Howdy!

What is a Social Media Manager?

I think the role has changed over the years.  Back in 2012, a Social Media Manager was someone that posted on social media, primarily Facebook for your business at least once a month. In 2016, a Social Media Manager may have been someone that posted on Facebook, Instagram and Facebook for your business at least 1 once a week. Today, in 2020, a Social Media Manager does all the above, but on with a strategic approach.  A Marketing Strategy is a fancy way of saying a plan.  They should be executing a plan and using a few tools (software) to do them. Your AWESOME Social Media Manager may also have a small team of people that execute the plan to reach your goals.

What makes a Social Media Manager Awesome?

1. They actually ask what your business goals are.

This is important because if they don't ask what your goals are then how will they know what to post for your business?  A company that has the goal of reaching more local businesses would have a completely different strategy from a company that wants to franchise into other locations. Otherwise, they would only be able to provide a random collection of posts.

2. They curate content.

Curated content does not just have to be from outside sources in the form of videos and stock footage.  Curated content can be testimonials from your customers. An awesome Social Media Manager studies the best performing content in your industry, the engagement of your niche and duplicates that for you the best way they can.

3. They provide a content calendar.

Think of the Content Calendar as the bigger goal of your business broken down into actionable steps.  It is provided along with the Marketing Strategy.  That way content can be scheduled with holidays and events in mind. This helps your brand be relevant.

4. They use Scheduling Tools for that Content Calendar.

You can tell an experienced Social Manager from an Amateur based on the tools they use. When asked what scheduling software they would use these would be their responses: Amateur - What do you mean by scheduling software? I post every day. Intermediate - I would use Hootsuite or Buffer.Expert- For an all-in-one, I would use SproutSocial, CoSchedule, Hubspot, Hootsuite or Buffer.  For Instagram, I would use Planoly. For Pinterest, I would use Tailwind.

5. They check in with you to see how things are going.

Some Social Media managers may provide you with charts and graphs with the progress they've made from their efforts. Some may actually ask about if you have had more phone calls, visits or orders. Which one do you think is more important?

6. They optimize content.

They look at the insights for each account they are posting on for your business.  They look at what types of posts are performing well and which ones are not.  They start posting more of what works and less of what doesn't.

7. They DO NOT buy followers.

Buying followers can be tempting.  Especially with the urge to seem like you have thousands of happy customers. DO NOT DO IT. You can tell that an account bought followers based on the engagement:Bought (BOT) Followers: 12.6 k followers but posts only have 32 likes.Real Followers: 500 followers but posts have 64 likes.Also, the risk with buying followers is that Instagram does random sweeps where they remove bot followers.  So the inflated followers wouldn't last long and would be a waste of money.

8. They mention Facebook and Instagram Ads.

They acknowledge that 1) They exist and 2) Ads are vital to driving traffic to an event, grand opening, or sale that your business is having. They may not offer to do ads initially, but they have a colleague that does or are willing to provide some sort of guidance.

9. They mention E-Mail Marketing

As a social media manager, they may not offer e-mail marketing services, but they at least ask if you have e-mail marketing in place.  Why does e-mail marketing matter? How are you supposed to let your customers know that you are having a sale without emailing them?  How are you supposed to let your customers get your opt-in without their e-mail address?  How are you supposed to remind your customers about your event without their e-mail address? And etc. An awesome Social Media Manager makes sure that your content is not just pretty, but functional in the sense that it leads customers to your website and e-mail list so that you can stay in contact with them.

10. They actually manage and problem-solve

If you are reading this you probably manage people. Whether you call them employees, partners, freelancers, virtual assistance.  You know that managing people involves letting them do their thing, checking the results and coaching them to improve performance.The social media manager is NOT the micromanager of the other people on your social media team.  The social media manager is the MACRO manager of the team.

Flashback

A client's goal was to their Instagram following to drive traffic to your online fitness store. I had to make sure everyone on the team understood that goal. A team that was in charge of the manual follow/unfollow strategy didn't understand how to reach that goal by Instagram's rules.  They followed and unfollowed too many accounts too fast.  Instagram suspended activity on the account for 48 hours. I let the client know and I let the team member know how their actions were adversely affecting results. One day, I noticed at least 10 mean DMs. Usually, the DMs were general questions about 1) being featured 2) Diet or 3) Best Exercises to do.  I was shocked. Then I realized that the messages were in response to the messages they received.  The same team member was sending out auto-responder DMs.  Do not do this.  People will unfollow with a quickness. I sincerely responded to each DM- and again talked with the client and that team member. These fires were put out quickly and efficiently.

Your Turn: What do you think an Awesome Social Media Manager does that an Okay one doesn't?

Best, Erica Johnson

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