What is a Social Media Manager?

Social Media Management

So what does a Social Media Manager do anyway? Good question, the basic job outline of what a SMM does is pretty straight forward: they manage your company's Content across all Social Media Platforms.  This can include creating Social Media Posts, Blog Posts, Articles as well as curating content for sharing. The latter is a simplified definition of a SMM's job description.

Most folks start out by hiring someone to do basic SM posting and while that's a great start to launching your Social Media strategy, part-time efforts only equal part-time results. At some point you will have to incorporate a full-time SM Strategy and that may mean investing a little more to get the full benefits of elevating and improving your online presence in order to acquire new customers and broaden your target audience.

Social Media doesn't work Part-Time

Let's face it, Social Media is no longer useful as a part-time endeavor, stop for a moment and just imagine how many conversions and sales are created via Social Media channels (Social Media Marketing). Consider the fact that the various elements involved in ranking your website fluctuate and if you're not investing in some form of advertising, you're probably not getting as much traffic as you would like. You'll likely need to increase your PPC or Adwords spending limits to stay leveled with your competition. The Flip-side of that coin is to invest in Social Media Management and Marketing which can cost significantly less than advertising dollars and can even be combined with advertising dollars to get maximum exposure. A  Social Media Manager will be well versed in Google Adwords, PPC, Social Media Marketing and Advertising via all of the major channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest to name a few.

Why does  your competitor get more traffic?

If you've often wondered why you're not getting as much traffic as your competitor, just take a look at their Social Media game. I guarantee that they're posting frequently, sharing curated content, including image posts and engaging in online chatter. In addition, they are also using Social Media Marketing and Growth Hack techniques and tools (of which there are plenty).  I'll cover the latter on an upcoming post. Social Media Marketing has become a necessity for keeping customers, reaching new customers and spreading your brands awareness. In fact, most major corporations are even implementing Customer Service channels via online platforms like Twitter. I know, it's overwhelming but it's also empowering because it allows you to reach the entire globe when done correctly.

Limited Daily Posting generates a small return

I often work with clients who want me to "post 3-4 posts" a day and they want to be put on a 10 hour a week schedule. Well, creating and curating 3-4 posts per day may not take very long for one client, but engagement and communication does. Let's not forget traffic review and reporting (among other SM tasks). So when you're working with very limited resources in terms of time, it won't matter that you're posting 3-4 times a day, your growth will not be as rewarding because you're brand will not be as visible as your competitor's brand throughout the day. Sure there are additional resources that one should incorporate like Search Engine Optimization and a Responsive Web Design as I mentioned in my last post, staying on top of those trends do help somewhat, but the fact is that with Google's ever changing algorithms a more solid resource is a well thought out and facilitated Social Media Management plan that includes Social Media Marketing. 

Social Media Strategy

A good Social Media Strategy includes nurturing your narrative, listening, engagement in conversations, brand research and monitoring, regular competitive analysis and much more. It is essential to have a detailed plan to build your brand, create followers, engage with your audience to create organic brand ambassadors and to see a generally healthy percentage of conversions. Social Media Management and Marketing is so much more than a few posts per day, it's important to respect your business, product or service and the overall management of the brand that you are hoping to build. In doing so, you'll need a reliable Social Media Management system in place and  you'll need to invest in this relatively new concept of management in our visual and digital age if you want to stay ahead of the game or plan on being a strong and lasting brand.

A Day In The Life Of A Social Media Manager

A day in the life a Social Media Manager looks a little bit crazy! They're up at the crack of dawn with multiple tabs open, some of which are note-pad windows for each client. You either begin by curating content to share and then doubling back to create original posting content or blogs and/or vice-versa. There is research to be done, Social Media activity to review from the prior day and much more. In addition, you're checking various SM Platform post behaviors via each platforms reporting and analytic's or using specific SM reporting tools. You will often check for SM messages that are in your purview or job description, depending on the clients instructions and engaging and interacting with your clients consumers and target audience. 

Tools, Tools and More Tools

Once they've gone through all of their tools i.e, Honkiat, Keyhole, Tagboard, Bundle Post, Ritetag, Analytics,  Any number of RSS Feeds, Google Alerts, etc. they will move on to scheduling. Every Social Media Manager has their own formula to execute each day and once they've wrapped up the most creative part of the day, they'll move on to tools like Hootsuite, Reachpod, Buffer etc. and begin the task of uploading their content or manually setting up their posts. Later they might double back to create a blog or set-up a twitter chat etc. The mind of a Social Media Manager is always on the clients brand and content. Whether they plug it into a notepad on their cell or record notes, a SMM is constantly trying to improve your brands content, curating or generating ideas from trending topics, news, innovations or developments in the clients field.

Social Media Management is time-consuming but very necessary, consider outsourcing your SM needs or creating an in-house post for the specific purpose of SMM. If you find yourself in need of assistance, feel free to reach out to The Content Pro's who have a team specifically dedicated to the craft of SMM at [email protected].