What Does a Social Media Manager Do?

Last Updated on March 5, 2018

Do you ever wonder what Social Media Managers (SMM) do at work? For some people, the first things that may come to mind are posting and engaging with content. However, they don’t get paid for just posting status updates and liking other people’s posts. In fact, they do a lot more than that. Read on to find out what they do in real life.

What is A Social Media Manager?

A Social Media Manager is in charge of a client’s online presence in social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and others. Clients may be businesses, organizations, or other persons (who may or may not be celebrities).

The SMM is the client’s online voice, tasked with connecting with target customers and communities to achieve specific goals. These goals may include boosting customer engagement, encouraging community members to take action, increasing the site’s number of followers, increasing website traffic, brand awareness, and increasing revenues.

Job Responsibilities of a Social Media Manager

The job responsibilities of a Social Media Manager are grouped together into three categories: Strategy, Implementation, and Monitoring.

Strategy

Creating a social media strategy involves having a clear understanding of the client’s goals. An in-depth interview with the client will bring out what these goals are. After which, good research shows the client’s ideal customers and where they hang out online. This information helps the SMM create campaigns with calls-to-action that produce desired results.

In the strategy phase, the SMM plans an editorial calendar that identifies which social media platforms to focus on. He or she decides the type of content to be posted and then creates the schedule for posting updates. For consistent implementation, it is also important to come up with a social media policy that will guide the company and its employees in everything related to social media.

Implementation

This is the SMM’s daily or weekly grind. These are activities done to ensure the achievement of social media targets.

1. Set up and optimize the client’s accounts within each platform to increase visibility.
2. Look for text, news, articles, images, videos and other content that attract visitors.
3. Update social media sites. Compose, publish and share content based on an editorial calendar.
4. Reply to social media posts.
5. Moderate user-generated content according to policy and guidelines established for each community.
6. Being consistent in communicating in a professional manner using the client’s unique voice.
7. Use social media tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, Moz, FollowerWonk, among others to manage multiple sites.

Monitoring

Using web analytic tools, social media managers track strategies and processes to ensure proper implementation and to measure campaign effectiveness. SMMs also check the Internet and social media sites for company mentions, reviews, and customer feedback.

Skills Needed to be a Successful Social Media Manager

Successful SMM, normally have these skills:

Technical

The SMM understands web technology and how it relates to marketing. Also, he or she can easily navigate the various social media networks and third-party social media tools.

Communication and Presentation

Guided by the features and limitations of each network, the SMM writes copy that grabs attention. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) knowledge is helpful.

Marketing

A good SMM has a firm grasp of marketing fundamentals and online marketing best practices.

Research and Analytics

Online marketing, including social media, is a fast-paced world. SMMs need to keep up with current practices and emerging trends. A good SMM analyzes and interprets data that can be presented to clients.

Problem Solving

The creative SMM finds the best ways to get across a client’s message on different platforms using available resources.

Organization and Time Management

These skills are probably the most important ones that a good SMM needs to master, especially if he or she works with many clients. How do they handle the workload when working with two or more clients? They should be self-motivated and know how to prioritize tasks. A keen eye for detail produces work that requires little or no changes.

Interpersonal Skills

As the direct link online between a business and its clients, social media managers are expected to be customer service-oriented and friendly. Also, the SMM is able to bring out the best work from other stakeholders and creative in the strategizing, implementing, and monitoring of processes.

The job of a social media manager is challenging and whoever is in this position has the potential to make a great impact on business. For assistance with growing your social media presence, you can reach out to us.

Did we cover it all? If not, what did we miss? Please let us know in the comments