas, new cameras, and new ways of shooting which will also give a new flare to your content.

Budget roughly $35,000CAD for this position.

3. Editor

Although technically your Creative Director and Videographer should be able to edit, if you are really looking to maximize your content production, you may want to invest in someone who is strictly chopping up and repurposing content for you.

Because this individual is not bogged down by shooting and other design tasks (like a website, images, branding, and logo creation), they will be able to churn out way more content for you, and the name of the game when it comes to content creation, is quantity!

Budget $35,000CAD for this position and note that you will most likely want to start this position as a part-time role and grow into it as you see fit.

4. Copywriter

For every post, video description, blog write-up, or ad, copy will be required and this can be time consuming, particularly for individuals who are not keen writers, likely like the rest of your media squad.

You’re not just looking for a person who can write long novels, nor are you looking for a person who can write catch phrases; you need someone who is capable of doing both of these and everything in between. This person also needs to be cognizant of speaking not from their own voice, but from yours, and that may require that they adapt their tone or even the quality of their writing.

Not that you want misspelled words and poor grammar but depending on your brand positioning, you may require a more casual writing style; then again, if you’re looking to come across super polished, you may need someone whose technique is more formal.

Writers are notoriously slow and have a habit of pushing deadlines, so be clear at the start that meeting due dates is crucial to not only your success but also theirs.

Budget $35,000CAD for this position.

How Do I Find and Hire These People

Ideally, your squad are all working in congruence with one another. It would be great if your Creative Director thought of an ad he or she thought needed to be posted on your behalf, then spoke to the videographer to catch the content, the editor then turns it into a short but enticing ad, and your copy writer describes the content while using words or phrases to push up the ad in the algorithm of the platform.

All the while this is happening, you get to continue doing what you do best, sell!

Of course you can go through the natural hiring process of putting up an ad on Indeed or other hiring platforms but if you’re like most salespeople, cash flow can be a concern. Get creative around your hiring practices and have people start off as interns. You can find interns by posting an ad on your socials, talking to friends and family or posting in schools with digital media and writing programs.

People with these qualifications are used to contract work, so giving them an opportunity for consistency is a win-win for the both of you.

One final tip: Hire fast, fire fast!

You’ll never know if you have found a good one until you actually bring them on and see what they can do and how fast they can do it. Give a person a shot and if it’s not working out, let them go and move onto the next person.

When in doubt, start part-time. Feel the person and the quality of their work out and get a sense of their work ethic which will allow them to grow into a full time position. This will give you time to create processes and systems around content creation without breaking the bank.

No matter what you do, just start!