How to become a Social Media Manager

A social media manager uses applications like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to market their brand. They act as the voice of their company on these platforms and do everything from showcasing new products to answering customer queries.

A social media manager works on the various social channels of a brand to increase their presence and build a community. In recent years, many businesses have realised how much power this type of marketing has, and are now hiring an increasing amount of specialists in social media to work on their strategies across channels.

Social media managers might create Facebook ads, post a daily series of Instagram stories, and answer tweets asking customer service related questions, all in the same day. A social media manager may work alone, or have a team of people who they delegate tasks to.

The duties of a social media manager can differ depending on the company’s size, but they generally entail:

• Strategizing across the main social media platforms, and working out how they can lever the platform to deliver their message in an impactful way (main social media platforms generally include Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook).
• Working out strategies for secondary social media platforms (such as Pinterest and TikTok) and considering which of these can be used to increase brand awareness, brand loyalty and sales.
• Publishing thought-provoking, pre-planned posts across all social media channels (which is called proactive messaging).
• Replying to comments on social media (which is called reactive messaging).
• Creating and managing campaigns on social media channels.

A social media manager job description is thus very varied, but the role generally allows the employee to enjoy some creativity when fabricating posts and campaigns, while sticking to what has proved to work well for brands.

Tertiary education is not essential to become a social media manager; although some employers prefer either a degree or strong vocational experience. Relevant degrees include marketing, public relations, advertising, and media. It is also possible to enter the field in a social media assistant position and work up the career ladder.

Many social media manager vacancies require the candidate to have a strong social media presence themselves, and it’s often valuable if a candidate can offer one platform that they specialise in. Social media management is an easy field to get work experience in, as the candidate can simply create and grow social media accounts about topics that interest them.

Some candidates become a freelance social media manager. Most people doing this will have previous social media experience, whether that be from a previous in-house role or by creating strong social profiles independently. Businesses who are hiring a freelance social media manager will need to see excellent past examples and strategies that are proven to work.

Social media managers should have a dynamic personality and be happy to engage in conversation with strangers. Community-building is a key focus for social media managers, so candidates should have a friendly and inviting online persona. They also need to be organised and good at timekeeping, as they will likely be working across platforms.