So, What Does a Social Media Manager Do?
The advent of social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter among others gave birth to a variety exciting and lucrative social media jobs. A few most popular social media jobs include being a community manager, digital strategist and social media manager.
If you love social media and spend a lot of time on social networks, you can easily turn your passion into a well-paying social media manager job. And you can crack a smile because the future of social media is as bright as a thousand suns.
A career in social media management is not only fun, but also lucrative. In fact, it is one of the best paying social media jobs. According to Glassdoor, a social media manager earns between $37,000 and $81,000 per year. That’s an average of about $59,000 per year. Not bad, right?
If you’re looking to get into social media marketing, you’ll definitely love today’s post. In the article, you learn what a social media manager does. On top of that, you discover the education and skills you require to start a fruitful social media management career.
Responsibilities of a Social Media Manager
Social media managers juggle a lot of hats. That’s right, social media management goes beyond posting updates and replying to comments on social media. A social media manager is responsible for over 20 different functions.
The following list shows you a couple of social media manager duties:
- Creating social media strategy – Social media managers are responsible for developing a social media strategy. As such, a social media manager must have a clear goal from the word go, and a solid plan to help you achieve said goal.
- Brand advocacy – It’s your responsibility as a social media manager to create a network of brand ambassadors.
- Budgeting – With a goal and a solid plan, a social media manager creates a budget for all social media activities. How much is enough? A good budget allows you to achieve your goals in a timely manner.
- Collaborate – One of the duties of a social media manager is to work with internal stakeholders to execute the social media strategy. You must be in a position to prove that your social media budget is an investment for the business. You must also collaborate with other marketing branches within the organization.
- Recruit and manage the social media team – Social media management has many moving parts, meaning you will need help with the day to day activities to get the results you want. As a social media manager, you’re responsible for recruiting and managing your social media marketing team.
- Creating editorial content – It’s your responsibility as a social media manager to create editorial (read text) content to share on your social media and other web properties. Experts advocate creating more than 100 words per day for your various social media properties.
- Video – It goes without saying that video is big as far as engaging users go. Social media managers are responsible for creating and uploading relevant video content.
- Managing social media campaigns – It’s your job to track the various social media KPIs (key performance indicators) to measure the impact of your campaigns.
- Manage influencer marketing – A social media management must plan how to contact and work with social media influencers to take their campaigns to the next level. When doing so, ensure you work out strategies that benefit all parties involved.
- Monitoring brand awareness – Social media managers monitor social networks for brand mentions, related topics, competition, trends and so on.
- And so much more!
As you can clearly see, social media managers have their work cut out for them. Many people think social media management is a simple job, but it’s not. It is a challenging role since you’re essentially the voice of the brand on social media.
So, ladies and gents, what does a social media manager do? Here’s the definition of the role according to wayup.com.
“A social media manager develops a company’s social media strategy and manages their social channels. This often includes Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube and Pinterest. In addition to being the voice of a brand, social media managers analyze the results of their campaigns by tracking engagement metrics such as likes, clicks and shares.”
Need I say more? Let’s move on.
Skills and Education Qualifications of a Social Media Manager
To be a successful social media manager, you need a cocktail of skills and the right education. The right skills and knowledge will catapult your career to great heights. But worry not, you can learn whichever skill you desire with practice.
So, what skills would you need to thrive as a social media manager?
For starters, social media literacy is an absolute must, and I’m not talking about posting a video to your social media profiles. A good grasp of the ins and outs of Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Tweeter among others is the difference between a successful campaign and an utter flop.
You must know how to use various social networks in unison to reach your target audience. I say this because various platforms come with different features.
If you’ll create graphics yourself (you know, as opposed to delegating), you need strong graphic design skills. On top of that you must hone your copywriting skills to craft engaging offers. Additionally, you need sharp analytical skills to decipher the data you collect over time.
The social media space is a brutal place, and to survive trolls and critics, you need a thick skin and a good sense of humor. Great communication skills and the curiosity to spot hot trends/memes/GIFs/content will come in handy too.
In terms of education, a marketing degree gives you an upper hand as you wear the huge shoes of a social media manager. Additionally, a background in journalism or public relations can help you transition into social media management easily.
Are you Ready?
A social media manager career is exciting, lucrative and growing exponentially. It is one of the most satisfying job for anybody with the right skills and motivation. At the same time, don’t forget to market the skills you’ve learned running your own social media campaigns.
You don’t necessarily need a marketing degree to start working as a social media manager, but having one looks great on your resume. After all, employers are mostly looking for social media managers that can blend business strategy and advanced technology.
Or as Maryville University aptly puts it:
“Digital advertising has transformed the world of marketing — and created immense career opportunities for trained professionals. Organizations now seek multifaceted marketers who can blend strategy with advanced technology. It’s a skill set that can qualify you for 19,700 new careers in advertising, promotions, and marketing management from 2014 to 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
So, what do you say? Are you pumped for that social media manager job?
