SKILLS AND TRAITS EVERY SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETER NEEDS TO SUCCEED.

A marketer is responsible for promoting a company and the service or product it sells. Marketing however has changed over the years and will continue to evolve. In the past, marketing focused heavily on traditional mediums such as print, broadcast (tv & radio), direct (brochures, letters, catalogues), telemarketing and outdoor advertising such as billboards - essentially anything and everything that isn’t online.

Marketing took the leap into the digital realm in the 1990’s. Since then, it has become an imperative aspect of every businesses marketing strategy. This is because modern day consumers take it to the internet to research, discover and purchase products or services. Digital marketing encompasses both paid or organic ads via online search engines, social media and email marketing and more.

Social media has become increasingly important for every business due to its ability to help you connect with current and prospect customers, build your brand, gain greater exposure and even generate more sales.

Due to the importance of social media marketing, social media marketers are a highly sought out. We are going to dive in and tell you about what we think are the most important skills and traits are for a social media marketer!

Firstly, what does a social media marketer do?

Some of the things a social media marketer does on a day to day basis include;

• Campaigns: Creates marketing and social media campaigns and strategies, including budget planning, content ideation, and implementation schedules
• Branding: Ensure branding is consistent across all marketing and social media
• Date and analytics: Measure the success of every social media campaign
• Trends: Stay up to date with the latest social media best practices and technologies
• Networking: Communicate with industry professionals and influencers via social media to create a strong network

What are some of the most important skills and traits needed?

Writing & Storytelling

 Storytelling and writing are a vital skill across all areas of marketing, especially for social media marketers who aim to educate and spark conversations. A good story is one of the most impactful ways to create ties with your brand, product or services, your team and your customers, Good writers and storytellers alike will excel when it comes to creating social media posts, ad copy, call to actions, video scripts and more!

A good writer has the ability to portray a brands voice and alter it according to the channel and character count requirement whilst tailoring the message to fit the audience at hand. This will allow you to better connect with your audience, in turn build trust and further enhance relationships.

 Creativity (the ability to create and curate photos & videos)

Creativity is one of the big ones! Being able to craft up unique, original ideas will get you far as a social media marketer. With millions of companies on social media, it can be hard for your message and unique selling points to be remembered amongst the masses. The creative mind will better craft a message that will be remembered, in turn creating greater brand associations and potential sales.

The creative marketer will always be one step ahead. With an environment that is full of competition and noise, simply following in the footsteps of the creatives you may already be in competition with won’t be enough. It is great to be inspired by leaders, but it is even better to take their work as inspiration and transform it into something that is true to brand and best fit for a campaign.

Clear and confident communication

Good communication skills are needed for all marketers. Whether you’re communicating to your clients or partners, the end user or to your internal team members and higher management, you will need to have good mix of both intrapersonal and interpersonal communication skills. Your interpersonal skills will allow you to better collaborate with others and your intrapersonal skills will help you recognise your strengths and weaknesses.

It’s not just about what is being said, the delivery of the message is just as important. Marketers need to be aware of how their messages will impact the receiver. Is the message clear? Does it portray what you intended? It is essential for all marketers to be aware of what they are intentionally and unintentionally communicating at any given time.

Of course, communication will alter depending on who you are engaging with, this is why a marketer must be able to flip the switch and change accordingly whenever needed.

 Customer service & community management

Responding to clients, partners and the overarching online community in a timely manager is an expectation for every social media marketer. As social media holds the ability to better connect online communities, it is an expectation of any social media marketer to engage with audiences online. If you aren’t replying to comments and direct messages, it is not good enough. Second to that, nobody likes a robotic and generic message blasted to the masses – personalisation is key.

As more and more people expect to be answered to via social platforms like Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, it is no longer an option to have a social media marketer that doesn’t manage their online communities. Community management will include the ability to understand and adequately react to praise, questions and concerns, negative feedback and demand.

When it comes to working agency-side, servicing your clients is imperative if you want to maintain long-lasting relationships. Managing customer relationships can be extremely time consuming, however it is needed if you want everyone in the team remain on the same page and make sure client requests don’t get missed. Many companies rely on their customer relationship management (CRM) platforms to help their teams manage and document all their client communications. Utilising a CRM tool will help ensure all client queries and requirements are actioned, ultimately leading to higher client retention and satisfaction.

Data & Analytics

Creativity alone will only get a social media marketer so far. The beauty of online marketing is the ability to measure and track campaign success, unlike traditional forms of marketing. For most, reporting time is a routine task that isn’t always loved, however data and analytics are extremely important when it comes to learning what has and hasn’t worked and why.

Being able to understand the data at hand and act on it accordingly will allow social media marketers to better strategise and achieve better results moving forward. It is an expectation that all decisions are made on the basis of data from prior campaigns and learnings. Knowing what type of content and platforms best hit your goals is essential. Whether you’re trying to drive people to a landing page, generate leads, increase engagement or hit revenue targets, a social media manager should be able to tell you what is and isn’t working and what to try next.

Budgeting

Being able to manage a budget is a skill that everyone should have, whether on a personal level or at a corporate level. For marketers, or specifically social media marketers, being able to prioritise and allocate your marketing spend is particularly important if you want to get the most out of your campaigns.

A marketer may use their budget across various aspects including; paid social ads, search ads, graphic design, content creation, scheduling platforms, technology such as your CRM, lead generation and more. Check out an example Buffer has put together on how to spend a social media marketing budget allocation here.

Organisation & Time Management

Without excellent time management you will not be able to manage a campaign. Those within a social media role, especially a management level role are not only required to come up with campaign ideas. They are the ones that lead the campaign from the start to its final execution. As campaigns have various moving parts and often involve various departments to get them across the line, a social media marketer must be able to keep up.

For anyone that has ever worked in an agency, you would know how difficult it can be at times to keep up with multiple requests coming at you from all angles. One client might be launching a new special menu, another may be extending their trading hours, another may not like a post that they loved and approved two days ago and the next may want you to find a video deep in the 4-year-old archives.

To-do lists and Trello boards will only get you so far. The ability to stay on your toes and manage multiple requests that come at you is a key component of being a good social media marketer. There is no telling what you will need to do within your 8 hours of work, but if you can manage your time well and keep organised even within the chaos, you’re one step ahead of the rest! 

A curious mind

Curiosity killed the cat, but what did it do for the social media marketer? It put them one step ahead!

If you’re a curious person and immerse yourself in the realm of socials, you will be better equipped to stay up to date with the latest and greatest changes which will allow you to start the experimenting process early.

Curious marketers will dig deep and research vigorously. They will learn the ins and outs of the industry they operate in and they always try new things. The curious ones will their understanding to set themselves apart from the masses of competition. All the best marketers stay curious, love learning and thrive in the ever-changing digital world where the opportunities are endless. 

If you’re eager to be more curious, you can read more about the 8 habits curious people have here.

Trustworthiness

Trust is the glue that holds a relationship together and it is not something that just gets handed to you freely.

Building trust with clients takes a lot of hard work and determination. Social media marketers must be dedicated to the journey of building trust with clients. To build trust you need to be reliable and willing to go that extra mile to complete a project for your client. You also need your target audience and customers to have trust in the message that is put out to market. This is of course if you would like to create positive brand associations and be considered as a thought leader.

Social media marketers are not only required to build trust with their clients, partners and online community. Trust is needed in all facets of businesses. Marketers will need their wider teams to have trust. This includes; colleagues, content creators and external agencies that you work with. Everyone is busy at work, and the last thing that your colleagues or higher management want to do is to have to follow up on your work. If you work hard and are dedicated to achieving results, it will ultimately build faith and trust amongst your team, making the working environment all the more positive and marketing campaigns even more impactful!

Sooo... What next?

Has reading this sparked your interest in social media marketing? Perhaps you tick some of the boxes that a gun social media marketer has? If so, we have some good news for you!

We are hiring a social media marketing coordinator to join our growing team at White Key Marketing!

If you think you have what it takes to succeed in a social media marketing role or are hungry to learn, contact us at [email protected] or apply direct here.