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In this digital day and age, being a social media manager is one of the most important jobs in every company. The role involves planning, strategizing, executing, measuring, reevaluating, reporting – and doing it all over again for another campaign. It’s about staying up-to-date, constantly learning, being always on, and keeping tabs on what’s significant for your brand and audience. It’s almost a 24-hour job of making sure the business stays relevant in the sea of advertisers.
You Think Outside The Box
Social media marketing is all about keeping your followers interested and engaged through creative content. And as a social media manager, it’s your task to ensure that this is done rightfully so.
It’s essential that you understand the importance of creating content pieces that will keep your audience hooked. You have to be willing to experiment with new trends and strategies that have never been done before by other brands. You must consistently come up with fresh and appealing ideas, creative initiatives, and original campaigns to keep your followers coming.
Generally, you have to be inventive and innovative and constantly thinking of ways to stand out from the hundreds of millions of marketers out there.
You Are Proactive
Social media is rapidly changing and you don’t want to be left behind. That’s why you have to cause things to happen instead of waiting for what’s to come. Pay attention to what’s happening on social media, in the world, and the people in it. Be curious and fascinated by current events, stay updated with recent developments, and immerse yourself in the online world.
Be on top of the latest and upcoming digital marketing trends and think of ways to apply these to your marketing efforts. Remember: The industry is constantly evolving and so should you.
You’re A People Person
Two of the toughest and most crucial tasks of a social media manager are community engagement and customer service. To be effective and successful in the role, you have to be a people person, at least online.
As the face and voice of your company on social media, the job description includes:
- Developing, monitoring, and responding to conversations within your community.
- Social listening and keeping a close eye on mentions and tweets.
- Responding to comments and messages – yes, even the trolls.
- Answering questions about your brand.
- Engaging with brand advocates and all of your loyal followers.
- Asking relevant and intriguing questions to kickstart engagement.
- Providing stellar customer service.
That’s why it’s important that you genuinely enjoy social media and participate in it on a personal level. You must know the ins and outs of the platforms and be well-versed in what each of these entail. You’re responsible for building customer trust and establishing a solid social community for your business.
Take E! News for example: Their social media manager always responds with quirky and witty comments.
You’re A Good Communicator and Leader
A successful social media manager handles multiple fronts – customers, team members, and company management.
Be confident when speaking in front of a crowd to keep your audience interested. Help improve your reach and engagement and create upbeat live content - which means speaking in front of the camera with several people behind it. Be calm and assured when you present ideas, interview clients and guests, answer impromptu questions, and interact with your followers.
You’re also the glue that keeps your team together. That’s why you must recognize the way team members communicate with one another. Listen attentively, be open to each person’s ideas, and understand how these can be used in your campaigns. The industry can be demanding and overwhelming, so it’s important that you keep your teammates in check, get along with colleagues, and motivate your team members.
This is often overlooked, but it’s equally vital to update and keep your management team informed of what’s going on. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to get their permission on every decision you’ll make. But you have to keep them aligned with your current and upcoming plans.
You’re A Strategic Planner
It’s important to understand the bigger picture and recognize how social media fits in your overall objectives.
To do this, you have to be able to do the following:
- Set goals to clarify the vision for the business.
- Define your target audience and identify which platforms to use.
- Know which tools will help scale your efforts.
- Execute your plans.
- Evaluate and make the necessary adjustments based on the results you get.
Part of your role is to set priorities, effectively allocate time and resources, and strengthen business operations. Ensure that employees and stakeholders work together toward the common goal, establish agreement around the intended outcome, and assess and adjust strategies as needed.
You Are Analytical
Numbers are a huge part of a social media manager’s job. You have to read and interpret data, understand the metrics and what they define, and identify which media formats work best.
Knowing these will help you convert page visits to engagements and sales, use analytics to prove your ROI, and create insightful reports. Learning the ins and outs of social media metrics will help you know what works and what doesn’t, what should be avoided, and what can still be improved. Understanding the underlying causes of such trends will also help you make informed decisions and create more successful campaigns in the future.
Don’t worry, you can learn all these in your training and along the way. What’s important is that you’re interested in the nitty-gritty aspects of numbers.
You Have Great Visual and Content Creation Skills
Social media is driven by creative visuals and interactive content. That’s why you must have an eye for appealing designs that embody your business and aesthetics that connect with your followers. You should be able to handpick appropriate photos and videos, create your own, or instruct your designers on what to do.
You don’t have to be a pro with the technical software. But it’s a huge plus if you’re aware of photo-editing trends, familiar with the basics of photography, video, and design, and have a keen eye for details.
It’s also important that you know your content sources and audience preferences. This will help you decide what your followers want to see and when they will see it.
You Write Well
Great content is best paired with great writing. As a social media manager, you’ll compose captivating headlines and engaging introductions, structure easy-to-read bodies, craft inspiring calls-to-action, fill up profile bios, create tweets, posts, and captions, and maybe write blog posts.
It'll help if you find a copywriting formula that'll work best for your brand and its audience. This way, you’ll remain consistent and know the perfect balance between personal and professional in the tone and language that you’ll use.
You’re Adaptable and Flexible
As we’ve said before, social media is an ever-changing industry. You have to quickly digest the changes in each channel and its user base so you can shift your campaign approach accordingly. You must rapidly adapt to new situations and respond to things happening in the social media space. Stay updated with recent developments and keep up with such changes to remain ahead of the industry.
It’s also important to be agile enough to address situations, whether good or bad, as they arise. Learn how to go with the flow while at the same time ensuring that you don’t sacrifice your business objectives. You need good judgment to make decisions in a timely manner, conduct yourself to prevent bad PR, and positively handle any social media crisis.
You Are Business-Minded
You have to be holistically involved in your company, especially the business side of it. Additionally, you need basic financial and budgeting knowledge to ensure that your resources are allocated correctly. You must have a good foundation of sales and marketing principles to understand what role social media plays in your business strategies. You’re also tasked to establish strong and lasting relationships with stakeholders, clients, suppliers, media partners, other brands, influencers, and other parties.
It’s important that you see and understand the relevance of social media and how it helps grow and scale your business.
You Know How to Work Efficiently
Being a social media manager means juggling multiple tasks at the same time. You conduct market research, do audience segmentation, or cross-check your data to ensure that your facts are straight. You also create content schedules, track contacts, keep up with trends and conversations, maintain social media profiles, craft reports and presentations, meet with designers and writers, and manage ad budgets. And doing all these simultaneously can be overwhelming.
While you don’t need to have all 11 skills to become an expert social media manager, being good in a few or most of these traits can make you a valuable asset to your company. With some formal training, a lot of hands-on experiences, and time, you can build a fulfilling career in this growing industry.
