Who Are Social Media Managers — A Detailed Analysis
More brands and organizations are getting onto social media — they are realized that gives them a huge marketing opportunity.
In the last few years, media has become a popular way to engage with audiences and promote products.
But there needs to be someone who handles all the social media presence and creates a positive image of the brand.
Will that be you?
Let’s find out.
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What Is A Social Media Manager
A social media manager is a person who’s trusted with handling the social media presence of a brand, company, or business. They are also responsible for content creation, communicating with customers and followers, and tracking analytics.
Next, we’re going to discuss in detail what are tasks a social media manager is expected to fulfill.
What Tasks Do Social Media Managers Handle
Simply put, social media managers are responsible for mainly:
- Creating, scheduling content for social networks
- Making custom marketing strategies for each platform and implementing them
- Growing and nurturing audiences
- Crafting an editorial calendar
- Responding to comments and customer complaints
- Monitoring analytics
Depending on the company you work for additional tasks can include
- Running advertisement campaigns
- Managing live events
- Experimenting with different marketing methods, testing out new tools
- Social listening and social monitoring
- Networking with other brands and creators, forming partnerships
Skills Social Media Managers Need to Have
Advanced Social Media Skills
This is the point is self-evident: a social media manager without social media skills is not a social media manager.
Having a meaningful understating of the major platform’s features and knowing how to optimize content for each network is a necessity in this profession.
If you have little or no experience at all with social media, a great starting point is building up your own personal accounts.
By doing that, you’ll learn the specifics of social networks while attaining a large and engaged following.
Expertise In Marketing
Writing is a core part of social media. As a social media manager, you’ll need to create posts that resonate with your audience, builds authority, and signals a positive image.
As we said before, each platform has a different base. To reach them and make them engage with your brand, you’ll have to analyze their behavior and create the content that works best for them.
Graphic Design
Image-based content tends to be more effective than content with plain text. According to Quick Sprout, posts with relevant images and strong visuals receive 94% more views than their text-based counterparts.
As a social media manager, you will either work with a graphic designer or you’ll have to create those graphics yourself.
Having a sense of visual intelligence is quite important and will help you tremendously along the way.
Adaptiveness & Reseach
In the constantly changing world of social media staying on top of the news and continuous learning is a necessity.
You will have to spot emerging trends and adjust accordingly, so your brand can flourish and be far ahead of competitors.
Analyzing Data
Exceptional social media managers track their campaign’s performance regularly, and they see what’s working or not.
They are quickly able to spot new trends and recognize behavioral patterns. They spend time measuring ROI and creating custom reports that they can present to the executives.
They conduct social listening and social monitoring, which allows them to create the best possible content for their audience.
Today, many social media management tools come with advanced analytics features to help you maximize your brand’s potential.
Customer Service
Nowadays, when customers have any complaints, they reach out to brands on social media — and if their needs get fulfilled, they will reward you.
Statista says 47% of consumers in the U.S. have a favorable view of brands that responds to questions and complaints on social media
You will be the one responding to comments and interacting with customers across all social platforms- after all, you are the voice of your brand.
A good rule of thumb is to be empathetic, read all complaints carefully, and address the issues in a friendly manner.
Time Management
Being a social media manager can be overwhelming sometimes. You’ll have to create content for multiple platforms, schedule them, measure their performance, create reports, interact with the audience, stay up-date, and much more.
In these situations, being organized, knowing how to manage your time, and planning for the future is quite beneficial.
To become more efficient and make your day-to-day responsibilities easier, consider using automation tools such as SocialPilot or HootSuite — later in this article, we’ll talk about these tools in detail.
Who Do Social Media Managers Report to
It largely depends on the size of the organization you’re working for and it varies from business to business.
In the case of startups and smaller businesses, you are likely to report to and be in touch with the CEO or the founder, directly.
Whereas in larger companies you’ll be reporting to the brand manager, head of marketing, or the leader of the team you’re part of.
Qualifications A Social Media Manager Should Have
The most common qualification among social media managers is a bachelor’s degree — 73% hold it who work in this field, concludes Zippia.
A degree in marketing, advertising, communications, or journalism can be quite an advantage if your goal is to work for a larger corporation.
With that said, do you need to go to college if you want to be a social media manager?
Not necessarily. Employers will take a look at your previous experience as well, so if you don’t have a degree in your possession, that will be your best.
To gain experience and demonstrate that you know the ins and outs of social media, consider internships, helping small businesses or nonprofits with their social media.
Alternatively, you can try online courses that come with a certificate. HubSpot, for instance, offers free programs in Social Media Marketing, Digital Advertising, and Content Marketing.
MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) platforms are also worth checking out.
These sites offer accessible and high-quality learning opportunities from prestigious universities such as MIT, often for free of charge.
Once you completed one of these programs, you’ll have the ability to purchase an accredited certificate.
Popular examples are Coursera, edX, Udemy, and Udacity.
How Much Do Social Media Managers Make
The salary of a social media manager fluctuates between $35 000 to $80 000. Entry-level social managers tend to have a lower compensation, but, on average, they are making $51 795 per year — suggests Payscale.
As of 2020, the social media manager workforce surpassed 26 000, and there were 42 468 job openings last year in this field.
Statistics say most social media managers are located in New York City, Los Angeles, and Massachusetts — these cities tend to be the highest-paid areas in the U.S. as well.
Tools for Social Media Managers
In this section, we’ll briefly talk about some social media tools and discuss their features, so you can decide which one works best for you.
Buffer
Trusted by 75 000+ companies, Buffer has become one of the most widely used social media automation tools on the market.
Features include hashtag planner, first comment, shop grid custom reports, analytics, and much more.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is another leading social media management platform, that was founded in 2008 by Ryan Holmes.
Having more than 18 million customers, they are now one of the most trusted solutions for social media automation.
CoSchedule
CoSchedule is an all-in-one tool built for planning, organizing, and executing content marketing — hence the name CoSchedule.
It comes with a simple-to-use drag and drop interface that allows you to keep your content calendar organized and stay on track.
Tailwind
Tailwind is a marketing tool made specifically for Pinterest and Instagram that publishes Pins and Instagram posts for you.
Plus, you’ll get analytics about your performance and you can join one of the Tailwind Tribes, to collaborate with like-minded people and discover new audiences.
Social Pilot
Social Pilot is a comprehensive social media management platform designed for agencies and teams, helping businesses automating their social media activities.
Monday.com
Monday.com is a bit different from the tools we just mentioned. It is a Work Operating System (WOS), not a traditional social media tool.
A WOS is a cloud-based platform that’s centered around teams.
It enables teams to create custom workflows, plan projects, upcoming events, manage ad campaigns, automate repetitive tasks and collaborate with ease.
Monday.com serves as a digital workspace for your company: it creates a centralized platform for work, it connects with external tools to maximize efficiency and you’ll get insights, so your team will always know what to improve on.
Where Can You Find Social Media Managers Jobs
Indeed
Glassdoor
Ziprecruiter
For Freelancers
Upwork
Freelancer
How Should Your Resume Look Like?
The look of your resume largely depends on what organization do you wish to work for, but here are few tips to keep in mind when you’re creating your social media resume.
- Consider starting off with laying out objectives and specific goals for the future — by doing that, you’ll have an edge over other candidates.
- Make your skills, specialties, and previous work experience the center of your resume.
- Provide detailed information about the degrees and certificates you hold.
- Choose modern, minimalist fonts to make your resume easy to skim.
- Add additional information, such as volunteering or language skills.
If you’re stuck, try Canva. They offer free, pre-made templates to help you get started.
Conclusion
Becoming a social media manager has many upsides. You get to be the voice of the brand. You have the ability to interact with an engaging following and make a positive impact. You’ll be the expert and your coworkers will come to you for social media advice.
You’ll handle a wide variety of tasks: you’ll be the marketer, the analyst, the designer, and the customer service agent — all at the same time.
It may be overwhelming sometimes, but social media manager is a job that involves a lot of excitement and unknown — and for those who are like to be challenged, it’s the perfect position to have.
Would You Be A Social Media Manager?
