The Internet has given people the opportunity to pursue new careers that allow them to work from home or anywhere in the world and earn money just from using their computer. One of these careers involves spending time on our favorite Social Media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Apart from scrolling through the newsfeed, which is what the regular user does, each Social Media platform has the power to boost and help businesses in various industries. The online world gives businesses the opportunity to grow and expand their business, reach more and NEW people and build a trustworthy brand. One of these careers and my full-time job is being a Social Media Manager.
Today, we will have a talk about what it takes to become one.
Let’s start with a simple question:
What is a Social Media Manager?
A Social Media Manager is someone who is very familiar with the business side of Social Media and understands Social Media Marketing (SMM for short). As the name suggests it has a lot to do with managing Social Media channels. But it is bigger than that. Some tasks of this job might include:
– Managing one or more Social Media accounts per client on a daily basis.
– Creating content for this/these channels
– Analyzing what works and what does not.
– Managing ad campaigns
– Growing Social Media channels
– Organizing giveaways and contests in order to achieve different marketing objectives
In other words, a Social Media Manager is someone who is responsible for your online presence and will keep a good name for your brand online.
In 2021, many small and big companies prefer working with Social Media Managers as they know this is the most efficient way to run their business. They understand how important Social Media is for promoting their products/services and building trust with their customers.
In addition, with someone, who constantly create fresh content, manage and update your online channels, you can have time to focus on other tasks in your company such as providing excellent customer service, new product release or increasing in-store sales.
What does it take to become one?
Anyone can become a Social Media Manager just like anyone can become a musician. But there are certain traits that will help you become a successful Social Media Manager if you have them. Important traits such as CONSISTENCY and CREATIVITY.
If you cannot be consistent, and I mean REALLY consistent, and you get easily bored, this is most definitely not your thing. Before you start, you must know that you won’t get sick of creating and posting content for one year and then change your career once again.
Creating content and paid advertising requires a lot of work and a good eye for details and excellent design sense. But it also has a lot to do with being creative. If you don’t have the creativity to plan your content – topic, visuals, grid style (for IG) for one week in advance for YOUR own channel, then you can’t do it for a client either. It is that simple.
There are other traits that could definitely benefit you. For example, being organized will be a huge help when creating content calendars. Being detail-oriented will help you to get the most of your client’s account. Being a good writer and a sweet talker will help you to write catchy captions. And so on.
As long as you can stay focused on what you are doing and be original with everything you do, your job as a Social Media Manager will be an easy thing.
How to become a Social Media Manager?
If you think you have it in you, then know that the Social Media World is ready for you. To become a Social Media Manager you will need to get to know or “study” the platforms first. That way when your first client comes, you will know what services you can offer as well as the results they can be expecting from you.
Each Social Media platform is very different from the others. For example, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest all have their own algorithms that determine how much exposure your account will get. So, the way they rank your content is not based on the same criteria.
Just like every Social Media platform have their techniques to use in order to grow your account faster. Hashtags on Instagram are a great example. They work great and bring tons of exposure but they do not have the same effect in Facebook. So not everything that works on Instagram will have the same success on Facebook and the same goes for any other platform.
The easiest way to start and gain confidence as a Social Media Manager is by creating great content. Focus on content creation (pictures and videos) and see what will work for your own account before you can offer your services to anyone else. I highly recommend learning how to use handy tools such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
Once you have spent enough time working on your account and you know how to analyze your account and content, it might be time to get your first client. Each client and job you take, will teach you something new and make you more experienced than before.
Then expand your services by offering clients to grow their channels. Find online material that will introduce you to different marketing techniques and ways to increase followers on any platform. This online material can be a blog (like this), an eBook, Youtube video, or an online course. Just make sure that you find someone who will teach you the genuine ways of growing Social Media channels and would NOT encourage you to cheat and get fake followers/likes.
Once you are confident enough with your Social Media skills, introduce paid advertising (Facebook Marketing / Instagram Marketing / Twitter Marketing / LinkedIn Marketing) to the list of services you offer. For this, you will also need to understand Marketing and how advertising works. Online campaigns require more research and knowledge, so you can charge more money.
You don’t necessarily need to start with content creation and follow that specific order but that’s a nice way to avoid getting too much information for a short amount of time.
What tools to use to become a Social Media Manager?
In order to be a good Social Media Manager, you will need to know what services you offer as well as how long will it take you to achieve certain goals. The best source of information is the Internet.
You can find helpful material Social Media material on:
– SMM blogs such as mine (I focus mainly on Instagram), Hubspot and Social Media Examiner;
– Social Media/Digital Marketing Youtube channels such as Neil Patel;
– Online platforms like Udemy or Skillshare;
– Social Media Marketing ebooks or niche ebooks;
Content creation
To master content creation, you will need to learn how to work with programs like Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and Illustrator or use online platforms such as Adobe Spark, Canva (photo editing), Crello (short videos/photo editing), and Powtoon (video editing).
Accounts Management
When you manage multiple clients, you will find it hard to manually post on each one of their channels. To be more efficient at account management, you will need to use automated scheduling tools such as Hootsuite, Buffer or Later. They will save you time and time difference would never be an issue.
To analyze content and account performance, you can use paid third party analytic tools (as long as they are compilable with Terms of Service) or find analytics tools, available in each Social Media platform.
Creating your own content calendar design or using a template will make the communication between you and your clients a hundred times easier. You will be able to plan strategic content in advance and track accounts’ progress each month.
Quick Tip: Make sure to use organizing software such as Trello or Meistertask before you have too much work on your plate.
If you are good at working under pressure, you can directly search for clients and learn while you earn. There are no common rules. Just make sure that your fee matches your services. Start small and grow big.