Every business must be present on social media. To stay ahead of changing consumer demands, brands must be able to adapt and think quickly to meet them.
Social media managers appeal to a large number of internet users. It is difficult not to. It’s easy to believe that posting Facebook updates can make you rich. Hardly.
Social media managers are a bit like stand-up comedians. It is crucial to understand your audience quickly and engage with them. This requires you to be able to see if your audience is laughing at you jokes in real time. This will ensure that you win the crowd.
How do you become a social media manager? How can you be a great social manager?
Some people will be surprised at the answer. First, you must want it. It must be something you love. You must also learn it. Even if all of these boxes are checked, it is important to ask yourself ” Am i a social person?” If you don’t answer yes, then you might not be a good candidate for social media management.
Let’s now take a look at these stats.
- LinkedIn has 57,910 results related to “social media manager”.
- Porn has been overtaken by social media as the top activity on the internet.
- 97% of consumers search online for local businesses
- 71% of those who received a prompt brand response via social media said they would recommend the brand to others.
- 93% of marketers use Social Media for Business
- Nearly half (49%) B2B marketers rank social media marketing as the most difficult to execute. Next, content marketing (39%), SEO (26%), and mobile (25%) are close behind.
- 77% of B2B marketers include a blog in their content marketing mix
- Content development, delivery, and promotion now account for 25% of all marketing budgets.
- Social media is used by 78% of small business owners to attract new customers.
- More than half of global business executives rated their company’s social-business maturity on a scale from 1-10 when asked to rate it.
The most pertinent statistic to this article, however, is:
- Only 12% of social marketers feel that they use it efficiently.
Social media managers bring with them key benefits in a freelance environment. Most importantly, you are your boss. You decide and you answer to no one. You create the policies and send the invoices. You could even sit in your underpants and work on the computer all day if you so desired.
The other is money. This is a highly-demanded role that many companies still struggle to accept. Companies are beginning to realize the importance of social media for their business and are prepared to invest in strong social media campaigns. You are in control of your price and costs.
Low entry barriers are another reason to be attracted. There are many online resources, including this one, that can help you get started with low startup costs. Anyone can start a social management company as a freelancer in a matter of hours. This allows you to quickly decrease the learning curve.
My story will be told shortly, but let’s first discuss the skills required to become a great manager of social media.
Fundamental Skills:
Marketing Knowledge
A good understanding of basic marketing principles is essential. A little education in marketing is a good idea, but you can also find quality resources online.
Experience
You don’t have to limit your experience to just life. Are you a social media manager who has been managing your own accounts for a while now? Are you able to manage your social media accounts effectively and anticipate the needs of clients?
Sociable
This was something I mentioned at the beginning. You don’t have to be sociable if you don’t enjoy communicating and aren’t outgoing. Then you might not be a good candidate for social media management. While you may be able to hide behind a keyword for a while and monitor, clients will still want to meet up, talk on the phone or use Skype at some point.
Project Management
While you don’t need to hold a Prince2 certificate to work in the social media industry, it is important to know how to manage your time and projects well. Social media managers often work with multiple clients at once. It is crucial to keep track of everything so it doesn’t get overwhelming.
Technological
Online social media is available. You need to be able to use the internet. A good understanding of social technology can enhance your services and keep you up-to-date with the latest developments and social trends.
Interpersonal Skills
Communication
It is obvious that you must have excellent communication skills if you are going to represent a company or engage with customers.
Personality
Companies are reluctant to hire people without a personality to represent their brand. They and their customers don’t like it.
Responsiveness
This is something I have touched on a few times. Social media is extremely fast-paced. Imagine if your social tasks were primarily focused on customer service, and you didn’t respond to customer queries or complaints for several weeks. People online expect quick responses. Your client (and your business) will be better off if you can meet their needs. in good stead.
Entrepreneurial
You must be self-motivated to become a social media manager. You must be willing to take financial risks and go the extra mile. How will it affect you if you don’t get a job that pays enough within a month?
Multitasking
Social media managers must be able and willing to take on a variety of tasks.
Organisation
When managing social media services, you should be organized. To keep me organized, I use a variety of traditional tools such as white boards, task lists and calendars. Thunderbird to access all my email accounts, Dropbox to share documents with clients, and bookmarks to keep track all the websites I frequent.
Strategic Thinking
As a social media manager, it is a great asset to be able to plan campaigns and think outside of the box. Clients want to know what you will do before they let you do it. It is important to be able to communicate clearly and concisely.
Flexible (with travel)
Contrary to popular belief, social media managers who are freelance have to sometimes leave their office. This is something you might consider if you find it difficult. Nearly all large projects I work on involve multiple meetings with clients. It is important to have good pitching skills as you might be asked to present your services to clients before being hired. You might even consider working in-house.
More Skills:
Copywriting
A great social media manager must be a good writer. Writing is the cornerstone of all aspects of online marketing. This includes creating ads, writing blogs and engaging customers.
Graphic Design
Almost all social media platforms allow you to customize the interface and add your branding. These services can be offered by anyone who is proficient in Photoshop or another design software. Social media managers are used to creating infographics, banners and images.
Advertising
Social media managers should be well-versed in advertising. You should be able to understand the intricacies of each advertising format, including banner and Pay-Per-Click advertising.
PR
In the same way that social media marketing is closely related to public relations, both are responsible for managing information exchange between businesses and the public. It is possible to start with a basic knowledge of PR. Larger brands are more likely to manage it. They have an interest in convincing investors, stakeholders and the public to support a particular point of view.
Statistic
Marketing should be measured. To demonstrate your worth, you should regularly measure and analyse social marketing performance.
SEO
Campaign performance will be improved if you understand how social media influences search engine optimization. Google saw an average of 5,134,000,000 searches per day in 2012. SEO is important for your social activities.
Traditional Marketing
Although you won’t usually be involved in traditional marketing practices while you are managing social media, it is important to understand how they interact and how you can best use each.
Video editing
Although this skill is not the most used, it can be a valuable asset to your social media marketing efforts. A few of my clients required demonstration videos or presentations to be edited before they could be used in their social media campaigns. Although I am not an expert in video editing, having some knowledge of Windows Movie Maker or similar software can transform a video straight from the camera into a YouTube-ready video.
You don’t have to be a social media manager to succeed. However, you can still improve your services with different software and social tools. Two pieces of software that I use to help me become a great social media manager will be briefly reviewed.
- Hootsuite Review: My blog contains a detailed review of Hootsuite. It also includes a tutorial video that should give you all the information you need about Hootsuite.
- BuzzBundle is my favorite and most valuable piece of software. It allows me to search for keywords related to my topic from a wide range of forums, blogs, and social media sites. All this information is then streamed back to me through one interface. It allows me to see what is being discussed on my topic, and I can jump into the discussions to add my thoughts.
What You Can Expect To Do…
What does a social media manager do? The role of social media manager can be varied, as you can see. This is not an easy job: I post updates on Facebook. Here are some general tasks that social media managers will need to perform.
Strategy
It is your responsibility to develop platform and campaign specific strategies that meet business goals. You will develop actions plans, content calendars and set metrics and KPIs.
Content creation
Marketing campaigns are built on content. The content you create will determine how you execute your campaigns. Content is the king, as you’ve no doubt heard from someone. Trust them.
Community Management
Management of accounts is also about managing communities. Social media is a place where brands can be represented. You must also engage your audience by being the person to go to. To build long-lasting relationships with your followers, you will need to strengthen your social networks.
Building Audience
Your social reach and scope will not be expanded by marketing to the same people repeatedly. Your goal should be to increase your readership and influence your target audience.
Customer Service
Many companies use social media to provide instant customer service. Social media will require you to be responsive and helpful, as well as being the first point for contact. You will represent the brand and manage their customer perceptions.
Measuring
Each effort that requires investment must be measured and analysed. I have previously written tutorials on how to set up Google Analytics accounts on my blog.
Reporting
After your efforts have been evaluated and analyzed, clients will be interested in knowing how their investment performed. This can be done in the form of visual aids or digital reports. Reporting is an essential component of any social media manager to show your value and prove your worth to the company.
How to Becoming a Social Media Manager
Since July 2007, I have been actively involved in social media. I was active in social media before all the new social marketing tools and software. There weren’t many resources or tutorials that could speed up the learning process.
An online course I found that taught me how to transform my social skills, which I had been practicing on my own accounts, into a full-fledged business was a good option. To learn the basics, I spent PS600. However, the ideas were great and the results are still there. It encouraged me to think outside of the box, and it motivated me to begin my journey towards becoming a social media manager.
Before I decided to make my passion for social media and networking into a career as a freelancer, I attended Brunel University. I received my BSc in Business Management and MSc. This was when I got on board the poker boom. I started playing online tournaments and cash games. Poker helped me develop my time management, money management, and analysis skills. This was an excellent platform for me to learn the ropes of starting my own business. I participated in many online discussions while playing poker and wrote several guest posts for various poker sites.
