Social media managers are celebrating their birth. This year, they have been in the business for 15 years. The first social media managers don’t even know what they are doing, only that they understand the power of social media even back then. So, they created content, engaged audiences, and brought what they learned to the drawing board. The result is revolutionary. Almost everyone now thinks they can become a social media manager because “isn’t that just creating content and answering comments?” Ah no, that’s not the only thing social media managers should do.
What attracted Millennials to the job of a social media manager is the flexible work schedule. Though many of them still need to report in the office, a lot can also take their work back home when they need to. In fact, social media managers can travel the world and do their jobs from anywhere they see fit. Do they want to stay in Athens for a month? Then, by all means, they can work from a rental there before coming back home or going to another country. As long as there’s an internet connection, the world is their oyster.
But that doesn’t mean that working for a social media management company is easy. On the contrary, there is a lot of pressure that comes with working as a social media manager. You are responsible for raising awareness about the brand on social media, as well as retaining customers through engagements and cool content. Imagine brainstorming for good content every day. It’s a challenge only a few can take.
Measuring, Analyzing Social Results
The biggest task of a social media manager is to measure and analyze statistics and big data. This means that once they log on to the social media platforms, they have to take a look at the numbers that will tell them if their latest campaign is effective. Measuring results is not just peeping at the numbers. They have to add this to the spreadsheet, so marketing managers can use these numbers to continue, boost, downgrade, or withdraw a campaign. It will also tell the social media managers if the content they are creating is making the right impact.
Respond and Engage with the Community
One of the earliest tasks of social media managers is to build a community for the brand they are working for. How can they do this? They build a community by responding to comments, engaging followers, and answering inquiries. And it’s not just about responding, okay? It’s about responding on time. Your audience will not wait for a week for you to respond. They’ll want to feel that they are valued and appreciated.
Create Content for Social Media
Creating content for social media is not like writing a blog where you pour your ideas and thoughts. The process is more complicated than that. With social media content, you have to consider what your audience wants to hear, as well as what they need to hear. It’s not about your company. It’s about them. That has always been a pressure point for content producers because yes, it’s hard to think of content that will make your audience want to engage and at the same time, make them simply want to support your brand.
Schedule New Content
Aside from creating content, social media managers will also decide when is the best time to post the content. Not all content is created equally, and not all content should be posted at the same time. For example, a post that aims to elicit your followers to buy from your online store should be posted early in the morning and around lunchtime. This is when most people have the time to check their social media accounts. Posting late in the evening works, too, because most people have wind down by then and have time to browse through their feeds.
Learn New Things
Social media, above all, should be about learning. Social media managers cannot survive on content creation and data analysis alone. They need to learn new things such as programming, web design, and video-making. They need these tools to survive in a dog-eat-dog-world such as the social media and marketing industry. Without these tools, social media managers would be outdated. They will lose their touch.
If you want to become a social media manager, that comes with a lot of extra baggage. It’s not about having time for leisure alone, though that’s a nice perk to have. It’s about knowing your role in the company, committing to it, and making sure you have the skills and tools to do your job well.
