With more and more consumers actively using social media, business brands have sought the services of a social media manager to help them meet their marketing objectives. There are over 3.5 billion people actively using social media, with a million more joining these platforms annually. 58% of these people follow at least one business brand.
As a result, marketing strategies have shifted from traditional methods to social media marketing campaigns. Organizations have sought the services of a social media manager to identify possible opportunities while attracting as many followers as possible. A social media manager can be a marketer, copywriter, analyst, designer, or a customer service representative. However, to be effective in this job, a social media manager needs to possess a diverse set of skills.
Whether you are looking to hire a social media manager or aspiring to be one, the following are nine essential skills that every social media manager needs to have.
1. Communication
Social media platforms were designed for people to share and keep the conversation flowing. So, it is fair to say that a lot of these platforms are communication platforms. As a result, it is of the utmost importance for a social media manager to have strong communication skills.
Today’s marketplace is customer-driven. Communication skills are vital in helping a social media manager to develop favorable relationships between the customers and the business. In doing so, the managers will be increasing engagement levels. Two main aspects of communication include soft skills and customer engagement, as discussed below.
Soft Skills
Soft skills are non-technical skills that relate to how a person works. Such skills include communication, problem-solving, listening, time management, empathy, and others. Many people believe that you are either born with such skills or without. However, they can be developed with time and effort.
Hiring managers are always keen on hiring candidates who possess such skills because they make a person highly successful at work. But why is it important for a social media manager to have such traits?
A social media manager is always interacting with customers and fellow employees. The success of a brand is dependent on the success of these interactions. For instance, empathy, problem-solving, and listening skills are essential when handling customer complaints. When launching a marketing campaign, communication skills are vitally important for the success of the campaign. Listening and effectively communicating are skills that social media managers need to have, in addition to problem-solving and empathy.
Customer Service/ Engagement
Social media is the preferred avenue for consumers to go to for customer care services. In fact, about 45% of customers have reached out to a company on social media. Customer care is vital to a business. However, only 21% of all companies use social media for customer support. As a business owner, there is a huge potential to gain a competitive advantage over your competitors by simply utilizing social media to provide customer care services.
Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook provide an excellent opportunity for social media managers to help customers in a fast and convenient way. What’s even better is that customer care is not limited to handling customer complaints. Businesses can use these platforms to show love and appreciation to their customers. Understanding customer care is an essential skill that social media managers need to have.
Additionally, such skills are vital when it comes to customer loyalty. 96% of customers believe in excellent customer care in their choice of loyalty to a brand. So, as a hiring manager or a business owner, consider employing someone who has strong engagement and customer service skills to help you retain your customers.
2. Marketing
As mentioned above, there are various roles that a social media manager can play; one of them includes marketing. Marketing has evolved from traditional print media to modern concepts that require creativity, e-commerce SEO and visually appealing designs. However, the aim is still the same- to increase brand awareness.
Remember that social media is made up of trends and topics. A social media manager needs to understand the importance of creativity and visually appealing designs in creating an exciting social media ‘buzz’. Doing this is important as it helps with innovative marketing campaigns and promoting brand awareness. The following are two marketing skills that a social media manager needs to have to elevate a brand’s awareness level.
Creativity
As mentioned above, social media managers are required to think outside the box to be able to create a visually compelling marketing campaign. Many managers struggle with creating new and exciting buzz-worthy posts in a saturated space. However, as a social media manager, it is important to maintain an aura of creativity, humor, and the ability to capitalize on trends.
As a result, you should consider attending creative events, either locally or online. Additionally, it would help if you considered attending improvisation classes to help you with problem solving and confidence. Ultimately, you don’t have to be a creative genius, but your content has to stand out from the crowd, to impact your marketing campaign.
Design
Creative posts need visually appealing designs to go with them. As a social media manager, you don’t need to have a masters in design, but a firm grasp on social media designs, particularly the ability to create fun and visually appealing content that stands out. A recent survey showed that articles with an image after every 75 words get twice as many shares as articles with fewer images.
This statistic goes to show that images have an impact on the target audience and possibly the customer retention rates. People remember 65% of messages when they’re paired with relevant images. In contrast, people only remember up to 10% of the same without a picture. As a social media manager, it is important to master design skills to make your content look professional and appealing.
3. Strategy and Planning
It goes without saying – all social media campaigns require relevant strategies. Just like traditional marketing strategies, social media marketers need a social media strategy to manage resources and time effectively. Not only is a social media manager responsible for campaigns, but they are also tasked with leading the team and executing these plans. This means that you will need an in-depth comprehension of the ‘bigger picture.’
For this, you need to be a social pro to make sure all the pieces come together beautifully. The following are strategy and planning skills that a social media manager needs to have.
Organization
Social media can be a chaotic place. From posting across various platforms to replying and staying ahead of the latest trends, it can be frantic. This is why, as a social media manager, you need to have excellent organization skills to help you cope with the growing demands of these platforms.
Organization skills are not limited to daily activities, but both the medium and long term strategies. In fact, such skills can help you automate specific processes. So, as a social media manager, consider developing these must-have skills.
Leadership
An established social media presence is a source of traffic and potential leads for a business. These platforms require a ‘hand-on’ manager who can produce appealing content on their own. However, the ability to step back and lead a team to success is also vitally important.
Leadership is about understanding how a system works and leading others to follow. This means that as a social media manager, you will need to have leadership skills to lead a team in executing a big picture strategy.
Leadership skills might not be important as the other skills listed in this article, but as a business owner, you should consider hiring a candidate who has such skills. As your business grows, your first social media campaigners will be important in executing your long-term strategy. Consider hiring someone with such skills to conjure a positive return on investment.
4. Writing
There are many ways to pass your message across, but as a social media manager, writing is at the core. Managers have exceptional copywriting skills that enhance the voice of the brand. It is important to be able to evoke different emotions from the audience through words.
Copywriting
It is an exceptional skill to have as a marketer. One is required to come up with a captivating profile description. Being a superb copywriter will help you craft tweets, Facebook posts, and Instagram captions easily. Great copywriters can increase customer engagement and likes. Once you have understood the demographics, the content of your social media will improve significantly.
Different platforms on social media require specific language use. For example, LinkedIn will require a more business-like tone compared to Instagram. As a media manager, you must be able to write messages that appeal to different audiences. Always ensure that the posts are engaging as consumers only skim through the texts. Through content curation, social media managers get to know what to post, when to post, and how to share the content.
SEO Knowledge
SEO is a potent tool to use in social media marketing. Possessing this skill will ensure that Social media managers rank highly on Google. Utilizing SEO in content creation is a great strategy to lure in more people to the product. Driving traffic to the company’s website will stimulate a new income source.
Editing
A social media manager must not only know how to write with flair but also spot mistakes. A misspelled word, missing punctuation, or profane language use can impact the brand negatively. The manager should communicate the message effectively to the audience without overwhelming them. The use of jargon in social media posts is not encouraged. This will create a disconnect with the existing and new clientele.
5. Research and Analytics
Social media managers have a lot of different aspects to consider when it comes to their job. There are responsible for posting, marketing across different platforms, engaging customers, and beware of trends.
The managers must always be up to date with the latest tools or information. Digital media is evolving every day, and new measures are being taken up by developers. Using the trend sidebar on Twitter and Facebook can help you know what is current. Affiliate marketers are keen on using this feature to gain a deep understanding of the brand they are promoting.
Analytics
Research skills will help you know what is new in town, but analytical skills will help you utilize the latest tools effectively. Any social media manager must be able to understand the target audience and know how to lure them.
Through Facebook ad Twitter Analytics, social media managers can get to understand the behavior of their audience. For example, the time they are most active, the posts they liked the most, and the responsiveness of either gender.
A manager should be able to dissect social media data. For example, the shares, likes, and retweets. They should also determine the conversion metrics through the bounce rate.
6. Relationship Building
Social media managers are expected to build digital connections for the brands assigned. Making a connection with a customer will improve sales and the general outlook of the business. Relationship building will create brand loyalty that will edge out the competition. Excellent media managers understand the need to create a relationship with the consumer.
Most managers struggle with identifying their target audience. Hence, they upload generic posts that are inefficient in meeting their goals. Once a social media manager understands his audience, he can design his language to target the prospects.
Social media managers work very closely with influencers. This means they have to appeal to them as well to make the brand successful. Relationship building cannot be taken for granted when it comes to social media management.
7. Budgeting
To be a successful social media manager, you must have financial literacy. You will be allocated money to market the brand, and it is vital to know how to make due. Social media marketing is a challenging job, but through proper channels, a manger can increase brand value. For example, using paid advertising, paying for designs and images, as well as relevant courses to keep you up to date.
Being financially literate will help you prioritize the different aspects of marketing. A manager must know how to distribute funds equally and effectively.
8. Flexibility
As a social media manager, expect things to happen sporadically. With increased interconnectivity, there is always something that can jeopardize or positively impact the business. You must be able to adapt to good and bad situations positively to build the business.
Being flexible will help you take advantage of the opportunities presented to you at any given point. Possessing problem-solving skills can make a bad situation a profitable one very quickly. You must be able to use the different situations you encounter to grow the business.
9. Project Management
Managers tend to have a very demanding responsibility. They are responsible for publishing schedules, maintaining social media profiles, and tracking contacts. This will require them to plan meetings with support staff, write reports for investors, create tasks for writers, and manage the budget.
These responsibilities are quite challenging to handle if you lack the know-how. Most managers fail because of not being aware of all the moving parts of the project at hand. This can result in delayed payments, reduced customer engagement, wrong posts, and poor teamwork. Affiliate marketers are keener on project management as they tend to have multiple clients seeking their services.
The social media team is usually filled with people with different capacities. This requires the manager to have people management skills. You must know the strengths and shortcomings of the team members to avoid hiccups. The manager must know how to manage the project plus the people on the team.
Conclusion
Possessing all these qualities may be a bit difficult. However, ensure that you have at least four of the skills listed above to provide a good success rate. A social media manager with these skills is a valuable asset to the company. It’s important always to strive to be all-rounded when you are a social media manager.
Social media is continually evolving, and this means the managers should always try to learn new things. You can register for different courses available to hone extra skills that will benefit you throughout your career.
Identify the skills that you lack and try to gain more knowledge about them. You can either register for a class or learn online. Learning these skills is an excellent opportunity; they are not limited to social media alone. Mastery of particular expertise can set you on a great path in the future.
About the Author
Alina Burakova has extensive knowledge and skills when it comes to the digital world. She has experience in content writing, reviewing, and website management. She became a renowned copywriter and has been contributing reviews extensively for different clientele. Her most recent work is the PrepScholar review, which has intricate specifics about using it to boost scores. Her attention to detail and the passion for writing is unmatched. Her professional reviews give ample direction to a vast audience.
