Nghia Nguyen/UnsplashSocial media has become an integral part of every digital marketing strategy. With more than 3.8 billion people using social media, businesses can no longer ignore social media marketing.
Because of social media growth, the demand for social media managers is increasing. Business owners are looking for professionals who can not only handle their social accounts but also help them improve their social media marketing game.
Let’s take a look at the top six skills that can help you land your dream job as a social media manager.
Table of Contents
1. Writing and Speaking Proficiency
Since social networks are all about communicating with people, expressing views, and sharing updates, you must be proficient in writing and speaking.
As a social media manager, you have to ensure all the posts you publish reflect your company’s personality and meet your audience’s intent. You also need to fit captivating stories in your posts to increase engagement. To enhance your writing skills, read guides related to copywriting and social media content creation.
With the rise in videos, you also need to be confident, especially when going live on social media. Facebook and Instagram Live are increasing in popularity, primarily because they allow customers to engage with brands in real time. Having good public speaking skills will help you present your ideas, answer customer queries, and chat with your followers.
Here are some tips to enhance your public speaking skills:
- For recorded videos, memorize a script.
- For live videos, rather than writing a script, plan the topics you’re going to cover.
- Focus on your skills and hone them. For example, if you have a great sense of humor, use it to your advantage to make your live videos hilarious and engaging.
- At the start of your video, give your viewers a sneak peek into what they can expect. This will keep them hooked, boosting your confidence.
- If your mind suddenly goes blank during the video, pause for a few seconds, take a deep breath or drink water, then continue.
- Practice before going live on social media. This way, you will be better at speaking in front of the camera and your audience.
2. In-Depth Understanding of Consumer Behavior
Consumer behavior refers to the study of your ideal customers to understand how they select and use a product or service. You need to determine your target audience’s behavior to capitalize and use it to your advantage.
Here are some questions that can help you better understand consumers:
- Which alternative products or services do they think about?
- How do they choose products? What factors affect their buying decision?
- Does the environment (culture, media, etc.) influence them?
- Do marketing campaigns influence them?
As for the factors that influence consumer behavior, they include:
- Personal factors: A person’s interest has a direct influence on his or her behavior. Demographics such as age, culture, gender, and profession also have an impact.
- Psychological factors: Everybody responds to a marketing campaign based on his or her perception of the brand or the item advertised.
- Social factors: Social class, income, education level, family, friends’ suggestions, and peer groups also influence consumer behavior.
While understanding consumer behavior might sound easy, it’s not, especially when you have thousands of customers talking about your product or company on social media.
It’s recommended that you complete a degree that teaches consumer behavior, so you’re better positioned to gather actionable insights and fuel your social media marketing campaign. Another benefit of earning a degree is the opportunity to learn interactive marketing and business policies and strengthen your critical thinking and creative analysis abilities.
3. Ability to Quickly Adapt to Trends
Being able to adapt is yet another important skill for a social media manager to hone. Social media is probably one of the first places where changing trends are observed.
To adapt to trends, you first need to discover them. Here’s how you can find trends in two easy steps:
- Use social media to learn more about your customers. Determine the “what” in social media posts. What posts are people attracted to? What kind of posts are people sharing? Those are your customer’s interests.
- Understand the “why” behind it. Why are customers sharing certain posts? This will help you understand the underlying causes of those trends.
There’s not one defined way to adapt to trends. Look at what your competitors are doing, how they are reacting to trends, and what responses they are receiving. Experiment with various strategies to find what works best for your business then create a customized plan to outdo them. Keep an eye on your data and customer feedback to determine if your tactics are working or if they need improvement.
4. Ability to Build Digital Relationships
Building a digital relationship with your target audience is one of the most vital skills that every social media manager must possess.
Consumers are getting increasingly comfortable with interacting with brands on social media. In fact, 82% of millennials use social media to engage with brands and so do 65% of customers from other generations. Meanwhile 78% of people say their buying decisions are influenced by companies’ social media posts.
Some key points to remember when building digital relationships:
Listen Before You Speak
Offer value to your customers with each message or content you post. To do this, you need to first listen to what they are expecting from you then offer them customized solutions to solve their problems. Also, create tailored content for your target audience. The more your content is audience-centered, the more valuable your customers will feel.
Provide an Instant Response
According to a report, 32% of consumers who reach out to brands on social media expect a response within 30 minutes.
While it might not be possible for you, alone, to respond to each query within 30 minutes, make sure your team knows the right way to reply to customers’ issues. If their inquiries are not handled professionally, you might lose them.
Personalize Your Conversation
Don’t always throw automated or scripted messages at your customers. Here are some ways to personalize your conversation in social media:
- Use the customer’s first name while addressing him or her.
- Sign off with your name.
- Always maintain a friendly tone to show you’re there to help them.
5. Empathetic Approach to Social Media Marketing
Empathy is all about showing customers that you understand and care about them. As the face of your company on social media, you need to have an empathetic approach to marketing. Some ways to help you build the empathetic approach include:
Creating a Content Plan
When creating content for social media, ensure that they are customer-centered. One of the best ways to create a content plan is by listing all the problems your ideal customers have on one side of your paper and then list all your brand’s expertise on the other.
Identify areas where your customers’ problems and your expertise intersect. Brainstorm content ideas around those topics. To ensure your posts are not self-oriented or promotional, make sure to highlight what’s in it for the customers.
Showing Your Human Side
Sixty-five percent of consumers say they are more loyal to brands they felt a human connection with. Although you can’t meet your customers face-to-face, you can do your best to show your human side.
Here’s how you can do it:
- Share stories and backstage pictures, showing your humorous side.
- Consider posting something that appeals to both logic and emotion.
- Engage in discussions revolving around your industry, even where you’re not mentioned.
Catering Posts to Target Audience
What works for one social media platform might not work for another. Each network has its own set of audience. For example, Instagram attracts millennials while Facebook mostly attracts the older generation. Therefore, it is essential to ensure your posts and messaging appeal to your audience on the platform you publish. This way, more customers will be able to connect with your brand on a personal level.
6. Ability to Use Analytics to Drive Better Results
Data analysis is one of the must-have skills for social media managers. Analytics has two different meanings, depending on where it is used. For social media, analytics refers to likes, comments, shares, and mentions. For business metrics, it means traffic, leads, conversions, and revenue.
As a social media manager, you must understand both types of analytics and tie them together to analyze the company’s social media performance against business goals.
You should also be capable of using data to create new campaigns to accomplish your social media goals. For example, you should determine which ads or posts are performing better than others by looking at the data then capitalizing on them to drive more revenue.
Understanding Both Qualitative and Quantitative Data
Qualitative data is non-statistical. It is categorized based on attributes, characteristics, or other identifiers. It includes understanding the thoughts and feelings of consumers behind their social media posts or messages.
Using qualitative data, you can create tailored campaigns to micro-target unique audiences and increase engagement.
Quantitative data, on the other hand, is about numeric variables. For example, the number of likes, comments, and shares you receive on social media. Quantitative data helps ensure whether you are going in the right direction with qualitative analysis or not.
Both combined give a 360-degree view of your social performance.
Using Data Analysis Tools
Being a social media manager, you must know how to use data analysis tools. You might be wondering, there are tons of different tools, and it is not possible to learn each one. But, most of them provide similar types of data. All you need to know is which data to look for and how to use it.
Reporting on Social Performance
As a part of your job, you will have to report on social performance every month or quarter. Reporting does not mean focusing solely on numbers. It also includes identifying trends and creating recommendations and a plan of action.
Analytics gives you a solid foundation to support your decisions and show why you created the plan.
Conclusion
If you are not proficient in each skill mentioned above, strive to improve in every area. If you already excel in all the six abilities, congrats, but you still have work to do. Remember, a career in social media is a path of continuous learning and honing your skills.
By Joydeep Bhattacharya