Here’s what a Social Media Manager does, the skills they must have, and how to stand out
Social Media Managers are essential for companies that want the best digital marketing results nowadays.
They’re responsible for promoting brands on social media, planning action, analyzing results, being up-to-date on the best techniques, and managing budgets effectively.
Here’s what a Social Media Manager does, the skill set they must have, and how they differ from Community Managers. Keep reading!
What is a Social Media Manager?
A Social Media Manager (SMM) plans and supervises the execution of social media strategies for sites, blogs, social media, ad manager platforms, and more.
Some of their duties are to:
- Study the market and target audience to understand the persona’s needs, challenges, and how a business can help;
- plan the brand’s social media presence based on the client’s goals and where to find their audience;
- manage all things digital marketing, like content creation, SEO techniques, and developing ads campaigns;
- manage marketing budgets, especially for Ads;
- follow current social media trends to keep action updated and stay ahead;
- monitor results through the main metrics and KPIs, which should be in line with project goals;
- plan the Community Manager’s (CM) steps and supervise strategy development and returns.
Although many people think the roles of a Social Media Manager and Comunity Manager are identical, It’s important to stress that they are very different (although they work together closely).
The SMM is the CM’s direct supervisor. While the first is responsible for planning and strategy, the second is in charge of execution. So, they do go hand in hand.
5 skills a Social Media Manager must have
A Social Media Manager needs a bird’s eye view of digital strategies, and it takes a particular set of skills to manage a team and drive results. Here are five of the most important skills!
1. Being familiar with the main social media strategies
It’s no secret that the world of digital marketing moves fast. What may be a great strategy today may no longer be as relevant tomorrow. So the SMM must keep up to date and know how to get successful results.
After all, the needs of the business’ differ when it comes to content. The same goes for goals and what channels to use for brand promotion.
The more up to speed a Social Media Manager is on the ever-changing market, consumer needs, and social media evolution, the higher the chances of their strategies succeeding.
2. Understanding project management
Since part of the Social Media Manager’s job is supervising the Community Manager, experience in project management is fundamental for making sure all significant deadlines are kept.
A good manager makes sure the team is in tune with brand objectives and carries out activities effectively to help ensure successful social media results.
An SMM also needs to know what tools are best for documenting every step of strategy planning, execution, and monitoring goals.
3. Mastering social media content creation
As we said, the CM is responsible for executing digital marketing activities, but that doesn’t mean the Social Media Manager doesn’t need to understand content creation and all things related.
Familiarity with copywriting and design helps the SMM efficiently plan for every social media, even if they won’t be executing those strategies personally.
At the same time, having writing skills and being familiar with tools for editing images and videos also comes in handy during times of high demand, when the team may need an extra hand.
4. SEO and Ads Campaigns Savvy
Having the technical knowledge for developing organic and paid campaign results is essential. That’s what planning effective strategies and ensuring high search engine ranking involves.
That means more visitors to your site and a higher chance of success in every step of the sales funnel from the top to generating business opportunities.
A Social Media Manager should also be savvy about what channels to invest in for campaigns and ads (like Google Ads and Facebook Ads) and establish ideal budgets. They should be able to optimize that budget for the highest performance possible.
5. Mastering data analysis
Finally, one of the most fundamental skills for an SMM is analyzing the results of the adopted strategies, gaining insights, and turning them into future action.
They should monitor individual medics of each channel and data as a whole to understand how they contribute to business opportunities.
It seems like a lot of work at first glance, but there are quite a few tools for generating automatic social media reports to help prioritize strategy.
For example, Reportei lets you create reports and dashboards with data from various channels in seconds.
You can also customize them according to priorities and add analyses in text, image, or video format to complement info.
That helps the SMM spend less time on manual tasks and focus on in-depth analysis resulting in a higher contribution to project success.
