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How to Become a Social Media Manager: Kickstart Your Career
Want to have one of the most sought-after careers? Be a social media manager that every company wants to hire to ensure a piece of the social media pie. This means more job opportunities, and if you decide to become one, follow this guide on how to become a social media manager.
Overall, to become a social media manager, you need to have a unique blend of creativity, strategic thinking, and adaptability. The role involves managing an organization’s social media accounts, creating engaging content, and building relationships with followers.
Worry not if you’re still confused or not sure what it means. At the end of this article, you’ll discover that it’s easy to learn how to become a social media manager, whether you’re a recent graduate or looking to switch careers.
Table Of Contents:
- What Is a Social Media Manager?
- How to Become a Social Media Manager
- Conclusion
- FAQs
What Is a Social Media Manager?
To help you get started, let’s define what a social media manager is. It’s simply someone skilled who creates and publishes engaging content from various social media platforms. In short, a social media manager has a significant impact on successful brands.
How? Well, without them, who would ensure that companies will build a solid social media presence?
Importance of Social Media Managers
These days, almost everyone is online, scouring different social media platforms. According to statistics, there are 5.17 billion total social media users worldwide.
Businesses, whether small or big, know this fact, which causes them to adjust their marketing strategies. One strategy is to ensure that they have a solid social media presence.
But businesses have their own focus. Hence, they need to work with social media managers, especially since platforms have ever-changing trends, and managing it all can be a challenge. That’s where social media managers come in.
Moreover, the ROI you can earn from social media marketing can be higher than that from traditional marketing. Even 86% of marketers attested that their businesses have gained more exposure through social media marketing.
These are just some of the statistics showing how social media marketing is worth an investment for every business.
So, what does it have to do with us hustlers? It only shows how in demand this remote job is. You read that right; you can find many businesses hiring for this position remotely. And some even offer high-paying salaries for this remote gig.
Responsibilities of a Social Media Manager
You now have an idea of how vital a social media manager is for a company. Although it may seem like a big responsibility, learning how to become a social media manager is relatively easy. But before starting to become one, you need to understand the role you’ll be having.
As a social media manager, you’re the mastermind behind a company’s online persona, especially across multiple social media channels.
Another responsibility is developing a content strategy. However, your content should not be generic; it should spark conversations, grow followers, and monitor performance metrics. That way, you can guarantee your client’s social media game aligns with the company’s overall vision.
Of course, those would only be possible if you keep yourself up-to-date. With such, mastering social media means staying on top of the current events and best practices for each social media channel.
Each social media channel has its own trends and ways of boosting someone’s visibility. Thus, you need to have a finger on the pulse of your target audience on each platform. You must understand what makes them tick and what type of content they can’t get enough of.
How to Become a Social Media Manager
Ready to be part of a social media management team? Here’s a guide on how to become a social media manager in simple steps.
Step 1: Build Your Personal Brand and Social Media Management Portfolio
How would you convince potential clients if you didn’t have an online presence? Thus, it’s vital to have a space on social media platforms that speaks to your professional passions. It’s also a way to watch your personal brand flourish.
As you rack up experience and hone your skills, a knockout portfolio is crucial for showcasing your best work. Use your portfolio to land a job or pitch to potential clients.
1. Showcase Your Personal Social Media Accounts
Your social media presence is part of your portfolio. It’s vital to keep your personal social media accounts in top shape by polishing your profiles to reflect your personality and voice.
Want to stand out in your industry? Share a curated mix of content that showcases your personal brand. But don’t stop there. Ensure to engage with influencers and thought leaders in your space, as potential clients would want someone who can build networks.
2. Include Case Studies and Client Testimonials
Now, once you have a client, document your success—yes, consider it a success since landing clients can be hard these days. Don’t forget to capture the details of how you succeeded in this success. This includes:
Approaches
Results
Lessons learned
All of these details are important as they can serve as part of your case study because it’s where you’ll gain valuable insights and recognition. From there, you can tailor your following approaches or strategies.
Another is to demonstrate your expertise through testimonials from previous clients—let them do the talking. Potential clients are more inclined to believe endorsements from other people since they may get a genuine sense of your strengths and capabilities.
But what if you’re just starting and don’t have a client yet?
No worries. One way to showcase your social media marketing skills is to find someone with whom you can provide a free service. You may think that would be a waste of time, but not really. They may not pay you for managing their social media channels for some time, but ask them for testimonials.
Doing so can boost your portfolio since you can guarantee testimonials and case studies from your pro-bono client. Just remember that it’s more persuasive if other people will testify to your social media marketing skills than just claiming it by yourself.
3. Highlight Successful Campaigns and Strategies
Whether you’ve had a paid or pro-bono client, showcase the strategies you’ve used during such a venture. This could be from gaining a partnership with an influencer for your client, creating hashtag campaigns that sparked conversations, or crafting a social media post that went viral.
Whatever successful campaign that is, feature it in your portfolio.
To ensure that it’s not just a make-up story, include videos or screenshots of messages or posts for your clients. That way, you can better illustrate your points with potential clients. Besides making it engaging content for your social media channel, it can also provide valuable context around each sample.
Imagine if your client testimonials backed up these successful campaigns—a perfect recipe for attracting more potential clients.
Step 2: Develop Essential Skills
Did you know that in order to succeed in social media management, you need to master a medley of skills? Besides management skills, you need to know digital marketing, copywriting, content planning, graphic design, video editing, and data analytics.
All of these skills are essential to a successful social media marketing campaign. An excellent social media manager knows that customer service is vital in building a loyal online following.
Becoming a jack-of-all-trades can be overwhelming, but having a basic understanding of each area will make you a more desirable candidate. The solution? Take a few online courses or attend a workshop to fill in the gaps and boost your confidence, which can attract prospective employers.
Here are the list of essential skills that you need to know:
1. Social Media Platform Knowledge
Speaking each social media channel’s language is the weapon for building a killer social media marketing strategy. You have to learn each site’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as the types of content that are trending on these channels.
For instance, if your target social media channel is Instagram, you need to be visually appealing. Why? That’s because IG is a highly visual platform, which means your content should be more on high-quality images and videos.
But if you’re into Twitter, now known as X, visuals are okay, but not so. This social media channel is all about snappy updates and real-time engagement. Thus, this is where you can apply the saying, “short but sweet” quote—short, engaging content is the key.
Trying LinkedIn? Hone your knowledge of what makes your industry tick. This means that your content will have to address the specific needs of your client’s niche. Especially if your client is a B2B, you need to plug into groups that align with their values and nurture connections with professionals who speak their language.
Don’t forget TikTok—the latest social media stardom. Its popularity makes experts believe that this platform is here to stay. And businesses should join the wagon because even big companies have made their TikTok accounts to reach a higher number of their target audience.
But in TikTok, videos are the content. From reels to stitches, your content should be in these formats following the latest trends. Staying current with the latest trends in TikTok can help you establish connections with your client’s audience.
How about YouTube? YouTube is another platform that prioritizes video content and where you can ramp up your online presence. However, the key here is to create high-quality videos and optimize them for search.
With these social media channels, your social media strategy should vary depending on where you want to publish content. What matters most is to harness the power of each social media platform to get the results that your clients are looking for.
2. Content Creation and Curation
Once you have an idea of the platform’s language, planning your content creation and curation is easier.
When talking about creation, it’s all about coming up with and developing the content from scratch.
On the other hand, curation is finding high-quality content that already exists and sharing it with your audience. This role involves filtering and selecting the best pieces relevant to your niche and target audience.
In short, content creation is like the composer of a song, while curation is creating a playlist of great songs.
So, how do you master both:
Content Creation
Like a composer, you have to learn social media content creation by:
Developing a Brand Voice: Your main goal here is to create a client’s social media presence with a distinct personality that reflects their brand. Then, use this voice to guide the tone and style of the content.
Planning Engaging Content: You need to know your client’s target audience to brainstorm and schedule posts that resonate with them. Also, remember to craft informative captions, eye-catching visuals, interactive polls, and creative videos.
Utilizing Different Formats: Don’t just experiment here; ensure that you know the type of content that works in each social media channel. Nonetheless, your content will include images, infographics, stories, live videos, and even long-form content like blog teasers.
Content Curation
Besides composing content, you’ll also be compiling social media posts that are already trending. Here’s how:
Become a Content Connoisseur: You must look for high-quality content relevant to your client’s industry and target audience. This role entails reading and being up-to-date on industry articles, news stories, insightful tweets, or user-generated content.
Add Value Through Curation: Compiling is good, and sharing the content you find relevant is also okay. But don’t just share. Instead, add your own commentary or insights when curating content. Doing so positions you as a thought leader and keeps your audience engaged.
Strike a Balance: Here, you need to balance a mix of curated and original content. A 60/40 split is generally a good rule of thumb: the larger portion goes to the curated content.
With creation and curation, you can provide valuable and engaging content that resonates with your client’s target audience. This means their social media channels are fresh, and their target audience can be hooked!
3. Analytics and Reporting
Besides knowing the language of the social media channels you’re managing, you also need to be cozy with analytics. That’s because you can’t run social media with gut feelings alone. You need to understand data to ensure that you’ll be an effective social media manager.
So, what are you going to do in analytics and reporting?
Identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): You need these to establish a way to measure your metrics, which can tell whether your social media strategies are successful. However, your KPIs should depend on goals, including follower growth, engagement rate, website clicks, and lead generation.
Track and Analyze Data: Content creation and engaging with followers aren’t the only features of social media platforms. Most of them have built-in analytics dashboards that you should utilize to track your KPIs and analyze performance over time. Besides, you can use these tools to look for trends, identify what’s working well, and pinpoint areas for improvement.
Create Compelling Reports: Since you manage a client’s social media channel, you need to report its performance to them. With analytics, you can regularly present your findings in clear and concise reports. To showcase trends and insights effectively, you may want to consider charts and graphs for visualizations.
Use Data to Make Informed Decisions: Now comes the decision-making stage, wherein you should use the data you’ve gathered to craft your social media strategy. Is there an improvement needed? Is this strategy not working? Remember, analytics aren’t just numbers on a screen; they’re valuable data for making wise decisions.
Effective social media marketing goes beyond the visuals. Instead, you need to know the latest trends, practical strategies implemented, and KPIs to ensure that you’re managing your client’s platform effectively.
Moreover, effective reporting goes beyond just presenting data. Your job is to make them into actionable insights that drive strategic decision-making for your client’s social media presence.
4. Customer Service and Engagement
From the term social, you need to mingle with your client’s target audience when you’re managing their platforms. Think of social media as a block party, where everyone’s chatting, sharing, and having a blast.
So, whether you like it or not, your role is to join the conversation, settle customer service disputes, and craft a community that’s straight-up obsessed with your brand.
However, versatility is crucial when communicating with different audiences. You’ll need to fine-tune your approach to tackle negative feedback or crises head-on. And that means that you need socialization skills to be an excellent social media manager since you’re not just publishing content.
5. Adaptability to Constantly Changing Trends
Ever wondered why one post goes viral and becomes obsolete in the next few days? That’s because platforms and algorithms change by the minute, making a social media manager’s job continuous.
You don’t publish content, and you’re done. If that’s what you’re aiming for, it’s best to be a freelance writer.
However, unlike a freelance writer, you need to monitor the latest developments in the social media channel you’re managing. That’s vital since you need to adjust your strategy from time to time, which is one of the many ways to ensure your client’s social media presence is critical.
By staying up-to-date on current events through blogs and conferences and being willing to pivot when a strategy isn’t working, you’ll be well on your way to achieving your goals.
Step 3: Finding Social Media Manager Jobs
Refining your skills in social media management and building a solid portfolio are only starters. The real deal is to start scouting for social media manager jobs. To land the ideal opportunity, consider the following strategies.
1. Networking and Building Connections
Connections are vital if you want to succeed in any career. However, for social media managers, networks are their lifeblood. That’s why you need to get out of your shell, start attending industry events, or join online forums.
You need to strike up conversations with fellow professionals in your field.
Being shy or introverted in this arena isn’t recommended because a casual conversation can be a powerful catalyst for opportunity. Whether it’s a chance encounter at a conference or a water cooler chat with a colleague, you need to build relationships in your industry.
That’s a way to keep you updated.
Moreover, you never know if these networks have clients needing social media managers, and they may remember your name if they need to recommend someone. Or if they’re loaded with clients, they may pass the others in your care.
2. Applying for In-House Positions
If you want to be part of a company, an in-house position may be for you. It’s where companies bring social media managers in-house as a way to invest in their online future.
Job boards like LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor have many companies looking to bring social media managers into their companies. You can also sneak a peek at the careers pages of companies that align with your values to see if they’re hiring.
3. Freelancing and Working with Small Businesses
But if you don’t want long-term commitments, be a freelance social media manager. This kind of social media manager is a fantastic way to rack up experience and flesh out your portfolio.
If you’re a rookie, consider teaming up with small businesses or startups that aren’t yet ready to hire a full-time social media manager. Your pay may be lower than the experienced social media manager, but you can still earn a decent amount while growing your portfolio.
Although freelancing may be crowded, you can stand out by having a knockout profile or portfolio. You can start with Freelancer, Upwork, and Fiverr, as they offer a wealth of opportunities. These platforms also allow you to take the initiative to contact potential clients directly—it’s a proven way to get noticed and land more gigs.
Conclusion
Social media manager is a dynamic career. Imagine helping businesses have their voice and online presence in the comforts of your home or at the beach. Yes, you can do social media management anywhere, and it’s also one of the top-paying remote jobs out there.
To kickstart this opportunity, start building your personal brand and developing essential skills. Doing so can catapult your career in this dynamic field in no time.
However, social media is an ever-moving target, so it’s essential to adapt quickly. Follow the experts, stay curious, and don’t be hesitant to try new approaches—they’re the key to success.
But you’ll never get there if you don’t start now!
FAQs
What qualifications do you need to be a social media manager?
While a degree in marketing or communications is a plus, it’s not the only key to unlocking a social media manager role. As mentioned, a lot of skills are required to be a good social media manager, and having a profound knowledge on social media platforms, content creation, and analytics are some of them.
How to become a social media manager?
Starting as a social media manager is like building a castle from scratch. But experts weren’t born that way; they also came from a beginning. And in social media management, begin by establishing a solid foundation: learn about social media platforms, content creation, and analytics.
Then, start building your personal brand, create a portfolio, and network with potential clients. Keep up this momentum and never lose faith because, in no time, you’ll be the king—or queen—of your own castle.
How do I become a social media manager with no experience?
That’s possible, and getting started as a social media manager with no experience is like growing a plant from a seed.
No degree? No problem. But you need to nurture yourself with knowledge, patience, and practice. Learning the basics, volunteering to manage social media for friends or family, and building your portfolio are ways to beat a degree holder.
As you grow, so will your opportunities.
How many years does it take to become a social media manager?
It may not take you years to become one, but it’s not an overnight success. It’s a journey, so you need to give time, effort, and dedication to learning social media management and marketing.
Mastering how to become a social media manager takes ongoing learning and adaptation to the ever-changing social media landscape—and that’s the norm.
