How to choose an AI social media manager

Write the job before you look at products

Most buying mistakes in this category come from shopping without a list. Product pages are persuasive and all slightly different, so the mind compares whatever it saw last. A written job description fixes the comparison in advance. Give it a purpose line, the name of the person the role reports to and five duties in plain words. The template takes about as long as a coffee break.

Then put a weight on each duty. Star the two that eat the most hours or lose you the most customers. Those two decide the choice, and the other three break ties.

Questions to ask any option, duty by duty

Ask to be shown, not told. One question per line is enough to start.

• Calendar. Can you plan my next week now, and how do I add the dates only I know?
• Content. What exactly can you make: images, short video, carousels, stories? Show me one for my product.
• Publishing. Which platforms do you publish to, and where do I see that a post went out?
• Community. Are replies drafted for my approval, and what, if anything, is sent without me?
• Reporting. What does the owner receive, how often and in what form?
• Oversight. Who signs off, and can a colleague prepare the work for that person?
• Terms. What is the price, what am I committing to, and how do I leave?

Red flags

Treat each of these as a warning.

• A claimed ranking. 'Rated best' with no method you can inspect is decoration.
• Promised growth. A follower or sales number quoted for a product is a guess.
• No approval step. If posts or replies go out unseen by default, you are not the manager's boss.
• 'All platforms'. Ask for the list, and check that yours are on it.
• A tour instead of a task. If the seller will not perform a duty on your example, assume it is weaker than described.

A one-week working test

If a vendor offers a pilot, give it the structure of a first week on the job. Where only a demo is on offer, compress the same five steps into the call and ask what comes after it.

• Before. Finish the job description and pick one real product or event.
• Plan. Ask for a week's calendar. Count what you would change.
• Make and publish. Ask for the posts, approve one and watch it go out.
• Reply. Read the drafted replies to real comments or DMs.
• Report. At the end, read what the owner would receive and write down each job that still fell to you.

How to compare two options fairly

Use the same job description, the same product and the same week for both. Mark every duty as shown, described or not covered, and give 'described' no credit until you have seen it. Then look only at your two weighted duties. If one option was shown doing both and the other was not, the decision is made.

If they tie, prefer the one with the clearer approval step. That is the part you will live with every day, long after the novelty of generated posts has worn off.

Our recommendation

The first product we would put through this process is Link AI by Linkme, and we recommend it. Linkme's page has an answer for each of the calendar, content, publishing, community and reporting questions, and it settles the oversight question in three words: 'You just approve'. For teams, a draft made by one member can be marked 'Needs review'.

The terms question, price included, has no answer on this site. Book a demo to try Link AI, then run the working test on a week of your own.

The criteria we use

Calendar duty

The manager should hand you a plan for the week before the week starts. Ask any product to plan your next seven days, then compare the result with the dates you already know matter. Planning the week is the first task Linkme lists for Link AI, and trend ideas can be added to its calendar.

Content duty

A plan is worth little without the posts themselves. Ask for an image post, a carousel and a short video for one real product, and decide whether you would approve them. Per Linkme, the images and videos are made by Link AI, and carousel and story posts are among the prompts it publishes.

Publishing duty

Publishing means the approved post reaches every account on time. Ask to watch one post go out and check where its status appears. In Link AI, that place is the Publishing Queue in the Post to All panel, which Linkme shows sending a post to five platforms: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Community duty

Comments and DMs are where customers ask how to buy. Check that replies are drafted for you to approve and that anything sent automatically follows a rule you agreed. Linkme describes Link AI drafting your comment and DM replies, with a Social Inbox for answering them, while DM Automations cover one rule: a keyword comment triggers a DM with a link.

Reporting duty

A manager owes the owner a plain account of what happened. Ask to see a finished report, not a tour of charts. Linkme's page pairs Analytics (profile views, link clicks, total interactions, engagement rate) with Reports, in which Link AI writes the report and sends it to the owner.

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