The Ultimate Guide to Being a Great Social Media Manager

Ron Burgundy would put it: ” The balls” is a great social media manager.

Every business must be present on social media. To stay ahead of changing consumer demands, brands must be able to adapt and think quickly to meet them.

Social media managers appeal to a large number of internet users. It is difficult not to. It’s easy to believe that posting Facebook updates can make you rich. Hardly.

Social media managers are a bit like being a comedian. It is crucial to understand your audience quickly and engage with them. This requires you to be able to see if your audience is laughing at you jokes in real time. This will ensure that you win the crowd.

How do you become a social media manager? How can you be a great social manager?

Some people will be surprised at the answer. First, you must want it. It must be something you love. You must also learn it. Even if all of these boxes are checked, it is important to ask yourself ” Am i a social person?” If you don’t answer yes, then you might not be a good candidate for social media management.

Let’s now take a look at these stats.

LinkedIn has 57,910 results related to “social media manager”.
Porn has been overtaken by social media as the top activity on the internet.
97% of consumers search online for local businesses
71% of those who received a prompt brand response via social media said they would recommend the brand to others.
93% of marketers use Social Media for Business
Nearly half (49%) B2B marketers rank social media marketing as the most difficult to execute. Next, content marketing (39%), SEO (26%), and mobile (25%) are close behind.
77% of B2B marketers include a blog in their content marketing mix
Content development, delivery, and promotion now account for 25% of all marketing budgets.
Social media is used by 78% of small business owners to attract new customers.
More than half of global business executives rated their company’s social-business maturity on a scale from 1-10 when asked to rate it.

The most pertinent statistic to this article, however, is:

Only 12% of social marketers feel that they use it efficiently.

Social media managers bring with them key benefits in a freelance environment. Most importantly, you are your boss. You decide and you answer to no one. You create the policies and send the invoices. You could even sit in your underpants and work on the computer all day if you so desired.

The other is money. This is a highly-demanded role that many companies still struggle to accept. Companies are beginning to realize the importance of social media for their business and are prepared to invest in strong social media campaigns. You are in control of your price and costs.

Low entry barriers are another reason to be attracted. There are many online resources, including this one, that can help you get started with low startup costs. Anyone can start a social management company as a freelancer in a matter of hours. This allows you to quickly decrease the learning curve.

My story will be told shortly, but let’s first discuss the skills required to be a great social media manager.

Fundamental Skills:

Marketing Knowledge

A good understanding of basic marketing principles is essential. A little education in marketing is a good idea, but you can also find quality resources online.

Experience

You don’t have to limit your experience to just life. Are you a social media manager who has been managing your own accounts for a while now? Are you able to manage your social media accounts effectively and anticipate the needs of clients?

Sociable

This was something I mentioned at the beginning. You don’t have to be sociable if you don’t enjoy communicating and aren’t outgoing. Then you might not be a good candidate for social media management. While you may be able to hide behind a keyword for a while and monitor, clients will still want to meet up, talk on the phone or use Skype at some point.

Project Management

While you don’t need to hold a Prince2 certificate to work in the social media industry, it is important to know how to manage your time and projects well. Social media managers often work with multiple clients at once. It is crucial to keep track of everything so it doesn’t get overwhelming.

Technological

Online social media is available. You need to be able to use the internet. A good understanding of social technology can enhance your services and keep you up-to-date with the latest developments and social trends.

Interpersonal Skills

Communication

It is obvious that you must have excellent communication skills if you are going to represent a company or engage with customers.

Personality

Companies are reluctant to hire people without a personality to represent their brand. They and their customers don’t like it.

Responsiveness

This is something I have touched on a few times. Social media is extremely fast-paced. Imagine if your social tasks were primarily focused on customer service, and you didn’t respond to customer queries or complaints for several weeks. People online expect quick responses. Your client (and your business) will be better off if you can meet their needs. in good stead.

Entrepreneurial

You must be self-motivated to become a social media manager. You must be willing to take financial risks and go the extra mile. How will it affect you if you don’t get a job that pays enough within a month?

Multitasking

Social media managers must be able and willing to take on a variety of tasks.

Organisation

When managing social media services, you should be organized. To keep me organized, I use a variety of traditional tools such as white boards, task lists and calendars. Thunderbird to access all my email accounts, Dropbox to share documents with clients, and bookmarks to keep track all the websites I frequent.

Strategic Thinking

As a social media manager, it is a great asset to be able to plan campaigns and think outside of the box. Clients want to know what you will do before they let you do it. It is important to be able to communicate clearly and concisely.

Flexible (with travel)

Contrary to popular belief, social media managers who are freelance have to sometimes leave their office. This is something you might consider if you find it difficult. Nearly all large projects I work on involve multiple meetings with clients. It is important to have good pitching skills as you might be asked to present your services to clients before being hired. You might even consider working in-house.

More Skills:

Copywriting

A great social media manager must be a good writer. Writing is the cornerstone of all aspects of online marketing. This includes creating ads, writing blogs and engaging customers.

Graphic Design

Almost all social media platforms allow you to customize the interface and add your branding. These services can be offered by anyone who is proficient in Photoshop or another design software. Social media managers are used to creating infographics, banners and images.

Advertising

Social media managers should be well-versed in advertising. You should be able to understand the intricacies of each advertising format, including banner and Pay-Per-Click advertising.

PR

In the same way that social media marketing is closely related to public relations, both are responsible for managing information exchange between businesses and the public. It is possible to start with a basic knowledge of PR. Larger brands are more likely to manage it. They have an interest in convincing investors, stakeholders and the public to support a particular point of view.

Statistic

Marketing should be measured. To demonstrate your worth, you should regularly measure and analyse social marketing performance.

SEO

Campaign performance will be improved if you understand how social media influences search engine optimization. Google saw an average of 5,134,000,000 searches per day in 2012. SEO is important for your social activities.

Traditional Marketing

Although you won’t usually be involved in traditional marketing practices while you are managing social media, it is important to understand how they interact and how you can best use each.

Video editing

Although this skill is not the most used, it can be a valuable asset to your social media marketing efforts. A few of my clients required demonstration videos or presentations to be edited before they could be used in their social media campaigns. Although I am not an expert in video editing, having some knowledge of Windows Movie Maker or similar software can transform a video straight from the camera into a YouTube-ready video.

You don’t have to be a social media manager to succeed. However, you can still improve your services with different software and social tools. Two pieces of software that I use to help me become a great social media manager will be briefly reviewed.