Marijuana Business Magazine October 2018

WHERE TO LOOK Burke used word of mouth to find a social media firm. She said when her company was in the formative stage, she toured other facilities and asked compa- nies in other markets to recommend good candidates. Iannotti has had good success with the job board ZipRecruiter. A recent job ad he posted on that site suggested the candidate wouldn’t be required to consume cannabis but had to at least be com- fortable around it. “You have to be very forthright because (working in cannabis) isn’t for everyone,” Iannotti said. Campbell looks online for candidates. He recently posted a position on the job listing site Upwork outlining exactly what he needed. “A lot of the people who are specializing in social media these days are working online and working remotely,” he said. HOW TO TRAIN For Iannotti, the first two weeks involve communicating an understanding of the industry to his new social media specialist. RED FLAGS W hen evaluating can- didates to manage your social media platforms and content, it’s a good practice to watch out for anyone who: • Suggests building your audience through questionable means, such as the use of automated bots. • Doesn’t grasp the legal intricacies of your state’s marijuana program. • Seems to be interested in the job only as a way to consume cannabis. “We have to make sure our agenda is being promoted properly and that we’re on the same page with our messaging and our audience,” said Christina Burke, director of marketing and out- reach for Austin, Texas-based Compassionate Cultivation. When Burke was looking for a social media man- ager, the potential hire needed to understand the nuance of the Texas market, where CBD is the norm. A candidate trying to push for recreational cannabis legalization there would not be a good fit. “That’s not our message,” Burke said. “We need a group that understands our audience and under- stands the role Texas plays in this industry.” To Dustin Iannotti, co-founder and chief creative officer of Artisans on Fire, a Las Vegas cannabis marketing agency, it’s typically a good sign when a candidate asks if he or she is required to smoke on the job. That gives him the impression the potential hire prefers to be a professional while at the office. “But on the other end of the spectrum,” he said, “you have a lot of people coming in think- ing that this job is going to allow them to get a bunch of free prod- uct and use it. “A lot of people have come in here with the expectation that we’re a party operation and sit- ting here and smoking all day and getting a little bit of work done. It’s the exact opposite.” For Sam Campbell, director of marketing at MJ Arsenal, a Denver ancillary products company that produces smoking devices for the cannabis indus- try, any black-hat methodology is a warning sign. He avoids questionable techniques to build an audience, such as paying for bots that auto-post content, auto-direct replies to internal messages or auto-comment on followers’ posts. “You could get your account banned, and it’s not a sustainable method of growth,” Campbell said. – Bart Schaneman Dustin Iannotti is co-founder and chief creative officer of Artisans on Fire, a Las Vegas cannabis marketing agency. 106 • Marijuana Business Magazine • October 2018