Social media management has emerged as a promising career path in the digital age. As businesses increasingly recognize the importance of a strong online presence, the demand for skilled social media managers has grown. If you’re passionate about social media and want to turn it into a career, here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get started.
There are two major aspects of social media management: the business side and the foundational part.
The Foundations: These are the day-to-day skills required to effectively manage a social media page, such as:
1. Content Creation: Social media managers must be skilled content creators in addition to having a good content creation strategy. This includes writing engaging captions, designing eye-catching graphics, editing videos, copywriting, and understanding the nuances of each platform’s content formats.
2. Community Engagement: Engaging with your audience is vital. Responding to comments, messages, and mentions in a timely and personable manner helps foster trust and loyalty.
3. Data Analysis: Analysing data and metrics is a daily task. You should be able to interpret analytics to track the performance of your social media efforts, measure engagement, and adjust your strategy accordingly.
4. Scheduling and Planning: Effective social media management involves planning and scheduling posts in advance. Familiarity with social media management tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, or Sprout Social is essential.
5. Stay Updated: Social media platforms evolve rapidly. Staying updated with algorithm changes, new features, and emerging trends is part of the job.
The Business Side of Social Media Management: This entails what it requires to run a successful social media business, either as a content creator freelancer or social media agency and like any other business, this isn’t all glamorous.
- Profit and Loss: If you’re a social media handler, you’re probably not an accountant, either. But it’s essential that you get a grip on your P&L early on. That means understanding your costs, outgoings, income, turnover, and profit. You need to know how much money you will make on each service you provide after costs. Failure to grasp this early on could leave you in a state of false confidence over your actual profit.
- Accounting: On the same subject, you need to ensure you have a grip on your business accounting and if you are anything like me who is clueless/ hates accounting, I highly recommend you outsource this or get software that will help you. While you don’t need to be an expert, you should oversee the process and ask questions to improve your knowledge.
- Human Resources: If you’re planning on hiring team members then you need to be familiar with employment laws in your region. If you plan to hire contractors or freelancers, you will still need contracts and clearly defined boundaries, expectations, and deliverables.
- Legal: Starting your social media marketing agency also means that you’ll need to register your company. Working with a registered agent is essential to having all your papers in order. Depending on your country of operation, you’d need to figure out the business entity that works for you.
- Technology: Not social media technology, but technology that powers your social media agency. You need to be able to set up emails, CRM and PM systems, a website, video calling, and other communication tools. You can hire someone to undertake these tasks, but you should still know what is going on.
Mastering social media management requires a combination of day-to-day skills in content creation, engagement, and data analysis, as well as a strong understanding of the business side of the profession, in addition to having a solid social media management portfolio.
If you want to hone these skills and build a successful career or business, then you should check out our courses, The Foundation of Social Media Management and The Business of Social Media Management.
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