Whether you’re searching for a stellar social media manager to add to your team, or you’re currently looking for a job in social media management, here are the Top 5 traits that the best (professional) social butterflies have in common.
Strategic Thinking
One of the most valuable qualities of a social media manager is to be highly strategic. It’s easy to claim there’s a solid strategy in place, but it’s more rare to see it proven in action. When a social media manager is being truly strategic, they have taken the time to research, collect data, and develop a plan with action items that accounts for the goals of the business from a holistic standpoint. They then follow the plan and include reporting along each step, evaluating and adjusting as needed to ensure social media efforts are worthwhile.
Creative Approaches
Brands who copy other brands are boring. A good social media manager knows how to harness creativity from within and from their team to develop innovative and impactful content. These social media managers think outside the box to design content that follows brand guidelines but also feels new and exciting to followers.
Additionally, a good social media manager shouldn’t be afraid to get out of their comfort zone and look for new ideas they haven’t tried before. Would a contest or giveaway work well for your audience? Maybe a promo video would make a bigger impact than still images? Or would a podcast or vlog be engaging? The best social media managers are always exploring new methods of creation!
Timely Delivery
Anyone who’s truly up to date with social media knows it’s often a better source of breaking news than standard news media outlets. That’s why it’s important for a social media manager to be incredibly timely when posting. Is the content relevant to current events? Are they considering the time of day, season, nearby holidays? Each of these time-related factors can either give your social media posts a boost, or hinder their potential for growth.
In addition to being timely with posting original content, it is equally important to be timely with replying to comments and messages from followers. As a rule of thumb, messages warranting responses should be responded to within 24 hours. Best case scenario, within 1 – 4 hours.
In Tune with Audiences
A social media account is nothing without engaged followers. It is important that your social media manager understands the needs and desires of the brand’s target audiences and caters to those in each and every post. Have they done research on the audiences? Do they mold the brand voice to fit these groups? Anyone can create content, but your brand needs content that followers are actually interested in engaging with and can find easily. The foundation of strategic hashtags, crafting captions that inspire, and responding well to comments stems from knowing audiences well.
Focus on Efficiency
A great social media manager is always looking for ways to streamline their process for maximum efficiency. What does their daily schedule look like? What set processes do they use for each social media platform and account? It’s important that they seek efficiency and are open to suggestions from other team members. Social media can often feel very personal and it can be hard to relinquish control, but a good manager will empower their team members and delegate when needed.
Social media managers should also take time to research and invest in the tools that will truly amplify their work (like Juicer social media solutions). Make sure they’re using scheduling, aggregation, and content creation tools of the highest caliber and in the most efficient way.
Social Media Manager Checklist:
Whether you are a social media manager or looking to hire one, keep this list in mind:
– Research process: Before any work begins, solid research and data collection regarding target audiences, influencer partners, content amplification routes, business goals, and brand standards should be locked down.
– Strategic plan: Research should guide the creation of this plan which includes action items and corresponding timeline.
– Content Creation: Develop a library of content (images, video, captions, infographics, etc.) that will entertain, educate, and sell to your target audiences.
– Scheduling: The most efficient social media manager has content pre-scheduled one to several months in advance.
– Community Management: Take time to interact with followers and social communities related to the brand. Get feedback and use it to improve your strategic plan!
