The Top Traits And Skills Social Media Managers Need

It wasn’t so long ago that social media managers didn’t even exist. However, now, virtually all companies have an involvement with social media in some fashion.

Having someone to manage all that involvement is vital, but what do good social media managers look like? Which skills must they have? Which traits should they display?

Here we take a closer look at what goes into making the best social media managers.

Traits vs Skills

So, firstly, what is the difference between a trait and a skill?

A skill is something tangible which you can offer. Something like being proficient in tax preparation or PowerPoint is a skill – it’s something which requires a certain amount of efficiency, productivity or understanding to be an expert.

Traits, on the other hand, are qualities which make someone or something stand apart from the crowd. Traits make you, you. They’re part of what makes you different from others. Traits are subjective and have no standard or quantifiable measure. Often, they’re amplifiers of the way in which you do something which is one of your skills.

In terms of social media managers, a mix of skills and traits is required.

Copywriting Skills

Copywriting is one of the top skills that any social media marketer can have. Writing excellent copy is vital for many aspects of social media managers’ roles since they need to craft Tweets, write Facebook posts and update LinkedIn. Driving up clicks and engagement is key, and that means an excellent story needs to be integrated into social media posts. A skilled copywriter can make that happen, and oftentimes this aspect can be outsourced to a professional for the best results.

Videos And Graphic Design

Recent research has proven social media posts that have images get more engagement. Over the past few years, social media has evolved considerably, and now plain text is outdated. Videos and images are king, so creating and designing visual content has become a vital skill that social media managers must have if they aren’t planning on hiring a dedicated graphic designer.

Public Speaking Skills

Apps and features these days are making live videos more important than ever before on social media platforms.  They can expand engagement and reach, so it isn’t too surprising that they’re becoming more and more popular.

Live videos on Facebook appear higher on news feeds in real-time than when they’re not live any longer. Live content can also provide more opportunity for higher engagement and for 1:1 audience interactions.

In order to tap into this trend, it’s important that social media mangers must have the confidence to create live videos on social media platforms to connect with audiences. Having excellent public speaking abilities will ensure that ideas can be presented effectively, that guests can be interviewed well, that questions can be answered in real-time, and conversations can be held immediately with followers.

Community Engagement And Customer Service

Many people these days turn to social media to get more customer support, and companies can now tap into this potential to provide better experiences for customers. Since social media managers are likely to respond to most of these social media messages themselves they must have the necessary customer service skills to aid those customers while also ensuring the brand’s reputation isn’t damaged.

Community engagement is also similar – good social media managers are capable of asking the best questions to help facilitate engagement with audiences, and to answer questions effectively about the company, industry or product.

Behavioural Psychology

Thanks to analytics and data, it’s easy to find out which kind of posts do especially well on social media. However, finding out why they’re doing so well is another matter. This is where behavioural psychology comes in.

With those skills, social media marketing managers can determine why people are especially attracted to particular posts and why they share them. Knowing this information enables the reasons behind trends to be spotted so that future successes can be achieved.

Analytics

Social media managers should have a good understanding of both business metrics such as traffic, conversions, leads and revenue, and social media metrics such as shares, comments and likes, and be capable of tying them together so that a clear overall viewpoint can be gained of the brand’s performance on social media platforms in comparison with the business’s goals.

Social media managers should be able to lead the way in measuring business performance across a range of social channels and thus to judge which metrics are most meaningful for the business.

Budgeting

Social media managers are often allocated budgets for their work. Not only must paid advertising be included in that budget, but things such as social media management tools and images need to be paid for too from this sum. Therefore, having some budgeting and financial knowledge is important for social media managers to be successful.

Curiosity

Moving onto traits that social media managers should have, curiosity is the top one. They should be always curious enough to stay up-to-date with new trends and developments and be willing and eager to experiment with the latest strategies.

Adaptability

Curiosity and adaptability complement each other. When social media managers find something new and spot new trends, having the ability to adapt rapidly to them keeps them ahead of the crowd. The best social media managers stay on track with changes and rapidly pick up all the essential skills to make the most of them and harness their power for the benefit of their brand.

Business Savviness

If social media managers can generate shares and likes, that’s good, but not enough to achieve maximum success. Knowing the way in which social media can fit in with a company’s overall business strategy is vital.

Business-savvy social media managers see the larger picture and have an understanding of how social media plays a role in the company’s goals. They have an understanding of which metrics are crucial and relevant for the business and know how social media is able to move them even higher.

With the right combination of these skills and traits, social media managers can help companies achieve their business goals effectively.

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