Like any senior marketing position, being a competent social media manager requires a variety of abilities in order to produce social media content that engages followers and turns them into devoted customers.
A Social Media Manager now has a more difficult job with a wider range of abilities. According to LinkedIn’s ‘Future of Skills research, during 2015, the United States’ average needs for Social Media Manager abilities have changed by 25%.
Social media outreach, social customer service, platform knowledge, and influencer marketing are now skills needed for the position. By enhancing social listening and creating social content, artificial intelligence has the potential to make an impact on the channel.
If you’re interested in becoming a social media manager but aren’t sure where to begin, this article will show you the crucial abilities you need to develop and how MTB Digital Marketing will help you do so in order to succeed in the field.
What Does a ‘Social Media Manager’ Do?
A social media manager is entrusted with managing the social media presence of a company, brand, person, or even an entire product line.
This position, which is frequently referred to as the “voice of the company,” is also known as “Community Manager” (although this term has significantly fallen out of favor) or “Digital and Social Media Manager.”
Social media managers design and manage marketing initiatives, company information, and brand promotions for their organization across various social media platforms.
They also understand how to use tools, focus on the best social media metrics, and reply to queries and comments in accordance with the tone and policies of the organization. Social media managers continually experiment to push fresh concepts and formats while monitoring how those concepts are doing.
They may work with other creative teams like marketing and public relations as well as the sales department to drive lead generation campaigns that generate income. They may report to a social media director (in larger firms) or the head of content or brand. Keeping up with current trends as well as business and industry news is an important aspect of the profession.
Common Tasks of a Social Media Manager
The job is fast-paced and diversified, requiring multiple responsibilities in a single day! A Social Media Manager may perform the following tasks, among others:
- Produce Content for Many Platforms – What works on Facebook might not necessarily work on TikTok. Examine the content that is currently hot on each platform and see what your competitors are providing, such as videos, infographics, blogs, and more.
- Monitor Social Analytics – To see whether efforts are effective (or ineffective) across all channels so that your time and money are directed toward the proper channels and target audiences.
- Create a Social Media Plan – You might need to start from scratch to promote a deal or new item.
- Establish Quantifiable Targets: For a new campaign across pertinent channels and produce a report to assess performance to demonstrate ROI. Make the most of a social media campaign calculator to achieve your goals at the optimal price.
- Schedule Posts – The “ideal” time to upload material on each social media network varies (Instagram users appear to be busiest on Wednesday mornings!). By planning ahead, you may lessen burdens and make sure that material is posted when you’re sleeping but not when your audience is.
- Research Relevant Updates – Some of your social media posts should represent global events or advancements that are important to your audience. Do some research and spread stuff from other sources that will be well-received.
- Engage With Your Audience – Increasing engagement is the goal of your social media. Therefore, reply to any comments and address customer inquiries. Use your social media platforms to provide customer service, in other words.
- Review and Fill Out Your Content Calendar – You must plan your content in this fast-paced world. To remain on top of things, fill your social media schedule for the coming days or even weeks.
These are but a few examples of the kinds of jobs you could encounter. But keep in mind that every day might be unique, so managing your content schedule and social media campaigns is essential for online success.
9 Qualities of a Great Social Media Manager
Now that you are aware of what the position entails, let’s look at the qualifications a Social Media Manager has to possess.
1. Content Creation
Social media managers write a lot—up to a dozen pieces every day, on average. Additionally, each social network demands a slightly different writing style. Understanding SEO copywriting is also highly beneficial.
You must be able to formulate ideas that your audience can readily understand and that encourage a positive attitude. The social media manager should establish themselves as the company’s “voice” and strengthen their brand through writing.
2. Research
Social media managers need to stay current with the rapidly evolving social and digital media landscape. This includes keeping up with new measurement and analytics tools, global and industry trends, and monitoring your competitors’ actions, even on a daily basis.
Excellent social media managers set up Google Alerts on trending subjects and monitor trending content using Feedly, Ahrefs, and BuzzSumo.
In addition to the TikTok ‘Discover’ button and the Twitter Trends sidebar, hashtag research can be used to find relevant topics.
3. Customer Support
About half of consumers who interact with firms on social media do so to voice issues about customer service, according to research by Khoros.
And as this figure demonstrates, interaction varies between platforms (although for many users, social media is the simplest and quickest way to obtain a response from a company, thus social media managers should exercise caution across channels).
Customers frequently turn to social media to get answers to problems or to complain (or gush) about a product or service, especially now that platforms like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are readily available. So, if nobody answers (even on nights and weekends), their perceptions of that brand may become negative.
4. SEO Expertise
Content marketing and social media are now inextricably linked to search engine optimization, or SEO as it is more often known.
In actuality, SEO may significantly affect the material you post on social media. Knowing this, a competent social media manager attempts to incorporate SEO while crafting content for social media. When you include SEO in your approach, you can draw in a wider audience that is interested in your goods or services, which will result in more potential clients.
5. Design & Creativity
While you’ll post a lot of textual content on social media, it’s equally important to include imaginative visual content (particularly for platforms like TikTok and Instagram). The perfect picture, video, animation, illustration, or photo can be shared hundreds or even thousands of times, so it’s important to know how to make social media material that is appropriate for each site.
The ability to design graphics that complement postings and are visually appealing is crucial for social media managers. If it’s acceptable for your business, Know Your Meme can be useful for keeping up with the daily evolution of new memes.
Gaining expertise in video will be very beneficial because it is also a crucial part of your social media strategy. Given the abundance of video content online (reportedly 3.7 million videos are added to YouTube every day), it’s critical to be innovative with your video marketing and understand what your audience enjoys and desires.
The caliber of your videos is crucial given the explosive growth of visual platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Use brand storytelling to communicate with your audience and convey a clear message about your brand on social media.
6. Data Analytics
It’s critical to know if what you’re doing is effective if you’re spending time and energy on social media platforms to increase awareness and engagement. Data has a role in this. You can gain understanding of each platform as well as the material you’re sharing on social media by analyzing the data you have collected.
There are several excellent tools you can use to track data to collect social media post metrics, carry out a competitive study, and watch conversations—social listening—in addition to the analytics features offered by each social network and GA4.
7. Social Media Know-How
The requirement for excellent social media abilities in a social media manager may seem evident. Even while you can pick things up over time by research and experimenting, if you want to work for a big corporation, you’ll need to have a few years of experience.
8. Budgeting
A social media manager needs to know how to create and oversee a budget for both paid and organic media on different social networks. You should allocate money for things like content development, influencers, paid media, software, and tools. Your budget shouldn’t be fixed in stone; instead, you should regularly examine and analyze it to make sure you’re investing in the initiatives that Englewood SEO Company will take to help you achieve your KPIs (whether they’re to generate leads or raise brand awareness).
9. Flexibility
In any marketing position, flexibility is essential, but managing social media requires it even more. Because of how quickly the social media world changes, adaptation is essential.
Posting on the timetable is insufficient. You must be able to experiment with new features and make adjustments in response to trends, ongoing testing, and analytics you should conduct on your postings.
To make your social media the most effective for you, you also need the freedom to experiment once you have the analytics. You may swiftly ascertain which kinds of images and prose are effective for your firm by using A/B testing (writing posts in various ways, with various images).
