How to Become a Superb Social Media Manager: The Definitive Guide
If you want to become a superb social media manager, it’s important to understand the basics of how social media works and what platform would be the best fit for your business. Although there are many different ways to approach social media marketing, we hope that these tips will give you a good foundation on which to build your strategy. With a little bit of planning and effort, you can become a superb social media manager in no time!
A company’s lack of social media presence is now generally recognized to be unacceptable. In order to meet the ever-evolving expectations of today’s shoppers, businesses must act swiftly and creatively.
Generation Z, who grew up with the internet, are drawn to the social aspects of the job of “social media manager.” This one is so tempting it’s almost impossible to give in. Especially considering the widespread belief that you can make a fortune by just updating your status on Facebook. Hardly.
You might compare managing social media to doing stand-up comedy. Realizing who you’re talking to and keeping their attention fast becomes crucial. It’s impossible to do this without real-time feedback on how successful your jokes are in eliciting laughter from the target demographic. This alone will win over most of the audience.
The question then becomes, “How can one enter the field of social management?” And more specifically, what are the keys to developing into an effective social manager?
Some people are going to be shocked by the reply. To begin with, you need to really want it. To continue, you should adore it. As a third point, you need to study it. You should still question yourself, “Am I a sociable person?” even if you do all these things. If you answered “no,” managing social media is probably not for you.
How to Become a Superb Social Media Manager (Step By Step Guide)
To that end, let’s examine some numbers.
- With the keyword “social media manager,” LinkedIn returns 57,910 matches.
- The most popular thing to do online currently is social networking, surpassing even pornographic sites.
- Most people (97%) start their search for a local company online.
- In fact, 71% of customers who get a prompt response from a company on social media are more inclined to suggest that product to their friends and family.
- Ninety-three percent of all marketers now utilize social media for professional purposes.
- B2B marketers rank social media marketing (49%) as the most challenging to implement, followed by content marketing (39%), search engine optimization (26%), and mobile marketing (25%).
- For their content marketing strategies, blogs are used by 77% of B2B companies.
- Content creation, distribution, and promotion currently takes up an average of 25% of marketing expenses.
- For a small company, social media is the primary source of new clients.
Among top-level executives throughout the world, more than half provided a score of 3 or below when asked to rate their company’s social business maturity on a scale from 1 to 10.
However, the most important number to this piece is:
- Among social media marketers, just 1 in 10 believes they are successful.
Freelancing offers several opportunities for a person skilled in social media management. The most obvious is that you get to set your own hours and be in charge of your own fate. You have absolute power and responsibility for all outcomes. It is up to you to issue invoices and choose payment terms. Actually, if you wanted to, you could spend the whole day in your underwear in front of the computer.
Money is the second. It’s a position that’s in high demand, but many businesses haven’t quite figured it out yet. Some businesses see the potential benefits social media may provide their operations and are prepared to commit substantial resources to intensive social media efforts. When you’re your own employer, you get to pick how much to charge for your services or products.
Low entrance barriers are another selling point. In a short amount of time and with no outlay of capital, anybody can create a freelance social management company. There are many helpful materials available online (including this one!) to speed up the learning process.
In a moment, I’ll tell you about my experience, but first, let’s talk about what you absolutely must have in order to succeed as a social media manager.
Basic Skills:
Information About Marketing
One of your strengths should be an understanding of marketing fundamentals. While formal training in marketing is helpful, there is no shortage of high-quality information available online.
Experience
You don’t have to rely only on real-world encounters to qualify as experienced. You’ve been running your own social media accounts for quite some time, right? Can you manage your own social media accounts and keep up with the needs of your clientele?
Sociable
I briefly said this to set the stage for the story. A career as a social media manager is not for you if you are the kind of person who prefers to stay in their shell and avoids making eye contact with others. Sure, you can hide behind a keyword and watch for a while, but eventually, clients will want to meet in person, talk over the phone, or schedule a Skype appointment.
Leadership in Project Management
You don’t have to be Prince2-certified, but you should be proficient at managing tasks and your time. It’s not uncommon for a social media manager to juggle many different accounts at once. It’s crucial to keep track of everything so that things don’t grow too stressful.
Technological
It is possible to find social networking sites on the internet. Thus, it is essential that you be familiar with computers to some extent. If you want to provide better services and stay abreast of the most recent social trends and advances, brush up on your social media and networking skills.
Developing Your Social Abilities:
Communication
It’s assumed that you have excellent communication skills if your job involves representing a firm and interacting with the public on their behalf.
Personality
In general, companies avoid hiring persons who lack character flaws to represent their products. Both they and their fans don’t find it to be very interesting.
Responsiveness
I’ve said this before, but social media moves at a breakneck rate. Just picture yourself with a social task that heavily included responding to client complaints and questions, and then ignoring them for weeks. The expectation of instantaneous service is high among internet users. You’ll provide a good service to your customer (and yourself) if you can meet these requirements.
Entrepreneurial
You need to have initiative if you want to become a social media manager on a contract basis. A willingness to put in additional effort and accept certain financial risks is required. How would you feel if you don’t find a job that pays well within a month?
Multitasking
A successful social media manager will have a broad set of skills.
Organization
If you’re providing social media management services, you need constantly be very well prepared. Calendars, white boards, and to-do lists are just a few of the classic organizational tools I use. Some of the online tools I use to stay organized include Thunderbird, which allows me to check all of my email accounts in one spot, Dropbox, which allows me to quickly share papers with customers, and bookmarks, which allow me to keep track of the sites I visit most often.
the ability to think strategically
Being able to plan campaigns in advance and think creatively when necessary are both valuable skills for a social media manager to possess. It is crucial to be able to give a clear and straightforward approach to clients who want to know how you will achieve something before entrusting you to execute it.
Flexible (with travel) (with travel)
There are times when even a remote social media manager has to get out of the house! You may want to consider a career change if this is a persistent issue. Many meetings with the customer are required for each substantial project I take on. You may also need to sell your services in person before getting employed, therefore it’s important that you’re comfortable doing so. You might even decide to do the task in-house.
Generalized Abilities:
Copywriting
There isn’t a single social media manager who isn’t also a fantastic writer. Whether it’s commercials, blogs, customer engagement, sales text, or press releases, writing is an integral part of internet marketing.
Illustration and Design
Almost every social networking service lets you modify the user interface to better reflect your brand. If you’re skilled with Photoshop (or a comparable design program), you may add social media graphic design to your services. In the same vein, a social media manager’s daily routine often includes the production of material like infographics, banners, or photographs.
Advertising
Social media managers must know advertising. Know how to optimize banner and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.
PR
Public relations and social media marketing share the goal of managing business-to-public communication. Since bigger businesses handle PR, you may not need a detailed understanding of it to start.
Statistical
Measure marketing everything. To prove your worth, monitor and analyze your social marketing success and report to customers.
SEO
Understanding how social media influences SEO improves marketing performance. Google had 5,134,000,000 daily searches in 2012. SEO matters for social media.
marketing
Even though you won’t be doing conventional marketing in a social media management capacity, you should grasp how the two effect one other and how they may be used to compliment each other.
Editing
It may be your least utilized ability, yet it may help you in social marketing. A few companies needed presentations or demonstration movies prepared for social media initiatives. I’m no expert, but a little Windows Movie Maker (or other video editing software) expertise can convert that camera-shot movie into a YouTube-ready masterpiece.
Even if you have all the abilities to be a social media manager, adopting social tools and software may boost your services. Two software programs I use may help you become a great social media manager:
BuzzBundle: My favorite software. I use it to locate terms related to my content from a big number of blogs, forums, and social networks and feed them to me in one interface. I can then see who is discussing my issue and join in.
Expectations…
Social media managers do what? As you can see, social media management is varied. I don’t update Facebook. Social media managers must do these tasks:
Strategy
Campaign and platform-specific tactics must match corporate goals. Create action plans, content calendars, metrics, KPIs, research, and analysis.
Production
Content underpins marketing campaigns. Content kind will determine marketing strategy. Content rules, as you’ve probably heard. Trust.
Administration
Accounts need community management. You should represent companies on social media and constantly interact with your followers. To keep followers, you must maintain social interactions.
Engagement
Marketing to the same individuals will not expand your social reach. Increase reading and impact among your target audiences.
Support
Many organizations utilize social media for fast customer assistance. Socially, you must be sensitive and helpful. You’ll manage the brand’s image.
Measurement
Measure and analyze every investment-consuming effort. My site has Google Analytics account setup instructions.
Reporting
After measuring and analyzing your efforts, customers will want to know how their investment fared. Meeting visuals and digital reporting are examples. Social media managers must report to show their value to the company.
Becoming a Social Media Manager
Social media since July 2007. This was before all the newest social marketing tools and software that social marketers today use daily. Tutorials and other learning aids were few.
I found an online course that appeared promising for turning my social talents into a business. After a few years, I can conclude this online course wasn’t worth £600, but the concepts were there. It made me think outside the box and start my social media management career.
Before becoming a freelancer, I studied business management at Brunel University. I joined the poker boom and played online cash games and tournaments. Poker improved my time, money, and analytical abilities. I always wanted to start my own company, so this was a fantastic start. I participated in online social forums and published poker site guest pieces while playing poker.
I soon became a freelance social media manager.
I joined Elance, oDesk, and Freelancer to start freelancing in social media. Some I still use.
After a few years of freelancing on modest projects and honing my social marketing skills, an online business services firm recruited me to lead their social media campaigns and those of their customers. Good working connections are why I continue work with them.
I had customers most months for a few years, and each assignment was different. This gave me broader abilities that I now need to give a complete social media marketing solution. Midway through this post, I addressed some of these larger abilities needed to be a successful social media manager.
I maintained and built my social media accounts. Showcase your skills in your own fields and practice what you preach. My social media attracts customers and boosts my networking potential.
I just updated my blog after blogging for years. My social activities drive visits to my passive income sites. I “listen” to social media and interact with those who want my stuff. This strengthens relationships and attracts targeted traffic.
I love guest blogging. I think writing for related blogs expands your reach. Online journals and media have published my pieces twice, which was excellent.
Even though I would spend most of my time at my home office, I told myself I would keep my ears to the ground and put myself out there. I routinely met with business contacts and customers to ensure they could link online personas to real faces. I usually remembered my business cards!
I’ve always attempted to convert one freelance client into three. Word-of-mouth advertising is the most effective. Good buddy suggestions are followed. Asking customers at project completion whether they knew anybody who may benefit from social media marketing worked remarkably effectively.
I knew I had to stay current on social media since start-ups come and go every few months. A customer would sometimes ask me to create accounts or campaigns on sites most social media managers had never heard of. Staying connected helped me understand these platforms faster and run stronger ads.
I started a web design firm with my partner a year and a half ago. Summer 2012 brought “Thinking Forwards.” Websites and social media go together, so I could upsell my services both ways.
I’m here now. As a social media manager, I never employed paid advertising or SEO for myself. Only content marketing and guerilla marketing advanced me.
In Conclusion, This Is How I Got into Social Media Management
- Participated in Freelancing Platforms
- I have put my own advice into practice by keeping up with my own social media pages and blog.
- Never stopped expanding my professional network or adding new contacts to my phone book.
- I have consistently updated my own webpages with original material.
- sent my writing to potential clients
- I often inquired as to whether anybody need my help.
- Posting as a guest blogger and being highlighted in the media
- met with customers and connections in a business networking capacity
- Made an effort to increase the number of clients by three Kept abreast of emerging platforms
- launched new projects that make use of social media in a supplementary way
- Neither job nor social possibilities should be turned down.
- labored arduously, sometimes for little payoffs, to establish credibility, respect, and prominence in one’s field
