You are the person who knows the most about your business. You wake up at night in a panic, thinking about a new way to fill customer orders or company records. You find yourself looking at every situation–your kids’ practices, school concerts, date nights, commercials during football games– through business-colored glasses.

You’re always looking for the next best thing for your business. So, you are logically the best choice for handling your business’s social media, right?

Almost always, the answer is no. Not because you lack passion, knowledge, or ability. Rather, you lack the time (thanks to the million other items that never seem to leave your to-do list) and perspective (yours is business-focused, rather than socially-focused). Bottom line: you need a designated social media manager.

Let me explain further.

In the last 7 days alone, Facebook has announced/released three major changes. (You can check them out here, here, and here). Add that to the massive overhaul in the last two quarters of 2014 (which drastically affected reach & post composition), and you start to realize there are a lot of things to keep up with on Facebook. Oh, and you can’t ignore the other platforms your business is on…they are all updating as well. Pinterest recently changed its contest rules (did you know you can do Pinterest contests?). I would expect to see Twitter, Google, and YouTube make changes this quarter to add features which rival Facebook’s updates & plans. And, you can’t forget about the rumors of Instagram expanding its sponsored post feature this year.

With all of the frequent, impactful changes to the platforms, it is hard for anyone to simply add social media “to the plate”. Even if you do manage to find the time to keep up with changes, create quality content, publish on a consistent basis, engage with your social audiences, and connect your brand to others (hats off to you!), there is still one aspect that keeps you, the business owner, from being the most qualified person to run your business’s social media: your perspective.

Your main focus (as it should be) is growing & running your business. Social media is a support arm of your business’s marketing efforts (and in many cases, it IS the marketing effort), but it needs special focus. To be truly successful, there has to be a social strategy (updated at least quarterly), social campaigns, social ad planning, quality content (including videos & images) creation, attention to engagement with the audiences, and moves to link your brand with that of your partners, vendors, and communities.

Thinking with your business hat on, your first inclination might be to use social media to sell. After all, you are growing your business. Social media is a part of your marketing. Marketing helps you sell…therefore, sell on social media. Right? Again, the answer is no.

Social media is unique in its inherent nature of connectivity. Being social (as the name implies) is more about meeting your audience (supporters, partners, employees, potential clients, community members) where they are and bringing them to where you are through meaningful conversation.

One of the challenges we frequently face with our clients is balancing their desires to push sales with the need to be authentic and personal on social media. A post showing the behind-the-scenes of your typical Thursday may not drive an immediate sales call, but it does connect the people of your business with your audience. A campaign spotlighting happy customers may not be putting your product images in mass circulation, but it’s creating brand advocates.

Social media takes time, focus, effort, listening skills, and attention. Why stretch yourself when you have 10-15 other business areas that need those same qualities/actions? Set yourself up for social success, and appoint a social media manager.