When I was at school, if you told the careers advisor that you wanted to be more social, then you’d be directed to roles at your local leisure centre. Today, almost everyone company has someone on staff who is responsible for social media. At smaller firms, the person doing the social may also be responsible for PR or marketing. At a larger firm, it’s usually a dedicated employee with a starting salary of around $50,000.
What Does a Social Media Manager Actually Do?
A Community or Social Media Manager is responsible for the day-to-day management and development of editorial content on social media platforms. This includes positioning a brand through tweets, posts and discussions on social media sites. It also includes passive monitoring of related discussions on social media sites, as well direct customer interaction on these sites.
A Community or Social Media Manager is embedded in social media communities and has a strong handle on various tools and interfaces. In addition, he or she must be a have strong people skills, communication skills and must have an enthusiasm for the brand they are promoting, as they are responsible for driving consumer engagement in social networks.
I’m Popular on Instagram. Should I Become a Social Media Manager?
So, you use social media every day? Does that mean you’re an ideal candidate to be a Social Media Manager? In a word — no. Your career will not be determined by your number of Instagram followers alone. This position generally requires a degree in journalism or a related field. In addition, two to three years of experience in journalism, communications or social media is desired in addition to education.
Is Social Media Management an Easy Gig?
As a social media manager, you are the voice of your brand, and you are responsible for communicating with your customers, both the happy customers and the really disgruntled ones. This isn’t a position to be taken lightly. Not only are you the voice of the brand, you often have to be the face of the brand. You’ll need to be comfortable being in front of a camera or featured on a podcast. Sometimes, you might become so well known, that you’ll be recognized in your local supermarket. Lastly, consider that you may need to put in overtime. You might find yourself answering posts at the weekend, in the bathroom, and occasionally in the middle of an important family party.
What Tools Should A Social Media Manager Learn?
Going into a role, you need experience of how to use and what to post on the big five platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, SnapChat. In addition, knowing your social media support tools will stand you in good stead, particularly when persuading your superiors what you need to help you succeed. Pay close attention to Sprout Social, Sprinklr, Edgar, CoSchedule, and Buffer to help you get the job done. Choose wisely when picking your social media management tool — once you’re locked in, they can be difficult to leave.
Registered users, downloads and page views are easily manipulated stats that arguably don’t matter.
Friends Don’t Let Friends Celebrate Vanity Metrics
Oh, so you have 1,000 followers on Instagram? Cool story, bro. Fortunately, the days of simply growing your brand’s social following are long gone. People love to point to big growth numbers, but these stats are meaningless in many ways. Vanity metrics — registered users, downloads and page views are easily manipulated and arguably don’t matter. What does matter are your active users, engagement, sentiment, the cost of getting new users, revenues and profits. To guarantee success as a social media manager, make sure you’re focusing on the metrics that matter and learn how to read an interpret data.
Be a Social Job Seeker
The workforce has moved their job hunt online. Don’t be left behind! As a job seeker, particular a social media manager, social has changed the way you look for the jobs and the way that future employees see you. Having a curated presence matters. While you want to show your potential employers that you are capable of utilizing social media to build strong networks and dispense engaging content, you’ll also want to want make sure that you have a clean record. You have to talk the talk and walk the walk before you find someone that trusts you to market their brand.
Think you’ve got what it takes? Find your perfect role today.
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