A social media manager is a professional who manages and administers the social media advertising and marketing for an organization. This individual’s job is to plan, implement, and manage all elements of marketing on social media, including the development of brand awareness, content management, as well as cultivating leads and sales. In this article, we give an overview of a social media manager and discuss the importance of this role.
Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have become one of the most powerful tools in digital marketing. Countless organizations are realizing the value of social media marketing. Not only is it a useful for improving customer service, but it is also an excellent way to connect with an audience, develop relationships, establish authority, boost brand awareness, generate leads, and ultimately, increase conversions.
However, despite the benefits that social media marketing can provide for a company, many companies find that it’s difficult to maintain on their own. In order for a social media strategy to be effective, it has to be managed on a daily basis. It’s not a part time job; it requires consistency and dedication. How can companies handle social media management when they already have so much that they need to attend to? - By hiring a full time social media manager.
Job Description of a Social Media Manager
A social media manager is a part of a company’s marketing team. This individual handles all aspects of marketing and advertising on various social media platforms. The duties of this individual include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Setting up a social media account (or several accounts across several social media channels).
- Establishing goals for a company’s social media marketing strategy.
- Managing social media content, including blog posts, status updates, videos, and more.
- Cultivating leads and sales.
A social media manager should be highly motivated and creative. He or she should have a strong passion for connecting companies with existing and future customers by engaging with an audience on a daily basis, attracting followers and fans, and turning those followers and fans into customers.
Social Media Management and Content Management
Content plays a vital role in social media marketing. That’s because relevant, useful, and engaging content is the top factor that search engines like Google use to determine ranking. As such, a social media specialist can be equated to a content manager.
The position of a social media manager is full time, salaried, and offers benefits. This individual may also go by other titles, such as a community manager, a digital marketing manager, or a customer service manager.
Content Management Duties of a Social Media Specialist
Since content is such an integral part of marketing on social media, it’s important to have a firm understanding of the duties a social media specialist should fulfill in regard to content management. These duties include:
- Administrate the development and publishing of high-quality, useful, relevant, and engaging content. This person can either develop the content him- or herself, or can work in collaboration with a content writer, sharing the ideas that he or she has generated and ensuring that the content writer is bringing those ideas to fruition.
- Identifying and improving elements that can improve content.
- Determining the best time to reach the target audience of a company and creating a schedule for publishing content during times when that audience will best be reached.
- Implementing an editorial calendar for managing content and developing a detailed and timely marketing strategy.
- Promoting content via social advertising.
Responsibility of a Social Media Specialist
Given all of the duties that a social media manager is expected to fulfill, it’s safe to say that there are a lot of responsibilities that come along with this position. First and foremost, this professional has to create and implement a marketing plan specifically for social media. The responsibilities include:
- Determining what social media channels would work best to achieve the company’s goals.
- Identifying the target audience of the business.
- Pinpointing why the target audience purchases products and work toward developing the brand in a way that will encourage people to choose that company to buy from.
- Setting clear objectives that include highly defined and realistic objectives. Goal setting is vital for determining your return on investment. In order to establish realistic goals, it’s important to first identify any specific challenges that the company is experiencing. Examples of challenges might include:
- Poor website traffic
- Low customer retention
- Negative reputation online
- Low conversions
- Poor brand awareness
- Designing a thoughtful visual representation that will leave a lasting impact on viewers. From status updates to landing pages, this visual representation must be compelling and consistent.
- Developing a rock-solid content strategy.
- Creating an exceptional promotional strategy.
- Developing a detailed engagement strategy.
- Creating a conversion strategy that will convert the fans on a company’s social media channels and convert them into fans.
- Finding the key performance indicators that mean the most to the company, such as the profile, growth, and engagement of an audience, as well as content reach, leads, response rates, and any negative feedback that a company might be receiving.
Why Business Owners Should Employ a Social Media Manager
Businesses of all sizes and in any industry can benefit from hiring an experienced social media manager. Below are some of the most notable benefits that a social media specialist can provide:
- Greater brand recognition. In order to attract customers, it’s important for a company’s brand to be recognizable. You want your brand to be known for something so that customers will think of your business when they are interested in the products or services that you offer instead of your competition. A social media manager can help to increase brand recognition for your company by engaging with your target audience in a meaningful way and building relationships with them. This professional also encourages interactions with other people; for example, he or she can generate Facebook posts that encourage followers to share, thus further building the recognition of your brand.
- More traffic. Social media can play a big role in generating traffic for your website. When social media users see eye-catching posts that detail the products or services you offer in a memorable way, they will be more inclined to visit your website. More traffic to your website leads to more conversions, and that’s the ultimate goal of any business owner.
- Establishes trust. Consumers want to make sure that they are investing their hard-earned money wisely. If they can’t trust a company, chances are they aren’t going to purchase from it. By engaging with your audience, developing relationships with them, creating a high-quality content strategy, and communicating with your audience, a content media specialist can establish trust in your company. The more trustworthy you are, the more likely it is that your target audience will choose you over another business.
- A leg-up on the competition. With so many businesses out there, consumers have more options than ever before. If you want to stand ahead of your competition, you are going to want to establish a strong presence and make yourself known. Since a social media manager can increase brand awareness and develop trust in your business, this individual can help to give your company a leg-up on the competition. Your business will stand out from the crowd, which exceptionally important if you want to attain success.
- Less burden. While many companies recognize the impact a social media marketing strategy can offer, they often try to handle the elements of this type of marketing campaign themselves. Since there is so much that goes into developing, implementing, and managing a social media marketing campaign, trying to handle it on your own (or delegating the task to other team members) can become overwhelming. When you employ a social media manager, you won’t have to worry about handling the elements of this marketing strategy because you will have a professional doing it for you.
- Increased success. Given all of the aforementioned benefits that a social media manager can provide, this individual can also help to grow your business and increase its overall success.
Wrapping it Up
Social media marketing is highly effective way to reach more customers and grow your business. However, in order for this strategy to deliver real results, ensuring that it is developed, implemented, and managed properly is vital. By hiring someone who specializes in managing social media marketing, you can ensure that you will reap all of the benefits that this type of advertising campaign can provide. If you haven’t hired a social media specialist yet, you should seriously consider it; this individual will prove to be a very worthwhile investment.
