Social media has played a significant role in the growth and success of many businesses. This has led to a rise in demand for social media managers.
It’s also understandable.
A social media manager’s job is complex because it requires perfection at multiple stages of building a strong social media presence.
Social media managers are multi-taskers who can handle multiple responsibilities. Because of the variety of tasks, the skills needed to be a social media manager are varied.
This article will cover 9 essential social media management skills that are crucial to a successful career.
Keep reading to find out what these skills are and why they are so important. Also, how you can improve them.
Interesting read: The 430+ Social Media Statistics That You Must Know by 2022
How to be a successful social media manager
We have seen a dramatic increase in social media usage over the past few years. Statistics show that the average user spends approximately 2 hours per day on social media, leading to an increase in demand for Social media managers.
They must wear many hats in today’s industry. They can be writers, marketers, researchers, and designers all at once.
You need to have a variety of skills in order to become a social media manager. Each skill is critical but must be intertwined. These skills include:
1. Creativity
Social media will be used for marketing by 91% of marketers who work for companies with more than 100 employees in 2021. This is a good example of how crowded social networks are.
Brands must be creative in order to stand out and attract attention with their campaign ideas.
Creativity is therefore a key skill in the portfolio of social media managers.
Ingeniousness is the best definition of creativity. It’s their ability to transform something mundane into something extraordinary.
However, creativity can help you create buzz-worthy social media campaigns and invent new ideas. You can use your creativity to create content that grabs the attention of your audience, regardless how noisy the environment may be.
See how Oreo used the Super Bowl to engage its customers creatively
Oreo’s post is still considered a creative masterpiece. It will be remembered as one of the best spontaneous social posts in digital marketing history.
How can you develop creativity?
Creativity does not come from a supernatural source. Focus and dedication are key to your success as a social media manager.
Inspiration is the key to creativity. According to Mark Twain, a famous American writer, “There is no such thing a new idea.” However, inspiration doesn’t just happen. It is necessary to search for it.
You can find inspiration and creativity by taking some time out of your day to ask questions that will stimulate your curiosity.
2. Communication
Communication skills are the ability to communicate your ideas clearly so they can be understood. Communication isn’t always one-sided.
Four pillars are essential for strong communication:
- Communicate clearly: communicate your ideas clearly and in a way that is easily understood
- Active listening: Listening to what is being said in order to provide a valuable and relevant response.
- Observe: Understanding your environment is key to adapting the way you communicate.
- Empathizing: To show empathy and not be a robot.
Social media allows your brand to connect with its followers. Your brand’s voice must communicate effectively with its audience.
Starbucks’ social media team is great at communicating with their customers through humor.
As a social media manager, there are many people you can communicate with beyond your target audience. These communication methods include:
- Share new ideas with your team
- Describe your strategy to stakeholders.
- Talking to upset customers and making sure they feel loved is a key part of customer service.
- Give briefings to the creative minds about what you are looking for
3. Copywriting
Your readers must take action. Your social media presence is there to inspire your audience to take action.
A social media manager must have excellent copywriting skills.
Copywriting, unlike other writing, is action-driven. It grabs attention and motivates readers to take action.
Copywriting inspiration can be found in Emirates’ crisp, yet complete Instagram caption. This captures a concise message in just 50 words.
How do you develop copywriting skills?
Good copy is based on an understanding of your target audience. Before you begin writing, make sure to do thorough research about your audience so that you can adapt your tone and style to suit their needs. Find out what emotions elicit a response from customers.
Your writing should be relevant and adaptable. Your writing may need to be adaptable for different platforms and audiences. You may choose to write more casually on Instagram but it may not work on LinkedIn.
4. Design
Design skills allow you to communicate your ideas through compelling graphics and visually appealing visuals.
49% of marketers consider visual marketing very important in their strategy. Why? Because visual learners are common.
Honey Bunches of Oats offers graphic design right on their Instagram. This post is easy to miss with its crisp caption and striking colours.
How do you develop design skills?
Start by looking at what other people are doing in your industry. You can get hands-on experience by using social media tools such as Canva for graphic design.
Conversions can be increased by 24% by using color psychology. Find out what colors appeal to your target audience and include them in your color palette.
5. Community Engagement Skills
Community engagement can be described as a broad term that encompasses a range of subskills such as:
- Empathy
- Active listening
- Transparency
- Research
- Qualitative analysis, and of course,
- Communication
Engaging in community through social media allows to retain the attention of customers while gaining new customers .
Engaged communities are the best way for your customers to be on top of you and increase conversions.
You are responsible for managing your social media campaigns. You must foster digital relationships and gather prospects to create a community of people who are interested in sharing their problems, thoughts, and abilities.
How can you develop community engagement skills?
It is important to dig deep into data and uncover insights that will give you a glimpse into the lives of your audience. Then listen carefully and deliver content that resonates.
You must also monitor the online activity of your brand and respond to any comments or criticisms. Don’t forget about leveraging trends that are relevant to your community.
This guide will help you respond to negative comments made on social media by your brand.
Facebook crashed on October 4, 2021, and smart brands weren’t able to miss the #FacebookDown hashtag. See how Mercedes Benz participated in this trend.
6. Public Speaking
Your ability to communicate clearly and confidently with a large audience is a key component of public speaking skills.
The social media marketing landscape has changed dramatically with the introductions of Instagram Live Streams and Facebook. The ability to communicate with and appear before a live audience is valuable, considering that 82% viewers would rather interact with brands’ live streams than their social media posts.
Live streaming via social media is becoming more popular. You, as a social media manager want to maximize the potential of live streaming. This means you must have the confidence to host live sessions, answer spontaneous questions and conduct interviews in real time.
How do you develop public speaking skills?
You will need to be committed and dedicated to improving your public speaking skills. These are some practical tips to help you become a better public speaker.
- Participate in public speaking workshops and seminars.
- Talk to people face-to-face.
- Practise speaking in front of a mirror.
- Get inspired by the videos of public speakers who have achieved great success.
7. Analytics
You have a lot of data as a social media manager that you need to analyze in order to optimize your social media strategy. Optimizing is crucial to ensure your time, effort, and budget are spent on the right channels.
You must also learn to interpret data and draw meaningful conclusions in order to prove your social media ROI.
How can you improve your analytical skills?
The availability of highly skilled and innovative social media analytics tools makes it possible to perform strong social media analysis in today’s age.
SocialPilot’s PDF reports make it easy to analyze social media. They are simple to read and provide valuable insights that you can use to improve your social strategy.
Interesting read: 12 Social Media Metrics That You Should Track
8. Understanding Behavior Psychology
Understanding the psychology of humans will allow you to determine the content that is most effective for each audience.
You know that FOMO (fear of missing out) drives people to act. This knowledge will allow you to create content that leverages FOMO and gets the desired response.
See how Soylent, a meal substitute supplement, leverages FOMO via social media.
Similar to the herd mentality, people will act in a similar way when they see others doing the same thing. Social proof can be used to achieve the desired results for your brand.
9. Budgeting
Social media managers often have a fixed budget to spend on their campaigns. Social media managers must create budgets and optimize their spending to ensure that their strategies are executed within the budget.
Marketers claim they spend 26% of their budgets on ineffective strategies. Strong budgeting skills can be intertwined to your ability analyze and optimize social strategies.
How do you develop budgeting skills?
You don’t need a degree in finance or accounting to master social media budgeting.
- Calculate your expenses and add contingencies to plan your budget.
- Budgeting can be a difficult skill to master. You will master this skill with time and experience.
Last Thoughts
Social media success is possible. Then hone your social media manager skills. The skills you need to be a great manager of social media are interconnected, if this is something you didn’t notice before.
To be a great designer or writer, you need creativity. To be able to engage with the community, you must communicate well.
There is always room to improve, no matter how good your skills may be. If you want to improve your career, don’t stop learning new skills.
Social media managers have a lot of responsibilities. Progressive social media managers use data-driven, intelligent tools to help them manage certain tasks. This helps prevent some tasks from falling by the wayside.
SocialPilot, a social media platform that combines powerful publishing, seamless collaboration and insightful analytics, is all-inclusive.
It’s free to try.
SocialPilot’s first post was 9 Essential Social Media Manager Skills That You Must Have.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://onlinemarketingagencies.net/how-to-use-data-in-content-curation/
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