Whats Does A Social Media Manager Do?
So, you’re thinking of being a social media manager? Great! If you like being creative, working remotely in a fast-paced environment, and spending a lot of time on social media, you’re in the right place. You’re also getting into the industry at a great time. With so many businesses starting an online presence, they’ll be looking for someone like you to manage their social accounts.
According to Indeed, “A Social Media Manager, or Community Manager, oversees a company’s interactions with the public through implementing content strategies on social media platforms. Their duties include analyzing engagement data, identifying trends in customer interactions and planning digital campaigns to build community online.”
Plainly put, a social media manager creates brand awareness and engaging content that converts followers into loyal customers.
Some Of The Tasks Include:
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Using social media platforms and tools to create a company’s brand
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Monitor brand mentions
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Develop social media marketing campaigns
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Engage with followers and customers on social media accounts
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Evaluate campaign performance on overall business goals
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Keep up with social media trends
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Content creation (can include graphic design)
How Does A Social Media Manager Use Social Platforms?
So how exactly does a Social Media Manager use social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to promote a brand, and why is it important?
Social Media Managers use posts, comments, videos, direct messaging, and any other tools a platform offers to engage with their audience, specifically in the brand’s voice. Creating a brand voice on social media is important because it’s the best way to reach your target audience and make them aware of the company.
A Social Media Manager also needs to monitor online activity that mentions the company name. Why would they do this? Monitoring mentions is important to deflect any negative reviews and understand what the consumer is looking for. With this knowledge, a Social Media Manager can create content that reaches a wider market.
Most of a Social Media Manager's time goes to developing and executing a social media marketing campaign. Goals should be set for each campaign based on upper management and overall business objectives. Aside from content creation, Social Media Managers schedule posts, engage with comments/messages, look for content related to their market, and consider what their competitors are doing. They use social media metrics to determine the result of their efforts and report back efforts to leadership.
Social media platforms favor accounts that are social. It may seem obvious, but that’s a big part of a strategy that businesses overlook. They expect people to flock to their account simply because they made a post. The truth is your company’s brand will get more traction if you engage on others' posts, videos, or stories. This doesn’t mean that you’ll need to spend all day every day engaging. Setting aside at least 30 min a day to focus on interacting with new accounts is enough to get your company noticed. The key is to engage with accounts where your target audience hangs out and add value with your comments. If your comment provides value, the user is more likely to check out your page to see what your brand is about.
As mentioned, evaluating performance based on company goals is an important part of a Social Media Manager's job. They can evaluate the performance by tracking analytics, such as website clicks and sales conversions. Social Media Managers use free or paid tools to monitor social media analytics. Often the social platform itself offers insights into how an account is doing. However, for a deeper look at how the social media account is converting into sales, Social Media Managers use paid tools such as Sprout Social, HubSpot, and BuzzSumo. Checking insights regularly is vital to understanding if your content is converting or if you need to make a change ASAP. A Social Media Manager constantly must be innovating and evaluating how well their ideas perform.
Another task for Social Media Manager's is keeping up with industry and customer trends as well as current events. Your content must align with customer and market changes to keep people interested and keep them engaged. A Social Media Manager should find real-time conversations to learn the trends. Hashtags and Google searches are great tools for finding these conversations. You want to keep up with these trends to stay relevant to your customer and avoid sharing content that may be insensitive to current events.
Lastly, a key task is content creation. There are only a few seconds to stop consumers in their scroll. Make it count. You can either create this content yourself or if necessary, outsource it to a graphic designer. Social media is more than just pretty posts. Yes, of course, you get to be creative with your content, it’s one of the perks of being a Social Media Manager, but it’s important to think analytically when creating. Always ask yourself, “What is the purpose of this post? Does it add value to the consumer?” If your content is only getting a few likes but no sales, it’s time to innovate.
Are you looking to get some hands-on experience? Apply for Power Move Marketing’s internship.
Author: Danielle Sampson