A social media manager does much more than simply posting on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Doing this without knowing how social media works and without having a smart, well-researched plan in place will only become great deal of wasted time and effort. Even worse, you won’t achieve your goals, which need to be set up as part of your strategy.
What Does a Social Media Manager Do?
This is a busy, exciting job: Media Bistro explains that these sought-after professionals curate a brand’s social channels and manage social partnerships with other brands. The description of a social media manager’s job varies depending on the employer; in smaller companies, a social media manager may need to pitch in by handling more administrative responsibilities, too. In general, social media managers are responsible for strategizing and executing digital marketing campaigns. They also create and post shareable images and videos, monitor everything and are interactive with their audiences.
Tracking the results is also a big part of the job. Social media managers have to determine how much traffic is driven to their campaigns, by gathering and analyzing the data. With this information, they can work with other team members to determine what is successful, what is not and the direction to move forward in.
How to be an Effective Social Media Manager
Social Media Today states that social media jobs are more involved than one might think, and a solid strategy is needed for success. A sturdy foundation begins with a solid outline that includes goals such as increased sales, more website traffic and better brand awareness. Each of your goals should also include the specific steps that you’ll need to take to reach those objectives. Another important organizational tool is a social media calendar; this provides structure and consistent, more effective postings. Posts can be scheduled in advance, which is a good way to make sure that they go live as needed.
Being a good listener (and a good reader) is also essential. Social media managers have to pay attention to their audience’s messages and comments, whether these are directed at the posts or relevant conversations on competitor sites. This is when keyword research becomes important – you can use HootSuite or Twitter’s TweetDeck for this. Responding to those messages and contents ASAP will also go a long way towards customer care. This should also be tracked, and you can save sample responses and tweak them for future use.
Tools are also available to track engagement on social media sites. Sprout Social likes HubSpot, TapInfluence and BuzzSumo. You may use these to create lists of influential bloggers, influential news, thought leaders and different customer categories. Then it becomes easier to monitor comments and look for opportunities.
Other Ways to Get Noticed
Posting on social media is all about connecting to an audience. While one post might just have a picture of a mountain bike, a better post could share the photo and explain why its advanced technology makes it safer to use. Customers love it when their comments are spotlighted; animated gifs and polls also hold their interest. Take time to ensure that those photos are artful and creative and include interesting videos and text posts.
To generate more buzz on their posts, savvy social media managers often sponsor competitions. According to Social Media Today, these are very popular and are known to increase engagement levels. Contests and prize draws can also develop email databases and nab more followers. Just be sure to fit the contest and prizes in with your branding and adhere to promotional guidelines to protect your company and its interests.
If there is room in the budget for more advertising, you may look into this option as well. This would involve allocating funds, narrowing in on your target audience and working with your creative department (or hiring a vendor or designing the ads yourself) to come up with advertisements that align with your brand, goals and strategy.
Ongoing Reporting and Opportunities
Your overall strategy should be referred to constantly and be kept on track through consistent reporting. Whether this is done weekly or monthly, this is the best way to review ongoing efforts to see if there is room for improvement. HootSuite comments that the quality of posts are more important than the quantity, so you might want to cut back in some areas and focus more on content development. Also look for dips or increases in engagement, see what led to them and respond accordingly.
Finally, remember that change can be good when it applies to technology – this is why you should keep on top of the latest social media developments. An improved search algorithm could boost your efforts, but you won’t know about it unless you take the time to read industry news. Read and review articles about tools and best practices, follow industry leaders and bloggers and see how you can apply this and create opportunities to improve your strategy.