Read more about Social Media
A social media manager is an individual who has the sole responsibility of managing a politician, celebrity, company, or organization’s social media accounts. Managing a social media account entails updating posts, responding to comments, creating a social media strategy, enhancing customer support, increasing the followership of the different social media accounts, etc. To achieve this, you need to possess great communication skills, a degree, and an in-depth knowledge of various social media accounts. Against most people’s beliefs, a social media manager and a social media influencer though from the same coin but are not the same. A social media influencer is an independent individual who uses his/her social media accounts and followership to draw attention to someone else, a social media manager simply handles/controls the accounts of another person and invariably works for that person. If you have an interest in becoming a top-notch social media manager, then here are some things you need to know:
- You need to Gather Skills: As simple as it sounds, social media management is not something you do with head knowledge. You need to have social media skills (ability to properly handle different social media platforms), customer relation skills (ability to relate with different shades of customers and listen to them), graphic designing skills (ability to come up with creative graphic content for the company), content marketing skills (ability to create contents to achieve a desired result/outcome), etc.
- Get on top of your game: You need to be social to be able to relate very well with your target audience. To achieve this without sounding socially awkward, you need to learn and understand the social ethics of your target audience.
- Know your Client Market: You can’t effectively manage a company or individual’s account if you do not know what the person or account is trying to sell. By selling I mean what they are trying to project. You need to know the ins and outs of the brand or individual else, you’ll fail to adequately represent them online. Research and read up information about the organization or individual and ask questions where necessary.
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- Have a Social Media Niche: Since there are several social media platforms, you don’t need to kill yourself trying to be a jack of all trades yet master of none. You don’t need to learn and understand the entire social media platform before you start out as a social media manager, but you can progress. Focus on gaining mastery over your most preferred social media handles and build from there.
- Utilize Social Media Automation Tools: Being a social media manager entails managing different social media accounts and creating diverse content. This is where automation tools come in as they help you to schedule posts for publication on specific dates. Some of these tools are buffer, Hootsuite, sprout social, etc. In as much as these tools can’t replace you, they give you free time for other activities.
- Ability to Communicate: To attain success in your social media management career, you have to be a good communicator. You need to be able to communicate effectively with your clients and with your audience as well. This also entails being able to resolve conflicts situations between clients, competitors, and customers.
- Avoid Costly Mistakes: Social media management is a career that requires a high level of precision as mistakes made can lead to being dragged all over social media thus embarrassing the brand. You need to dish out quality content, avoid typos and grammatical errors, and properly cross-check your posts.
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