- January 24, 2022
- by Last expert
- Blogs, Non Voice Support, Social Media Management
- 0 Comments
Social media has emerged as a crucial marketing channel, due to its potential to reach and capture customers while learning more about their needs, desires, and frustrations. And because it’s used by companies, organisations, non-profits, government officials, celebrities, and others to engage directly with their followers, working as a social media manager can demand high skill sets. The importance of social media management is immense in the current digital world.
Have you ever wondered who is a social media manager or what does a social media manager do?
When it comes to the tasks of a social media manager, they are divided into two categories: operational and strategic. Companies commonly use the phrases Social Media Manager and Social Media Strategist to define the person in charge of strategic decisions on multiple platforms. After all, it is the Community Manager, Digital Community Manager, and so on who will operate the formula’s operative element.
Apart from all those new responsibilities, there is a reality: those positions are only available in large, massive firms like advertising agencies, newspapers, and media agencies, which have large budgets, volumes of information, a significant number of resources, and communities. Those titles are simply too huge and lavish for those of us on the other side of that reality.
An SM Manager / Strategist or CM, in the most typical circumstances, would be a person from the office or working remotely from home.
Unknowingly, many of you reading this are already doing your own Social Media Manager duties. It’s a fact that most Community Managers or business owners, entrepreneurs, and bloggers live in this reality. This is true for many people who try to utilise social media to connect their company, brand, product, or initiative with a specific audience in order to build a community and acquire sales, subscribers, admirers, “recommenders,” volunteers, and other benefits.
You might say: “The confusion is clear, but, so … there’s no definition or clarification?”
There is, indeed. Let’s go on to the “theoretical” aspect of the discussion.
What does a Social Media Manager do?
As we mentioned at the outset, the SM Manager’s primary responsibility is to make “macro” social media decisions. The one-on-one interaction with users. The tasks associated with SM manager are listed below.
Responsibilities: SM Manager / Strategist:
- Understand or be familiar with the company’s or business’s industry.
- Create a social media plan that is consistent with the brand’s identity, target audience, and objectives.
- Manage and oversee budgets for various strategic initiatives.
- Define tactics for increasing the number of followers/fans and developing engagement channels.
- Define promotion campaigns, competitions paid advertising, events, and product releases in collaboration with the marketing team in order to implement them on the many platforms that have been chosen.
- Define the content strategy, communication style, and calendar content implementation.
- Define and segment the “marketing persona” or user to whom messages and actions will be addressed.
- Define and manage social media KPIs, conversions, and return on investment goals (always in coordination with the sales and marketing department of the company).
- Choose the tools and apps that will be utilised to complete tasks.
- Create a strategy for dealing with a social media reputation problem.
- Define a search engine optimization plan.
- Conduct market and industry research to generate different strategies.
- Examine and analyse the findings of the Community Manager’s reports in order to identify dangers and opportunities, as well as to assess the usefulness of various measures. Make judgments based on this for each of the following factors in order to improve, change, or change strategic direction, etc.
- Work directly with the customer and several company departments to review the results and make strategic recommendations: Public Relations, Marketing, Product, Sales, and Directory.
- Work on forming strategic connections within the social media business in order to take future actions that will help communities and the brand flourish.
So far, we can say that these are the qualities of an SMM, which leaves the Community Manager with the mission of constructing, managing, and administering a community across various social media platforms, with the goal of establishing and maintaining a long-term and reciprocal connection with it. The following are the Social Media Manager/Strategist skill sets:
- Marketing, management, branding, and content development knowledge.
- Web analytics systems, corporate analytics, and social metrics are all things you should be familiar with.
- Knowledge of the numerous advertising campaigns and paid promotion strategies used on various social media sites.
- Understanding of multiple ROI analysis techniques, conversions, and social media KPIs is essential.
- Understanding of many methodologies for generating strategies, such as “Search Engine Marketing” and “Search Engine Optimization.”
- Techniques and approaches must be understood in order to guide research.
- Photoshop, Text Editors, Power Point, and Excel are all talents that are required.
- Excellent communication abilities, both written and oral.
- Experience with HTML, site creation, and blogging.
What qualities and/or profile should a social media manager have?
Beyond the jobs, it’s crucial to understand what personal qualities the individual should possess, as they will be interacting with the community and/or creating the development strategy. Here’s a summary of the talents that are, for the most part, required for this position:
- Dedicated to your job
- Capacity for analysis
- Creativity
- Ability to interact successfully with users, customers, and other departments both on and off-line
- Ability to persuade others to buy into a concept or plan
- Dedication
- Organization
- Adaptability: one minute you must be on the side of the community, the next you must think like a CEO.
- To recognise hazards, opportunities, and trends, be thorough and vigilant.
- To study and react to comments, criticism, crisis circumstances, or even to pick or cure content, use discretion and good judgement.
- Empathy: recognise the qualities of the users and be able to grasp what they need and their point of view in order to engage in one-on-one conversations.
- Teamwork.
How can you be a more productive community/social media manager?
Using tools and programmes that help you avoid getting caught up in jobs that are important and necessary, but also repetitive and can be simply and safely automated, is without a doubt one of the keys to being more productive.
Tips from other social media managers on how to be a better social media managers.
Representatives from the offices of SMM and CM gathered at the Annual Conference of Community Managers to examine the past, present, and future of these roles, as well as the field of social media. During one such occasion, some of the best CMs and SMMs were asked to write one piece of advice that they would provide to a new colleague. The most common responses were filtered out, and coincidences were looked for. Finally, the following 13 points were discussed:
- Keep in mind where your community will be a year from now when planning/updating your strategy.
- Take a break from your computer every now and again. Consult your colleagues (live or on the phone).
- People are strange, so don’t take yourself (or others) too seriously.
- Evaluate, accept failure, and make adjustments.
- Take it easy. Crawl, walk, and run are all options. Don’t assume they know what you’re talking about.
- Possess a keen sense of humour!!
- Turn collaboration into a verb rather than a word. It’s more than a place to go; it’s a way of thinking.
- Take a deep breath!
- You will be set free by your data. Accept it!
- The term “governance” is not derogatory.
- Don’t try to do it on your own. To assist, find allies, activists, and volunteers.
- Be persistent and patient.
- Look for inspiration from other communities that are “doing it correctly.”
Here are some figures:
If you need some “numerical/statistical love” in addition to the above, Take a look at 9clouds’ great infographic, which depicts the state of social media in the future year. It contains some information that will assist you in fine-tuning your plans for the coming year:
To summarise, Social Media Manager is closely tied to strategic decision-making: from the selection of platforms on which to have a presence, communication style, and the type of information published, what steps will be done in the event of a reputation crisis, to the analysis of results to determine whether or not to redirect the existing strategy.