Social Media Managers have become an integral part of marketing departments in many companies and organizations. If you are one of those looking for an opportunity in the field of digital and social media marketing, in this article we outline the 4 major skills of a social media manager.

Social Media Managers – what do they do?

But first, let’s unpack what social media managers actually do.

Social media managers usually work across several social media networks where a company or organization has its presence.

They create and maintain specific product or brand promotions, run different marketing campaigns as well as maintain company information to be accessible and useful to current and potential customers.

An important part of their job is to monitor and track analytics that most social media platforms nowadays provide free of charge.

They also respond to questions and comments according to the company’s voice and guidelines.

Social media managers produce daily new content based on fresh and engaging ideas they need to measure how these ideas perform. Keeping up with new trends as well as industry and of course company news is essential for any social media manager.

The social media director, usually in large companies or organizations, or the head of content or brand, supervises a social media manager as well as coordinates marketing and public relations teams, and in some cases the legal department to create the synergies between various companies initiatives and marketing campaigns.

Here are the 4 major skills that every social media marketer should have.

1. Knowledge of Social Media (A Basic Skill)

Might be an obvious one but any social media manager does need to have social media skills and knowledge. You can either have a qualification or on the job experience, but if you aim to get a job at a digital marketing agency or in a large company managing social media platforms, a qualification from a reputable education provider or a couple of years of experience is essential. Knowledge of the below is essential:

• What type of content is best suited for the audience you are targeting
• What type of content works best on each of the social media platforms for those audiences
• Understanding & knowing how to optimize the content on each platform
• Knowing how to engage the audiences rather than just reach them with your social media posts
• Which Platforms work for your content and which ones do not have any bearing

2. Copywriting (A Must Skill for a Social Media Manager)

As a Social media manager, you will do a lot of writing, in particular the posts on the various social media platforms. Each of the social media platforms has a different style of posts and writing. On Linkedin, for example, a more professional tone, us required whilst on Facebook the tone of the post can be lighter and more fun.

You must write messages that are quickly succinct and easily understood by the audiences you are targeting and that will promote positive sentiment about the brand. As Forbes puts it, social media manager “will be communicating with customers on a daily basis – and 99% of this communication will be in writing.”

Therefore, types of writing you need to master are;

• Short and effective HEADLINE writing
• INTRODUCTIONS that will engage with your audiences
• As those who read your article will NOT READ your full article but scan them, you need to structure your text for ease of reading using subheadings, bullet points and numbering

3. Research

The world of social and digital media is ever-changing with new tools and measurements coming up at a fast rate. As an active and keeping up to date social media manager, you need to set up Google Alerts on popular topics related to your brand and use tools like Feedly, Buffer and BuzzSumo to keep up with trending content.

Some current trends that you might want to track are:

• Importance and rise of video marketing
• The rise and role of mobile
• Virtual reality – fad or part of our future

4. Flexibility (A desirable skill of any Social Media Marketer)

In social media, management flexibility is important as in any marketing role as the social media landscape moves quickly. So being flexible and highly adaptive is an absolute necessity.

It’s not enough to create a post or schedule a bundle of posts. You must continue to try out new features and change posts based on testing you monitor for your posts so you detect trends of likes and displaces of your audiences.

One method is to use A/B testing – writing posts in multiple ways, with different images or headings or copy. This can help you to determine which types of images and copy are working for your brand/company – and which aren’t.

Beyond these skills, we have a great way for you to get a qualification and be ahead of the pack.

Contact us today if you wish to advance your social media marketing skills.