The role of a social media manager is evolving as fast as social media marketing itself. When social media came onto the scene, the digital marketing landscape experienced a massive shift. Now there’s no such thing as a digital marketing strategy without a social media strategy, and the social media manager is at the very core of an effective social media marketing campaign.

The impact of social media on marketing has been a mixed bag. One on hand, marketers have more options and platforms to work with, and businesses can get themselves out there for free! On the other hand, increased competition and a content-oversaturated world make it difficult to stand out.

So much so that businesses are turning to professionals to take over their “free” social media accounts.

Why?

Because platforms like Facebook and Instagram aren’t anyone’s game anymore. Social media has evolved so that it’s increasingly difficult for businesses to get eyes on their content. Rather than trying to keep up with the latest algorithm change, many business owners prefer to hand over their login info to a capable social media manager. Which brings us to the star of this article – the social media manager.

What is a Social Media Manager?

Social media managers are the people behind the screen. They manage and represent the company’s social media accounts. Depending on how many hats one social media manager is wearing, they may:

• Create visual content
• Write the copy
• Schedule posts
• Come up with the strategy
• Engage with their audience.

Social media managers stay on top of the latest social media trends and come up with creative ways to market your business. They’re also the consistency every busy business owner needs – who has time to run their own social media accounts? Especially when this is what it takes to be successful:

In a nutshell, a social media manager is the professional you need to grow your business on your social networks.

With more than half of the world’s population on social media, these guys are more important than ever.

How a Social Media Manager Can Help Your Business

Social media marketing trends are always evolving, so it’s the social media manager’s task to implement a marketing plan that can keep up with the trends. It all starts with identifying your target market and the type of content they’re attracted to.

Social media managers are also responsible for:

Conversion Strategy: It’s a social media manager’s job to observe how your audience reacts to any content or products you put out. If they notice flaws in the strategy, they can immediately report them. This will make it easier for you to correct and try again. Having this kind of feedback can help you convert fans into customers.

Engagement Strategy: Customer service is a big deal in the digital sphere. It’s too easy for unsatisfied customers to post their complaints and give you a bad review on Facebook or Google. This is why you need a great engagement strategy. Your social media manager will handle all forms of engagement on social media, like replying to comments and messages, or liking and sharing posts. This can also mean responding to negative reviews. The better your engagement strategy, the better your customer relationships – better customer relationships means more sales.

Promotional Strategy: Social media trends are always changing. There’s always something new to try. Social media managers will look into these trends and determine which ones will work for your strategy. Rather than trying to come up with ideas and strategies yourself, you’ll have someone to bring you ideas and execute the strategy you both decide on.

Visual Design: Pleasing visuals are crucial on social media – they are a part of your appeal. People are much more likely to notice accounts that have exceptional visual content. Social media managers handle all of your brand’s visual aesthetic on social media. Even if they don’t create the content themselves, they are responsible for curating it so that your look is consistent, appealing, and relevant.

Social Communication: Social communication should take a good percentage of a social media manager’s time. This is because putting content out there is only half of what social media is all about. Community engagement is the “social” part that so many business owners miss. In order to be successful, you NEED to respond to comments, share other people’s stuff, and comment on others’ content thoughtfully. If that sounds exhausting, you may want to look into hiring a social media manager sooner than later!

Why Hire A Social Media Manager Service

Now that we’ve laid out the responsibilities of a social media manager, the question still remains, do you need a social media manager? We want to help you decide, so we’ve listed the benefits of having a social media manager on your team.

The Social Landscape is Fast Paced: As we’ve mentioned, social media is always changing. There are always algorithm changes or new trends within the platform. A social media manager can tweak your social media strategy to help adapt to the updates.

They Create Strategies That Will Help You Achieve Your Goals: A lot of companies are mindlessly posting online without a clear plan. A social media manager will take your business goals into account to draft a strategy that will help you get there. They can also take elements from your campaigns and translate them into content that will work on each social media platform.

Customer Service: Social media managers generally have great communication skills. It takes a lot of patience when dealing with customers online, especially if they aren’t in the best of moods. Social media managers are experts at conducting themselves in different situations. In a way, they’re the ones doing customer support and PR online. Aside from that, they’re the ones developing the right voice and language that can best fit the company.

Measuring The Results: Being able to track the results of your campaign is essential to help you improve your strategy. It’s the social media manager’s job to keep an eye on your campaign and pinpoint which ones aren’t working out. They can then change the tactics and optimize other campaigns to help you achieve your goals. These reports are extremely valuable in the long run, it’s a form of documentation for your campaigns.

Options For Hiring a Social Media Manager

If you’re finally thinking about hiring a social media manager, there are a few options to choose from. We wanted to make the process of choosing easier for you, so we made a few points highlighting your different options.

Social Media Marketing Agency – There are many benefits to hiring a social media marketing agency. These are people who know the ins and outs of the business. You’ll have better resources and access to their team. The only con is the possibility of not seeing eye to eye. This rarely happens, but there are still instances.

DIY – The second option is to do it yourself. It may seem like a nice idea, but it’s really not. A lot of companies usually result to doing this, and it does them more harm than good. Managing your social channels requires expertise, you need experience and knowledge to know what works. So unless you have that, I’d stay away from adding this to your plate.

In-House – I can honestly say that hiring an in-house social media manager is better than doing it yourself. They can focus on planning and executing social media strategies, while you can oversee more important things in your business.

Freelancer – Freelance social media managers often have the expertise and resources to carry out your social media strategy, the downside is that there may be communication issues between the both of you. Hiring a freelancer means they will need more guidance. It takes time to really get to know a business, and a freelancer won’t have that. You also won’t have as much control when it comes to approving content.

In-House vs Outsourced Social Media Management

The most common options for hiring a social media manager are in-house or outsourced. For a more in-depth look at the two, we listed some of the pros and cons of each one. Use these factors to make the right decision. The picture might help you decide.

In-house : The good side of hiring an in-house social media manager is the inside information they get. It’s easier for an in-house social media manager to get new updates from your company and share it immediately. They will also have better photo/video opportunities. It will be quicker for them to capture photos and videos for social media. In-house social media managers also get direct access to others who can help with the social media strategy. They can easily talk to different people inside the company and gain more insight for social media.

Outsource : The best thing you can gain with outsourcing is expertise. Outsourced agencies have a better understanding on utilizing different social platforms to promote and test new ideas every day. They know how to track, measure and improve your business performance on social media. Outsourced agencies are ahead of everyone else, they know the right platforms to use and are always on trend.

Who You Need On Your Team For Effective Social Media Marketing

If you’ve ever told yourself “I need a social media manager!”, but then go out and try to find someone that can do it all for your business, chances are you’ve realized that your business needs more than just a social media manager. It’s a team effort. What are you going to post? When? Who’s going to make all the graphics, take the photos, edit the videos, write the captions, and respond to all the comments? That’s why we highly recommend a social media ad agency like Just Digital. The right social media agency can help you put together an effective strategy AND the right team to execute so you actually get an ROI.

Regardless, it’s important to understand who is involved in creating a great social media campaign.

Content Creation – Your content creation team are the people who are actually creating the content you need for social media. The images, graphics, videos, and writing the text for your social media posts.

• Videographer/Video editor – If video is a part of your social media strategy (and it should be), then you’ll need someone to shoot the content as well as have someone to edit the content, including adding cool animations and video graphics.
• Photographer – 32% of marketers say visual images are the most important form of content for their business. This means that you’ll need someone to shoot and edit high-quality photos for your social media strategy to work.
• Writer – Visuals aren’t the only way you can engage with your audience, a lot of people still prefer reading. Having a writer on your side can help you express your message in a way that’s appropriate for social media. Blog posts and captions on social media are as important as the visuals.
• Illustrator/graphic designer – Graphics have a huge contribution in shaping your brand identity. Hiring a graphic designer means you get to express your brand more creatively through illustrations. It’s extremely fun and eye catching for your audience to see graphics on your social accounts or website. They can also help you create infographics that’s both entertaining and educational.

Content Planning and Managing – Think of this person as your Senior Editor at a media company. Someone to plan the content, figure out what people want to read etc. This person will also have to figure out the best time of the day to post, this means he/she will have to do research on your market and observe what time they’ll be online to get the most out of your posts.

Content Publisher – What’s the point of creating all of that content if you don’t have anyone to publish it? A publisher is the person that will prepare and deliver your content to your audience. This person will be in charge of posting on different social channels like the ones mentioned below.

• Instagram – Instagram is a social media platform that mainly consists of photos and videos with captions. It’s a super fast-paced social channel that generates a hundred thousand posts a day.
• Facebook – Facebook needs no introduction, after all, it’s the third most visited website on the earth. Among all of the social channels, Facebook is the top choice for reaching the broadest audience. There are 2.7 billion Facebook users all over the world.
• Youtube – Facebook isn’t the only social channel that doesn’t need any introduction. Youtube is everyone’s go to for any video content. It has over 1.9 billion monthly active logged-in users and its number is only increasing.
• Blog – Blogging is important in business to engage with customers on a personal level. Blogging is also the best way for you to help increase your SEO rank, especially when you write more variants of a single keyword and create key phrases with keywords.

Community Manager – This is the person who listens to your audience and responds to them. A great community manager can result in better reviews from your audience. Your community manager will handle all of the customer service responsibilities. They will be the ones to manage and develop your brand’s online community by following, liking, sharing, and engaging with your audience.

Need help? 

Social media marketing can be ever evolving. If you’re interested in a marketing consultation, you can reach out to us here.

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