Is Social Media Manager necessary for a Company?

Is Social Media Manager necessary for a Company?

A social media manager is someone who has a knack for storytelling, a keen eye for design, and the skill to investigate what does well with an audience and what doesn’t. A social media manager is many things, and he/she could be a marketer, strategist, copywriter, designer, analyst, or customer service rep. They basically curate the brand’s social channels. They're accountable for monitoring, moderating, and responding to audience comments; managing social media partnerships with other brands, and making and/or posting shareable videos and pictures.

Expectations from a Social Media Manager by a Company

When working as a social media manager in any company, your main responsibility will be to develop various strategies for increasing followers, creating and overseeing social campaigns, producing content, reviewing analytics, and communicating with key stakeholders in the company. But it may differ according to the size of the company you are working for. If you are working for large corporations, then you are not required to create content but rather just approve it. But it’s common for social media managers at smaller companies and startups to take on more content creation roles.

But there's a benefit to working in this field, as you are never done learning. One has to be constantly honing and developing their skill set. There are various skills required to become a social media manager.

Skills Required as a Social Media Manager

Here are some of the most important skills required to become a social media manager.

1.    Data Analysis:

At the moment, data is the most important source of information for converting leads into sales and promoting brands in the market. Data analysis is a crucial skill to have for any sort of job that you are applying for. Data analysis for social media managers is a vital tool to have for analyzing how the company’s posts and content are performing. It helps to identify what is lacking in the company's brand performance on social media and how to convert those shortcomings into strengths.

2.    Communication:

When we think about social media, there's one thing that pops into everyone's head before anything else, i.e., “Communication.”. At its core, social media is all about communicating, sharing, and expressing your views, ideas, and thoughts on various social platforms. And it’s important to have adequate communication skills that can help you fit into any platform, media, character count, or audience. 

When communicating, there's a difference between communicating on social platforms and communicating with your boss and team. While you're communicating on social media, it is very important to be prepared to drop everything at a moment's notice and hop on a trending topic or handle an unhappy customer complaint. And communicating doesn’t only include writing but also using GIFs, stickers, emojis, videos, etc., and anything else at one's disposal to get your message across in a clear and engaging way.

While communicating with your boss and team members, you should be very clear and forward with your social media strategy, content distribution plan, and how your work on social platforms moves the business forward.

3.    Writing:

When it comes to writing, it is synonymous with social media management. It is a must skill to have in your arsenal to make it as a social media manager. The very best social media specialists are outstanding copywriters and enthusiastic digital communicators who enhance their brand’s voice on social platforms. The way you write should elicit emotion from your audience, and it should be witty and interesting. One should also know how to cater their writing to several audiences and platforms. Being good at writing doesn’t mean that you should write 2,000 characters in your Instagram captions or Facebook posts. Various studies have shown that the most engaging length for Instagram and Facebook captions is between 138-150 characters.

4.    Customer Care:

Customer care is another important skill to have while applying to become a social media manager. Customer care is a skill that highlights people's skills and an eye for uncovering opportunities. Customer care plays a vital role in determining your career as a social media manager. According to the latest research data, more than 33% of consumers choose to reach out to brands on social media with a customer service issue or question. A social media manager has to be prepared to listen to and understand the concerns, demands, and even praise of current customers, but one also has to be dynamic about what future customers might say. Another thing to take into consideration is reading DMs, identifying the customer's queries, and being able to address the issues in a clever way.

5.    Prompt and Updated:

Being updated and ahead of the game is always an essential skill to have while applying for a social media manager position. As it helps a lot to react accordingly to online conversations and news/trends. As it greatly helps to maintain the organization's brand and presence. If you are not up to date on the latest trends happening, then it can cause various posts on various topics to be perceived as tone-deaf, insensitive, baseless, and overshadowing one's post’s importance.

How can I always be a step ahead in this field?

It all comes down to being creative and staying constantly updated on emerging trends and technologies. If you are serious about getting ahead of everyone else in this field, then you should begin preparing to come up with entertaining, engaging, and cleverly written content on the go. And you should be keeping an eye out for the next big game-changing tool for social media marketing or channels in social media.

How do I become a Social Media Manager?

Don't worry, as there’s no rocket science course to complete for this job title. But you do need to have a degree in fields like journalism, public relations, or marketing, which can help a lot. But more than that, one needs to hone one’s skills by spending time on one's own account. People might not think that having intimate knowledge of Facebook, Snapchat, or Twitter is a profitable skill, but it absolutely is.

Conclusion

Social Media Managing is a challenging and intriguing job, to say the least. And anyone can develop the skill set required for this job. This job has good scope in today's market, as the digital era is advancing rapidly day by day. It has become necessary to develop skills that cater to building a social media presence for any company. The above article may help clarify the skill sets required to be a social media manager and their importance to a company. Anyone aspiring to become a social media manager should keep this general information in mind and move accordingly.