What does a social media manager do? It’s not just about posting on Facebook and Twitter. A social media manager is responsible for the overall strategic planning, day-to-day content creation and management of a company’s online reputation across all major social networks as well as websites. To be successful in this role, it takes strategy, creativity, analytical skills and a lot of hard work! Learn more about what it takes to become a social media manager below:
Social media management skills you’ll need to succeed:
- Creating and managing content and promotions for your brand
- Managing marketing campaigns across all your social media platforms
- Monitoring the analytics of each platform
- Community management
- Produce new content regularly and consistently to create a brand presence
- Cross promotions with the marketing and sales teams to ensure that any ongoing campaigns are all aligned
- Staying on top of anything in social media that’s trending and using this information to improve your strategy.
You’ll need to work the algorithms like an expert! You’ll also want to figure out what good engagement rates look like and plan ahead with content calendars for best results on different platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. If you’re looking for more opportunities in this industry it’s crucial know exactly which tools will drive traffic back towards your site.
Technical knowledge
Copy writing
Writing great content is not as simple as just putting something together and hoping it works. For social media marketing, the skills of a copywriter are needed for success. A social media manager position therefore offers an opportunity to seasoned professionals in this field; they know how to write material that converts readers into customers or clients!
Graphic design
Some skill in graphic design will help massively, as we know that people prefer to consume imagery and video over written content. Experience using software such as Canva and Photoshop will help with designing click-worthy graphics.
Marketing
It sort of goes without saying, but it’s helpful to have an interest or a background in marketing. But saying that, social media is usually a career that many people ‘land in’ due to their passion. A good understanding of marketing gives you a head start in succeeding as an social media manager. It can help you understand overall goals, planning content according to well thought out strategies, and working with other departments for better results across all channels of marketing.
Analytics
The ability to critically analyze your social media metrics is essential for success in this role. You need to know what’s working, what isn’t, and why it works or not. If you want people across platforms on board with your business, Google Analytics will be crucial for measuring detail about where they came from so that you can develop a better strategy moving forward.
SEO
Whilst not cruicial, SEO is good to know for social media managers. Search engine optimisation can be useful in helping your website get more organic traffic from search engines like Google. It’s important to write and optimise content so that it appears on top of the results page when users perform a simple or advanced search. Many social media managers hire an SEO expert.
Paid Ads
An understanding of what paid ads are and how they work is very helpful too. Most social media managers need to run these advertisements, test them out and analyse their results for an efficient return on investment.
What does a social media manager do all day?
You’ll be expected to manage your time well and do lots more than only use apps like these every single day for work purposes; such as writing blog posts or updating them regularly (every two months), running polls in order to get an insight into how your audience feel about certain things they want their brand/products advertised for, tracking analytics data from different platforms with tools like Hootsuite and Google Analytics, and creating content including engaging videos using Adobe Creative Suite or your iPhone. It’s a very busy schedule!
For the long term you’ll also work on a strategy that will align with your business objectives. These might include:
- Planning and building a strategy with actionable targets and goals to meet
- Establishing or refreshing a brand identity, brand voice, brand image
- Analysing the growth of the accounts and targeting any areas of strength or with room for improvement
- Improving SEO of content to attract organic website traffic
- Re-building social media accounts where they have not been used for some time, or have been used without strategy or focus
- Boosting sales numbers
Businesses these days often require a full time or part time social media manager, as it’s become such a busy role. It can be incredibly time-consuming to manage multiple channels and keep up with new content, especially if you handle other aspects on your company’s behalf such as writing blog posts or attending events. Companies often do not have the resources available for someone who has experience in this field; they’re more likely to go out an hire somebody than spend months learning how each channel works while trying their best at managing them simultaneously. And having a dedicated person in the social media role allows brands to rapidly expand beyond one platform without requiring additional staff members.
How do you become a social media manager?
The good news is that social media managers don’t need any specific qualifications to be successful. They typically have degrees in an area like marketing, journalism or business studies which can help them transition into the role easily.
Experience
To have a fighting chance in the social media field, businesses want to see that you can provide them with results. You’ll need experience and evidence of providing these results – if so, it’s arguable that qualifications are less important than your ability to produce specific outcomes. As long as you love everything about social media-related topics, this will be enough for companies looking at hiring candidates like yourself!
Courses
There are plenty of really good online courses that you can study for a deep dive into social media marketing and each of the main topics. When you’re doing your research make sure you check out their credentials – is it recognised in your country or overseas? is it self- paced (great if you’re already working or juggling other commitments) and does the course fee include materials and exam fees? Also be sure that the course is updated regularly, or you’ll be studying last years’ trends which will be useless in a fast moving industry like this.
The Digital Marketing Institute (DMI) have partnered with the Digital Academy to deliver globally recognised courses into your region. Check out the courses here, which are updated often and have the highest enrolment rate in the world.
Conclusion
If you’re passionate about social media and love being ‘on’ all the time, a social media manager career might be for you. The role offers many opportunities for growth and development while giving you the chance to learn more about marketing, analytics, and how best to engage with your audience in real time. Don’t hesitate any longer – get in touch today!
