Have you heard about social media marketing? Do you look forward to becoming a social media marketing specialist in the future? Then, yes! This is the right place for you to get all the possible information!
Social media is growing day by day. So is the social media marketing industry! And so are the openings for social media marketing specialists! LinkedIn itself as of 2021, shows ever 8000 plus openings for social media marketing specialists.
Also, Hootsuite study reveals that 90% of the brands that are in social media, take the help of social media to build brand awareness. 71% of them use social media for managing and building community through its engaging content. 77% of them use it for maintaining the reputation of the brand. 61% of them use social media marketing strategies to increase their conversions. 50% use social media to get insights on the current market as well as customers.
Such data shows, how much brands and their marketing goals rely on social media. Also, it reflects the need for a social media marketing specialist. Brands hire them to manage the brand’s image and marketing goals.
To become a social media marketing specialist, to have prior experience in the marketing field is important. Also knowing to handle social media-related responsibilities is a basic need for this position.
Duties That Are A Part Of The Job Description Of A Social Media Marketing Specialist
1. Coming up with marketing strategies
Based on the marketing goals of the brand, it is the responsibility of the social media marketing specialist to come up with strategies. To build, or identify and implement them is in social media marketing experts’ hands. The strategy should involve
- Latest marketing trends
- Incorporate the marketing goals into the ones of social media and align them in the direction of progress
- Have all the aspects that can withstand the evergoing market competition
- Implementing the strategies on the necessary social media platforms
2. Keep up with the latest trends
Any person involved in the digital marketing world has to have this quality. Staying up to date, keeping up with the latest trends is always the need of the hour in social media. Same, the social media marketing specialist also has to keep up with.
Introducing the brand to the new trends in marketing is one of the main duties of the social media marketing specialist. Along with that, introducing the brand on social media platforms is a vital part of this duty.
Social media marketing specialist is also expected to maintain the consistency of the brand in every social media platform.
Expand the brand on social media by, for example, Facebook marketing, Linked In marketing, etc.
With current trends and developments in brand marketing, the social media marketing specialist bringing good results and conversions.
3. Managing marketing campaigns
How can a social media marketing specialist maintain the consistency of the brand on social media? The answer to this is, by advertisements.
Advertisements spread brand awareness. They help the viewers and potential customers know about the product. The customers help spread the word about the brand. The website gets good online traffic. The sales increase.
So running marketing campaigns is also one of the topmost priorities for a social media marketing specialist. By this, they manage the brand on social media. Along with this, also it is important to manage the budget for the ad campaigns.
Managing the budget is a tricky business. So, it also involves a say of different team heads working for the brand’s development and management.
How much to spend on promotions? How much must the marketing campaigns cost? Such questions are a part of management to social media marketing experts.
4. Content ideation that targets the audience right on point
Coming up with ideas based on proper research helps the brand to get its target audience. Discussing content ideation according to current marketing trends on social media can have a great impact.
So, a social media marketing specialist has to come up with content ideas to grab the attention of the audience. Hence, also guide them through a proper call to action (CTA) on various social media platforms.
This will help the brand to achieve engagement, visibility, and conversions. Also, content distribution on various social media platforms is an important step in getting an online presence.
Each social media platform requires a different approach to content creation. Newsletters, infographics, blogs, reels, graphics, etc. need to be created with appropriate marketing goals.
So, under this job description of social media marketing specialist, one has to
- Schedule
- Ideate
- Manage
- Distribute the content on the necessary social media forums through different forms of content
5. Analyzing the metrics
Aren’t numbers are an important part of any marketing success? Be it any! They are an important part. Hence, analytics are important. But what analytics decide the sales conversions comes to social media marketing?
A social media marketing specialist looks into
- Metrics related to brand awareness through mentions, impressions, shares, links, etc
- Metrics that inform an increase in the number of followers, growth rate of the community in each social media platform over a reporting time
- Metrics that concern the content outreach and performance based on likes, followers, shares, mentions, etc.
- Metrics related to viral posts based on the rate of virality
- Metrics that show conversions and rate of conversions, rate of CTAs over a while
- Return on investment (ROI) that the brand achieves due to social media engagement
- Track the cost per click (CPC) to know whether the marketing attempts made are heading to success or not
6. Report to Investors and Executives of the company
A social media marketing specialist tracks and analyzes the metrics, for measuring the success or failure of any marketing strategy. These efforts go in the form of a report over a period to the stakeholders and other higher executives of the brand.
The reports weekly, monthly, and annual are for analyzing the marketing patterns of the company. The comprehensive reports give insights into the progress of the brand.
Such records are helpful in
- Managing the budget of the brand, and its ad campaigns
- Improvising over brand marketing strategies
- Optimizing objectives according to the records
7. Training the subordinates
A social media marketing specialists are what they are because of their expertise and experience. Both, in the marketing and social media industry. So, such experts can help in leading and guiding the team members.
Such social media experts can guide their team members in achieving major marketing objectives. Like, planning smart marketing goals, analyzing metrics, and other social media activities.
8. Brand reputation
In the end, if one has to question a social media marketing specialist, why do what you do? The most possible reply would be, to maintain the brand’s reputation and name.
Shakespeare once quoted “What’s there in the name?” Unfortunately, this quote works quite the opposite way for social media marketing. For having an online presence, “everything is in the name and promotions”!
The employees and stewards of any brand work to give the brand a better facelift and profit each day. Promotions through ads, goals, strategies, metrics, content, etc. all aim in the same direction.
Although all these are done on humane grounds. Employee’s emotional sanity also matters to the employer. A social media marketing specialists have their bad days too! But, deep down always a clear intention. That is manage and maintain brand reputation through social media platforms.
Skillset
In the job description of a social media marketing specialist, the employer expects a specific skill set that is apt for the job.
Some basic skillset that a social media marketing specialist must have are as follows
Education and social media expertise
For a social media marketing specialist, a marketing or mass communications as an educational background helps!
Plus, when a person also has good expertise in handling social media with 1 or 2 years of social media experience, they become eligible for the position.
Also if you do not have an educational background, you can further take up a certified course apart from your basic education to be a part of the social media or marketing industry.
Content related expertise
If one is good or passionate about creating content, it adds bonus points! Social media demands eye-catching content. So, if a marketing expert is also good in content creation and ideation. then it helps them to be a valuable employee in the company.
Skills like copywriting, graphic designing, etc., and strategizing the content are beneficial for this job position.
Communication skills
A social media marketing specialist gradually develops art to communicate through their posts and in person. The tone is all it takes!
Whether it is to fix a meeting with the executives or to collaborate on different social media forums! To interact with the audience, or to build networks!
Social media marketers have a professional tone on LinkedIn, whereas a funky tone on Instagram. Such skills can help one become the best in their field! Copywriting skills also play a major role.
SEO skills
In any digital marketing or social media marketing having this skill is a must! SEO is the digital oxygen for letting any website thrive online.
Thus, a social media marketing specialist must-have SEO skills. Optimizing the content the right way is very important. Over optimizing or under optimizing both does not help.
Knowing tools that are helpful for SEO is very important in this digital era.
Data research, analysis
Data is an important asset for the social media marketing expert. One can use social media data, to analyze growth and stagnancy.
Analyzing data on demographics to applause rate on social media, helps them to know where the brand stands. What improvements to make, or strategize to apply. What goals to make in near future, etc.
Analyzing such reports to come up with new marketing strategies, as seen previously is one of the main aspects of this job profile.
One should know using social media marketing tools. One should have technical expertise in using them. For example Google analytics, Socioboard, Hootsuite, etc.
Knowing the online marketing tools is one of the best ways to analyze such metrics.
Skills to solve problems
With expertise and experience comes the ability to look for improvements. Also, during crisis an aptitude to solve problems. A social media marketing specialist is asked for such skills in the job description.
This is the most important skill that anyone must try to develop. It comes gradually. Implementing smart marketing goals and analyzing the results help in increasing problem-solving abilities.
These are some basic job descriptions and skills that an employer looks for in a social media marketing specialist. Let’s also have a look at the average salary for social media marketing specialist. Do they get paid for what they do? Let’s find out!
IIDE states as a fresher, the average salary for social media marketing specialist in India is around ₹2,50,000 per annum. It also mentions that the average salary for social media marketing specialist with around two to three years of experience earns around ₹3,40,000 per year. With an experience of around eight to nine years, the average salary for social media marketing specialist would be ₹6,85,000 per annum.
Conclusion
To be a social media marketing specialist there are some very basic job description and skill set that one has to imbibe. All such responsibilities can someday also, make such social media experts, the executive marketing heads, or social media directors of the brand in the future. The great news is that social media marketing is evolving positively! Hence, it is the right time to grab a chance and be a