Technology can be viewed, at times, as the reason why some jobs will cease to exist in the future. Let’s consider though, for a moment, the job positions that have been created due to technology, such as the social media manager—a job position that was not around ten years ago. Technology has allowed social media to flourish and therefore, create opportunities for people. With millions of people using social media, your business will suffer if you ignore the social media aspect of marketing.
How does one become a successful social media manager, though? What are the skills that someone needs in order to fit the role of a social media manager in 2020? Right off the bat, the social media manager’s role involves creating and executing your brand’s social media strategy on social media platforms. You need someone who can do it all. Not only that, but you need someone who can do it well. The ideal person must be creative, have experience in project management, and have technical and analytical skills.
7 Important Skills for a Social Media Manager in 2020
Here are some of the important skills for a social media manager in 2020:
Tactical Execution
What are a social media manager’s must-have skills? A manager must be skilled at tactical execution, which is incredibly important to perform social media roles and responsibilities. From understanding the personality of the brand and its tonality to its target audience and potential customers, a social media manager needs to craft a solid execution strategy to carve out an identity on social media.
Can See the Big Picture
A social media manager should be able to piece everything together, that is, they need to be able to see the big picture. It’s important that a social media manager can understand how all of the moving parts of social media work together. A social media manager has to analyze the target audience of the organization, follow trends, and have a refined judgement about what type of content would fit a certain context.
Needs to Monitor and Engage
Social media is all about connecting with individuals, or in other words, your audience. A social media manager should be able to frame social media posts in a way that engages the target audience and converts them to leads. Knowing how to happily engage with the community as well as responding to negative feedback are the key skills a social media manager must possess.
What Does and Doesn’t Work
You would think that this should be common sense. However, not everyone knows how to operate social media. It is an ever-changing beast that takes a skilled individual to manage. A necessary skill for a social media manager is the ability to know what works on social media and what doesn’t work because each platform has different targeted audiences. His/her knowledge should not be limited to what works in one social media platform but should be spread across individual social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Someone Who is Creative
Being creative is absolutely a necessity when considering a social media manager’s skill set. Being a social media manager is nothing less than being an artist. The best part is the creative liberty to come up with the most creative posts so as to draw interest to the organization’s product or service. People will respond better to creativity than they will to boring, “stiff” content.
Understand Technology and Content
It isn’t enough just to send out a tweet or update your Facebook status. A social media manager’s strategy should include the optimization of content for keywords and phrases to go up in search engine rankings. On top of this, creating blogs, eBooks, and even videos should be something a social media manager must have in their plans when considering what to post on social media. Additionally, your social media manager should also have great writing skills. He or she should be able to easily hook the audience with compelling posts. The skill to be terse, the ability to write interesting introductions, and the overall organization of the content into titles, subtitles, and bullet points are crucial to engaging the audience.
Know What the Latest Digital Marketing Trends Are
With technology, you always need to be up to date. The rules of social media change constantly. So does the limelight on each of them. You want someone who will keep up with the latest trends and not still think of Facebook as the top platform to post on. Being updated with the trends will help a manager stay ahead of the competition.
A social media manager is a position that you didn’t think you needed to fill years ago. However, in today’s world employing a social media manager is incredibly important to the success of your business. By having someone to propel your brand out there and make it more visible to the public, you are increasing the traffic to your website. It’s imperative to consider the skills above when searching for your social media manager so that you have the best choice in place.
Author Bio: Emily Standley provides creative entrepreneurs, small businesses and bloggers with expert website strategies and resources to grow a more powerful online presence and build a better business from anywhere. Her philosophy is: “If your website’s not making money, it’s wasting your time”.