Social Media Managers: 10 Required Skills
Introduction
As the marketing landscape has evolved over the last 5 years, so has the skill set of a person
involved in efficient social media management. It is all too painfully common to see companies
placing social media responsibilities on interns or employees with little experience in the
business world. This trend will inevitably change as more businesses realize the value in social
media.
Before diving into the required skill sets of an effective social media manager, we would like to
point out that social media DOES require an investment, in human resources, software, and
time for process development. We believe that human resources are the most important
aspect of a successful marketing program.
Based on the following list, you will see that these are skills only acquired from years of
experience and dedication. In 10-15 years, every CMO or VP of Marketing will have a
background in internet marketing of some type. Based on this prediction, it would be of interest
to become familiar with the following disciplines.
1. Community Management
Community management is the equivalent to the front lines of any type of activity. This
is the day to day communications that your company is having with your customers, no
matter what social platform you choose to be on. It is important that a company trusts
these employees, as they have an enormous amount of power to influence customers in
a positive way OR a very negative way.
Think of the send button as the trigger of a gun. The bullet can hit the bull's eye with
careful aim and consideration for wind, angle, and distance, or the bullet can miss its
mark, ricochet and potentially harm someone standing nearby. Therefore, if you are a
bigger company, it is important to create light approval processes for outgoing
messages (especially if you are in a regulated industry like finance or pharmaceuticals).
2. Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is an important factor in any type of content
development process on the internet. In order to truly understand where social media
fits into the overall picture, one must have a firm grasp of basic SEO principles. Some of
the skills are:
HTML
Learning HTML is like learning Spanish or French. In order to become fluent in
the web language, you have to immerse yourself into an html writing process.
With practice comes understanding. Even if you aren't completely fluent, it
provides an understanding of what search engines are looking for when crawling
your website for keywords.
Keyword Analysis
Without a keyword strategy, your SEO efforts will go nowhere. At a very basic
level, keyword analyses look for all the related terms used to find a product,
service, information, etc. Within a keyword analysis, you will want to look at
search volumes, ranking difficulty, and competitor use of the same keywords.
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO refers to elements of your own website that need to be optimized
for search engines. Some of the important elements include: page titles, body
text, title tags, meta descriptions, alt tags on images, and more.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO refers to inbound links to your site with anchor text. An example of
an anchor text link is the word "social media". If I wanted to do a guest post on
another blog and include a link back to my site, I would insert the following html
code within my guest post: <a href="http://www.socialmediahq.com"
target="_blank">social media</a>. This will make the text look like this: social
media. Inbound links are very important for your SEO efforts, as they give search
engines votes of confidence that your site is providing quality content. Google's
proprietary ranking system is called "Page Rank", which ranges from 0-10. It is
known that inbound links heavily influence your Page Rank score.
3. Creative Design
First impressions count, and they are part of the branding experience. Therefore, it is
important that a social media manager has an eye for creative design. It is also
important that this person has a sense of the production process for creating art.
Unorganized production operations often lead to low quality end-products.
It is advisable to incorporate multiple rounds of proofs for clients or management. The
first round is reserved for narrowing down a broad concept to 2-3 choices. The second
round takes the 2-3 choices and provides more experimentation with layout, colors,
font, etc. After pinpointing a concept that works, the third round takes the design
framework and incorporates it seamlessly across all channels (Website, E-mail,
Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
4. Polished Writer
Let's face it. We are still in the early stages of social media development, and the
majority of communications are text based. Therefore, it is very important that a social
media manager have polished writing skills. Whether they are writing blogs, e-books, or
e-mails to their boss, it is important that they can convey the message in a
grammatically correct and organized fashion.
An understanding of the editorial process will also help a manager keep track of all the
written content that is being produced. First drafts, Re-writes, and Final edits all come
into play here.
5. Comfortable with Emerging Trends and Technology
What we really mean by this is that a social media manager must always have their
finger on the pulse in regards to breaking news, new products/services, or new ideas.
Since the internet marketing industry is evolving at a quick pace, it is important that the
manager be hungry for constant learning. If the person becomes too comfortable, your
company has the potential to fall behind the competition.
6. Analytical Mind
The term "ROI" is hot within the social media industry right now. Rightfully so, as many
managers and executives alike are struggling to gather data that leads to critical
business decisions. Therefore it is in the best interest of a company to hire a social
media manager that has a thorough understanding of traditional business analytics as
well as web analytics.
The social media manager will have to weed out the data that doesn't align with the
unique business goals of the company, establish comprehendible reports, and analyze
the reports to give executives insight on whether goals are being met. Within an
operational social media strategy, there will inevitably be bumps and turns along the
way. Being able to interpret data to optimize your efforts will benefit any organization.
7. Strategic Vision
It is critical that, whoever is managing social media for your company, they
understand the difference between tactics and strategy. Strategy is the
bird's eye view of how a company is going to achieve their business goals,
and tactics are the steps taken to support the strategy.
Strategy could mean establish thought leadership to increase sales leads OR
it could mean providing education to your customers in order to increase
customer retention. Strategies come in many different forms, and they are
all unique to your organization.
8. Tactical Awareness
Now that a social media manager has an idea of what strategies are, they can begin to
implement tactics that will support strategies. From the example above, establish
thought leadership to increase sales leads, tactics could mean producing content that is
thought provoking and distributing it in multiple formats and across social networks.
The manager will also be sure that the content is findable in search engines like Google
or Bing using a thorough keyword analysis. Finally they will make the content easily
shareable through multiple share buttons (i.e. like, tweet, +1, LinkedIn Share).
All of the different tactics will then be laid out into an editorial calendar, so that each
piece supports the business goal of increasing sales leads. This is especially important if
your company sells multiple products and services. Certain times of the year might
warrant different pieces of content, so the editorial calendar will help you plan ahead.
9. Presentation Ability
All of the work a social manager does will be in vain if senior management doesn't
understand the value. Therefore, it is important one can present information on paper
as well as explain progress in an articulate manner.
A social media manager will be able to summarize key points, and go into more-depth if
asked a specific question. This will instill confidence in management, as well as provide
evidence to obtain budget for program expansion.
10. Leadership
It is unrealistic to think that one person can handle all of these tasks by themselves, so it
important that a social media manager has leadership capabilities. As Kristin Zhivago
from Revenue Journal wrote in 2010, these are the 10 characteristics of an effective
leader:
1) Be Truly Humble - Lead to Serve
2) Be Non-Judgmentally Observant
3) Face and Solve Problems
4) Ruthlessly Improve
5) Be Fiscally Conservative
6) Invest in the Business
7) Communicate Consistently, Clearly, Concisely
8) Give Clear Direction
9) Aggressively Evolve
10) Have a Sense of Humor
Conclusion
Now that you have a breakdown of the skills companies are looking for, it is important for you to
get a high level understanding of each skill set. This will allow you to make better hiring
decisions.
If you are an aspiring social media manager, it is important that you immerse yourself in this
world. Find a mentor to show you the ropes, and executing some trial and error will allow you to
grow personally and professionally.
Introduction
As the marketing landscape has evolved over the last 5 years, so has the skill set of a person
involved in efficient social media management. It is all too painfully common to see companies
placing social media responsibilities on interns or employees with little experience in the
business world. This trend will inevitably change as more businesses realize the value in social
media.
Before diving into the required skill sets of an effective social media manager, we would like to
point out that social media DOES require an investment, in human resources, software, and
time for process development. We believe that human resources are the most important
aspect of a successful marketing program.
Based on the following list, you will see that these are skills only acquired from years of
experience and dedication. In 10-15 years, every CMO or VP of Marketing will have a
background in internet marketing of some type. Based on this prediction, it would be of interest
to become familiar with the following disciplines.
1. Community Management
Community management is the equivalent to the front lines of any type of activity. This
is the day to day communications that your company is having with your customers, no
matter what social platform you choose to be on. It is important that a company trusts
these employees, as they have an enormous amount of power to influence customers in
a positive way OR a very negative way.
Think of the send button as the trigger of a gun. The bullet can hit the bull's eye with
careful aim and consideration for wind, angle, and distance, or the bullet can miss its
mark, ricochet and potentially harm someone standing nearby. Therefore, if you are a
bigger company, it is important to create light approval processes for outgoing
messages (especially if you are in a regulated industry like finance or pharmaceuticals).
2. Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is an important factor in any type of content
development process on the internet. In order to truly understand where social media
fits into the overall picture, one must have a firm grasp of basic SEO principles. Some of
the skills are:
HTML
Learning HTML is like learning Spanish or French. In order to become fluent in
the web language, you have to immerse yourself into an html writing process.
With practice comes understanding. Even if you aren't completely fluent, it
provides an understanding of what search engines are looking for when crawling
your website for keywords.
Keyword Analysis
Without a keyword strategy, your SEO efforts will go nowhere. At a very basic
level, keyword analyses look for all the related terms used to find a product,
service, information, etc. Within a keyword analysis, you will want to look at
search volumes, ranking difficulty, and competitor use of the same keywords.
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO refers to elements of your own website that need to be optimized
for search engines. Some of the important elements include: page titles, body
text, title tags, meta descriptions, alt tags on images, and more.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO refers to inbound links to your site with anchor text. An example of
an anchor text link is the word "social media". If I wanted to do a guest post on
another blog and include a link back to my site, I would insert the following html
code within my guest post: <a href="http://www.socialmediahq.com"
target="_blank">social media</a>. This will make the text look like this: social
media. Inbound links are very important for your SEO efforts, as they give search
engines votes of confidence that your site is providing quality content. Google's
proprietary ranking system is called "Page Rank", which ranges from 0-10. It is
known that inbound links heavily influence your Page Rank score.
3. Creative Design
First impressions count, and they are part of the branding experience. Therefore, it is
important that a social media manager has an eye for creative design. It is also
important that this person has a sense of the production process for creating art.
Unorganized production operations often lead to low quality end-products.
It is advisable to incorporate multiple rounds of proofs for clients or management. The
first round is reserved for narrowing down a broad concept to 2-3 choices. The second
round takes the 2-3 choices and provides more experimentation with layout, colors,
font, etc. After pinpointing a concept that works, the third round takes the design
framework and incorporates it seamlessly across all channels (Website, E-mail,
Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
4. Polished Writer
Let's face it. We are still in the early stages of social media development, and the
majority of communications are text based. Therefore, it is very important that a social
media manager have polished writing skills. Whether they are writing blogs, e-books, or
e-mails to their boss, it is important that they can convey the message in a
grammatically correct and organized fashion.
An understanding of the editorial process will also help a manager keep track of all the
written content that is being produced. First drafts, Re-writes, and Final edits all come
into play here.
5. Comfortable with Emerging Trends and Technology
What we really mean by this is that a social media manager must always have their
finger on the pulse in regards to breaking news, new products/services, or new ideas.
Since the internet marketing industry is evolving at a quick pace, it is important that the
manager be hungry for constant learning. If the person becomes too comfortable, your
company has the potential to fall behind the competition.
6. Analytical Mind
The term "ROI" is hot within the social media industry right now. Rightfully so, as many
managers and executives alike are struggling to gather data that leads to critical
business decisions. Therefore it is in the best interest of a company to hire a social
media manager that has a thorough understanding of traditional business analytics as
well as web analytics.
The social media manager will have to weed out the data that doesn't align with the
unique business goals of the company, establish comprehendible reports, and analyze
the reports to give executives insight on whether goals are being met. Within an
operational social media strategy, there will inevitably be bumps and turns along the
way. Being able to interpret data to optimize your efforts will benefit any organization.
7. Strategic Vision
It is critical that, whoever is managing social media for your company, they
understand the difference between tactics and strategy. Strategy is the
bird's eye view of how a company is going to achieve their business goals,
and tactics are the steps taken to support the strategy.
Strategy could mean establish thought leadership to increase sales leads OR
it could mean providing education to your customers in order to increase
customer retention. Strategies come in many different forms, and they are
all unique to your organization.
8. Tactical Awareness
Now that a social media manager has an idea of what strategies are, they can begin to
implement tactics that will support strategies. From the example above, establish
thought leadership to increase sales leads, tactics could mean producing content that is
thought provoking and distributing it in multiple formats and across social networks.
The manager will also be sure that the content is findable in search engines like Google
or Bing using a thorough keyword analysis. Finally they will make the content easily
shareable through multiple share buttons (i.e. like, tweet, +1, LinkedIn Share).
All of the different tactics will then be laid out into an editorial calendar, so that each
piece supports the business goal of increasing sales leads. This is especially important if
your company sells multiple products and services. Certain times of the year might
warrant different pieces of content, so the editorial calendar will help you plan ahead.
9. Presentation Ability
All of the work a social manager does will be in vain if senior management doesn't
understand the value. Therefore, it is important one can present information on paper
as well as explain progress in an articulate manner.
A social media manager will be able to summarize key points, and go into more-depth if
asked a specific question. This will instill confidence in management, as well as provide
evidence to obtain budget for program expansion.
10. Leadership
It is unrealistic to think that one person can handle all of these tasks by themselves, so it
important that a social media manager has leadership capabilities. As Kristin Zhivago
from Revenue Journal wrote in 2010, these are the 10 characteristics of an effective
leader:
1) Be Truly Humble - Lead to Serve
2) Be Non-Judgmentally Observant
3) Face and Solve Problems
4) Ruthlessly Improve
5) Be Fiscally Conservative
6) Invest in the Business
7) Communicate Consistently, Clearly, Concisely
8) Give Clear Direction
9) Aggressively Evolve
10) Have a Sense of Humor
Conclusion
Now that you have a breakdown of the skills companies are looking for, it is important for you to
get a high level understanding of each skill set. This will allow you to make better hiring
decisions.
If you are an aspiring social media manager, it is important that you immerse yourself in this
world. Find a mentor to show you the ropes, and executing some trial and error will allow you to
grow personally and professionally.
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