Over the years, many companies have steadily made the shift in bringing their business to social media. There is so much that can be gained from having a strong following on social media. Brands looking to grow their audience and spread brand awareness can make the most of the huge influence that social media brings especially when the right people always stays on top of things. Finding an experienced individual to take care of your social media needs is critical to your brand’s online success. Many businesses lose out on user engagement and brand growth when they entrust their social media management to the wrong people.
A social media manager speaks for your brand online and can make or break how your target audience associates them to your brand. They hold your company’s reputation on the line. To ensure the success of your online campaign, it is crucial to find someone with the right skill set to overlook all your social media and SEO needs.
Here are nine social media manager skills and qualities that companies need to consider.
1. Customer service
As the brand’s online representative, it is important for Social Media Manager’s to be focused on customer care and support. Social media can be a great way to engage with your audience and build a strong relationship with your customers which helps foster brand loyalty. Many brands have already made the most of social media not only to engage with customers but to listen to their needs and provide support for products and services. As such, a great Social Media Manager is someone who clearly understands the brand's message and is able to translate this online through great customer service.
2. Community engagement
Social Media Managers need to be able to bring the brand closer to its target audience. From paying close attention to customer queries and comments and responding to them effectively, building a connection with the audience is crucial to foster trust and provide support for the brand's online community.
3. Content writing
As the brand's ambassador, a great Social Media Manager must be a skilled content writer who knows how to translate the brand's message into everyday posts. He or she needs to be able to draw audience.
4. Design proficiency
Social media is widely dominated by images, video and other multimedia content as this drives the most engagement from online users. Majority of online consumers are drawn to well-captured images and interactive videos. These bring in the most engagement from your audience. A Social Media Manager must understand how to effectively curate images and video content in a way that brings in growth and engagement for the brand. Having a good understanding of graphic design, photo capturing and video content creation is important to be able to effectively do this consistently throughout the brand's different social media channels.
5. Understanding of analytics
A good social media manager must have a thorough understanding of site analytics to be able to grasp what content works and what doesn't. From being able to keep track of the brand's performance in social media in terms of likes, comments, shares and other engagement and being able to tie this together with the brand's goals, knowing how to read analytics and site data to keep track of the brand’s performance are crucial skills that every social media manager needs to have.
6. Creativity
Every great social media manager needs to be able to draw inspiration from everywhere. From being in the know with the latest trends and keeping updated with competitor campaigns, he or she must be able to generate ideas to get the brand to where it needs to be. For example, more and more YouTube rising stars buy YouTube views and subscribers to boost their social proof.
7. Great speaking skills
Social Media Management now goes beyond just simple content curation. With the huge success of videos and podcasts, a great Social Media Manager must take it upon themselves to be the voice of the brand and take it upon themselves to use live content to engage with the brand's audience effectively. Social media features like Facebook Live and Instagram stories are great opportunities to generate new interest for the brand and capture the attention if your target audience.
8. Eternally curious
With new marketing strategies and industry trends emerging constantly, an effective Social Media Manager is curious and eager to learn new things that can help take the brand to new heights. As more brands take their name to social media, the competition is on the rise and brands need to seriously up their game to stay relevant to their followers and their target audience. As such, it helps to always be in the know with what's new in the industry so as to not get left behind.
9. Adaptability
He or she needs to be eager to try out new marketing strategies that can improve brand awareness and get the brand's message out to more people. Knowing how to adapt to new social media features and applying them to the brand’s social media content helps get the brand ahead of the competition which can reel in great numbers for conversion and even brand partnership.
Social media management is the real deal and has generated a lot of interest as an actual position with a full job description over the course of a few years because of its proven hand in steering a brand's ultimate success in its online campaign for engagement and recognition. Being a Social media manager is serious work and they are hugely responsible for how a brand is seen by its target audience.
With the brand's reputation on the line, knowing these top qualities and taking time to find the right individual who can fill in these traits is of prime importance to brands and other businesses looking to be amongst top industry leaders who have already set the pace for everyone else.
Written by Stephanie