The invention and use of the internet have revolutionized the marketing industry and developed the social media manager position. So many people around the world use the internet daily. The advent of social media has ensured that people stay connected to the internet constantly. Social media platforms have become the most prominent place to find and reach people of different backgrounds and needs. If one needs to get as many people as possible, they should do it through social media. This information has created a niche in the marketing industry known as “social media management.”
Social media management was initially known as community management, but that name was quickly outdated and replaced by a more elaborate name.
Social media management is typically the process of managing one’s online presence on many social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Managing the online presence involves creating, publishing, and analyzing posted content and interacting with other social medial users.
By managing their online presence, businesses and companies can reach their target customers since social media managers ensure that information reaching people is good for them. In addition, a social manager will ensure that the business builds and maintains the brand image.
What is a Social Media Manager?
A social media manager is the individual within the public relations department or the organization’s marketing department that monitors, executes, filters, and measures a product, corporation, brand, or individual’s social media presence. The social media manager plays the same role the public relations representative played before the advent of the internet.
They are often the voice of the company. Because social media platforms are fast-paced, they are considered real-time marketing platforms, so the social media manager can work fast, responding to and sharing information as soon as it becomes available. A great social media manager usually is privy to news cycles. It is an expert in the company’s industry, business, product, or service they are creating an online presence for.
Roles of a Manager
The main roles of a social media manager include:
1. Setting Strategy
The social media manager’s first and most important role is to align the business goals to the information that will reach the public, which is done by creating content calendars and managing influencer and advocate programs.
2. Content Creation
The social media manager is supposed to create content for their employee and post it on the different platforms available. The content creation a social media manager is involved in includes:
- Writing social media posts
- Writing blog posts for their employer’s websites
- Designing banners
- Designing memes to bring humor into the product or service they are creating an online presence for
- Taking and editing videos and photos
- Recording podcasts
- Inviting guest contributors to the business
- Repurposing content from one platform to another to meet the required standard for the target audience.
3. Overseeing Employer’s Social Presence
The social media manager usually manages their employer’s executive accounts. They are thus supposed to create and update the platforms regularly to ensure the employer’s online presence.
4. Monitoring and Response
A social media manager will monitor their employer’s pages and respond to any queries and quell any escalations that may be giving their employer a negative PR. This role means that the social media manager serves as customer service and PR crisis communication.
They also provide influencer outreach and respond to any inquiries made by social media users. In addition, they keep up with trending topics concerning their employer and keep up with competitors. The monitoring and response role also ensures community building.
5. Building Campaigns and Promote Content
A social media manager creates campaigns containing messages that represent their employer’s voice. Such campaigns can be ad buys and paid promos. In addition, they are usually tasked with tracking.
6. Measuring and Proving Return on Investment (ROI)
Measuring and proving the return on investment for every engaged platform is another role of the social media manager, which is done by setting measurable goals for each platform and interpreting results to optimize programs. Reporting weekly, quarterly, and annually on these measurements gives employers a general picture of how the platforms benefit them.
7. Covering Live Events
The social media manager’s responsibility is to promote speakers, take photos of events being covered by their employers, promote hashtags, keep a live tweet going, and respond to attendees of the live event. Summarization of the whole affair is also crucial to keep those who were not able updated.
8. Staying on Top of Trends
A social media manager should stay up to date with all emerging trends in their employment to ensure that their representation of their employer keeps up with the market trends. Other roles include;
- Developing and representing their employer with a consistent personality
- Contributing to the tone of the brand and,
- Maintaining brand guidelines across all platforms.
Skills Required
With all the roles that a social media manager needs to conduct, several skills are vital in making a successful Social Media Manager. Some of these skills are:
1. Copywriting
A social media manager writes a lot up to several posts a day. Every platform requires a unique writing way. For instance, a professional tone would be needed for the LinkedIn platform, while Facebook may require light and playful style. Knowledge of copywriting is, therefore, in this case essential.
In addition, one is needed to create messages that the target audience can clearly understand. Social media management is all about communicating to customers through writing 99% of the time. Therefore, a social media manager should write short and effective headings, have engaging introductions, and structure texts in a way that is easy to read.
2. Researching
Since social and digital media is dynamic, a social media manager should do thorough research on things such as new measurement tools others are using to improve their work or what competitors are doing. There exist tools that make researching this information easier.
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Knowledge
Search Engine Optimization is known to impact a Social Media Manager’s social media strategy significantly. It ensures that they create content with SEO in mind, thus optimizing the content on the social networks.
Furthermore, when a social media manager uses SEO as part of their social media strategy, they ensure that they attract significant traffic to their employer’s platforms which widens the net of potential customers.
Therefore, knowledge of the connection between exposure on social media and increased rankings in the search engine results pages, how to promote blog content on social media, and how to drive traffic to the employer’s website to impact revenue makes one a better social media manager.
4. Social Media Skills
While this may seem obvious, social media skills do not come naturally to people. However, they can be learned over time through experimentation and research. A social media manager may need several years’ experience to have social media expertise. Social media skills include knowing the type of content that works best for every platform, optimizing content depending on the platform, and engaging an audience through posts.
5. Skills in Customer Service
The extensive use of social media has many customers preferring social media as their customer care option, which forces social media managers to have the skill required to deal with this. In addition, most customers judge brands depending on their social media experience. Thus, social media managers can provide cordial exchanges with customers when asked questions and help.
6. Visual Intelligence
While writing plays a significant role in executing tasks by a social media manager, they should also provide visual content as it is crucial. Mixing up written and visual content makes information more exciting and palatable.
Thus, a social media manager should have general knowledge of designing to create visually appealing graphics that complement their posts. How to manipulate photos and videos to grow the employer’s brand makes a social media manager invaluable.
7. Flexibility and Adaptivity
Social media and the market, in general, are constantly changing. It is thus essential for a social media manager to have the ability to morph with the market as it changes. Flexibility allows one to try new things to keep up with the changes.
How to Become a Social Media Manager?
We live in a world where the belief that we can be anything we want to be as long as we put our mind to it is the mantra. This mantra speaks to everyone and motivates people into putting in the work needed to become whatever they desire.
Social media management can earn one decent income, with the average salary for a social media manager being $71,216 dollars per year. Anyone interested in becoming a social media manager should:
1. Garner experience in social media marketing strategy:
Having a phone and posting on social media is not enough to make one a social media manager because there is a lot of strategizing and thought put into any social media platform for a brand. One can learn this by networking with a small business owner and learning the ropes to tie their objectives to using social media to improve sales and get new customers.
2. Earn a degree:
Most influential brands employ people based on their papers. Getting a degree would put one on the path to positions in notable brand names. However, gaining experience should not be substituted with a degree since the best way one can grow in the role is to have real-world experience as it adds value.
3. Build a personal social media following by posting thoughtful, strategic content:
An individual with an excellent social media following shows that they can manage a social media following. In addition, one can apply the best social media practices to prove and demonstrate that their techniques work.
4. Learn social media use and marketing analytics:
As earlier mentioned, social media management is a marketing strategy. Therefore, an individual interested in being social media managers should arm themselves with the knowledge of analytics and how they affect the performance of campaigns and content.
Analytics on social media help an individual measure the success of the content shared and identify follower trends. Follower trends include what followers like, what they don’t like, and what they may not respond to. Tools exist to track social media metrics and show trends that can help analyze the trends and eventual formation of an action plan.
5. Undergo training:
Training with known social media managers will provide an interested individual with the insight and the things to be keen on developing while honing their skills in social media management. Some courses educate people on the tools that make social media management possible, such as content-sharing tools, trending tools, and publishing tools.
6. Build an online portfolio:
A portfolio will show potential employers one’s ability in social media management. Therefore, the portfolio should contain top posts and engagement records, among other pertinent data proof of qualifications.
7. Follow potential employers on all their platforms:
By following the brands in one’s interested industry, one can familiarize themselves with what works and the different ways they engage their followers. The use of Socialays can ensure that one remains connected since it can track comments made and take instant actions.
Characteristics of a Successful Social Media Manager
To become a successful manager, the first and foremost character is that they should love data and analytics. They should be curious about different brands and what makes them stand out. Also, they should be open to learning new things as they grow and quickly notice changes in social media.
In conclusion, being a social media manager can be tasking, but it can be satisfying with the right skills and experience garnered over the years. The world is growing at a fast rate, and businesses are cropping up everywhere. These businesses need social media presence to reach their customers; therefore, the need shall always be there. A social media manager can work in any industry that tickles their fancy because all sectors have embraced the use of social media. Therefore, one should not limit themselves to the knowledge they acquire or fear that there shall not be a need for the knowledge they have.
