My journey to becoming a social media manager started out more than 10 years ago when social media has just been making waves in the digital world. I was one of the admins of social media pages which are made just for fun and aren’t in the digital space anymore. I didn’t think that I would make a living out of it now, and that it will become part of my marketing job. Having an experience of 8 years professionally handling brands’ and clients’ social media accounts, it’s safe to say that I do know a thing or two on how to be an effective social media manager that will help you in your journey if you are just starting out. So I’m going to share it with you. Here are the things that you need to do in order to become an effective social media manager:
*Create a social media calendar for your clients.
As a social media manager, you will be handling so many accounts that may confuse you. In order for you to track your clients’ social media accounts, you need a social media calendar. So, what is a social media calendar?
Image Credit: Nadeena Granville on Unsplash
A social media calendar is your guide for the upcoming social media posts of the brands that you handle. It is mostly in the form of spreadsheets or presentations if you are presenting it to your clients. It will help you organize your content in a manner of not forgetting when or what to post on a particular day, week or month.
*Improve your time management.
Honestly, I am still struggling to practice this until now but I am working on it. Always improve your time management. When business people say that time is money, believe them. As someone who has a lot on her plate, I struggle to find the time to do all the things that I wanted to do as I like to be productive all the time, so this is the most challenging thing for me. But as a social media manager, you need to be certain of dealing with your time for social media algorithms have a specific time frame on when it is good to post. It is crucial that you post on a time schedule where your content will be more visible to a lot of viewers and audiences and thus, will create a lot of engagement which your clients are after. It is because more engagement means more potential customers and in turn, equals to more sales.
*Be organized.
To be able to be an effective social media manager, you need to know where to find what to post on a particular day that’s why having a social media calendar is so important. Organizing your files will greatly benefit you in the long run. So be organized not just for your clients but also for yourself.
*Up skill and get certified.
Always innovate yourself and elevate your skills with certificates. As the digital world keeps on changing, so should you. You should be able to adapt to the changing tides and one way to do that is to earn certificates that will be beneficial for your career as a social media manager. By learning the courses, attending classes, and earning your certificates, you will be able to know what’s new in the digital world which will be of great use to you in the future as a social media professional. Here are some of the free websites that you can get certificates from which I personally recommend:
HubSpot Academy (https://academy.hubspot.com) – Courses: Social Media, Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, Digital Advertising, Inbound Marketing, Email Marketing, etc.
Google Digital Garage (https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage) – Course: The Fundamentals of Digital Marketing
Coursera (https://www.coursera.org)
edX (https://www.edx.org)
*Elevate your writing and communication skills.
As a social media manager, you also need to be equipped in copywriting and content strategy that’s why you need to elevate your writing and communication skills. You can do this by learning and exercising your skills through studying, getting online course certificates, and also by blogging. By blogging, you can practice your English writing skills that can help you get ahead in copywriting for your clients.
*Know community management and customer service.
Aside from handling your clients’ social media accounts, you will also be asked to handle community management and customer service depending on your agreement with the client. Knowing what the right words to say to the customers will help you manage each community, and also being knowledgeable with your clients’ products and services can be a plus.
*Interpret the marketing analytics well.
Image Credit: Carlos Muza on Unsplash
As a marketer, you need to know how to interpret the marketing data so you can recommend on what should be the next steps to take for your clients. This will also prove the effectiveness of your campaigns, and will also be a guide for you and your clients on what to do and what not to do in the future.
*Maximize your clients’ budget.
Sometimes, clients don’t like to be hands on when it comes to their social media accounts so they can focus on more important things. They can also ask you to take care of their budget. So if the clients ask you to handle their social media budget, you need to have the data and files for you to back it up and justify allocating the clients’ money to better maximize it.
*Know the basics of graphic design and video editing.
Some clients will also ask if you have any basic graphic design and video editing skills. So it is best to be prepared. One free app to enhance your graphic design and video editing skills is by using Canva. What is Canva?
Image Credit: Canva
Canva (www.canva.com) is a free-mium graphic design platform for making social media posts, posters, business cards, presentations, and more. It is easy to use with the drag and drop interface making customizing templates simple and easy. You don’t need to have a background in graphic arts and just need a creative mind and imagination.
*Stay up to date with the latest trends.
As a social media professional, you also need to be up to date with the latest trends to be able to anticipate what you can post in the future, and what trends you can ride on for your clients that will generate them more engagements and sales.
And that’s it. These are just some of my takes on how to become an effective social media manager. The list goes on but you also have the power to become your own social media rock star. Be you and own the digital world!
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