Over the years, social media management has become an important facet in growing a business. Digital marketing assists in increasing visibility, allowing businesses to engage with existing and potential customers. A social media manager, then, must have extensive knowledge about the right strategies to be able to reach the target market, and making meaningful connections with them.
A social media manager’s role is dual because it the job entails mastery of both hard and soft skills. As the administrator or “admin” of asocial media page, he or she must deal with day-to-day community engagement. It is important to keep tabs about the relationship between the brand and the consumers. Aside from that, there is a need to be abreast with social media landscape changes to be able to keep up with demands.
Knowing how different platforms work is also crucial. While there may be some standards that can be applied generally across all markets, there is still much to learn on how social media users prefer to get the data they want. The differences must be a benchmark how to get the message across the right market.
Nina Licad, blogger of Nines vs. Food, and Global Corporate Communications Executive for Digital Media in Arcadis, a Design and Consultancy for Natural and Built Assets, explained the differences between Filipinos and its neighboring countries.
“There are a few differences when it comes to social media landscape in the Philippines and the rest of Asia. Some of these include the difference of platform usage wherein people living South Korea prefer to use YouTube. In Japan, Instagram and Google+ currently dominates the region,” she said.
Licad added: “While our country is still considered the social media, and once selfie capital of the world, Thailand is now considered as the country with its users spending the longest time on the internet as of January 2018. China, on the other hand, has a totally different landscape, since they have their own set of platforms such as mainly WeChat and Weibo with even higher levels of gatekeeping from within and beyond its borders. This why there is a phenomenon called the ‘Great Firewall’ of China.”
Seeing the big picture in mind is important because that would be important in getting the work done. Social media managers should be savvy and resourceful as a whole but here are some basic things in harnessing the power of social media.
- Content is king.
By now, you might have come across information that storytelling is important. A brand should be able not just to tell it, but to narrate it so that it resonates with a market. Take advantage of different social media platforms because, if used wisely, they can serve as springboards or conversation starters. A social media manager must be able to win the hearts of consumers and let them see and experience in being a brand user. These high-quality stories can come in the form of articles, videos, or memes. Creative and compelling content, with the absence of marketing, would be more likely to be welcomed by consumers.
- Maximize analytics.
In Licad’s words, “social media managers must have a knack for analytics and reporting.” This means to gather data from stakeholder and digital media conversations. This information is then processed into insights that will help in decision making. Another thing to consider is that a social media manager must be able to find the right tools that can be used to achieve this purpose.
- Communicate beyond the screen.
A good background in customer service would help, Licad shared. It has been mentioned before that engagement is important in maintaining social media relationships. A helpful trick would be to Imagine being in the shoes of the consumers. With this in mind, a social media manager should be mindful of how he replies to queries or comments because he or she represents the brand. Exercising empathy and patience would show the authenticity of a brand and how it cares for its customers.
- Don’t forget the marketing aspect.
Marketing would not disappear from business anytime soon. A social media manager will help ease the transition of a brand from traditional marketing to digital marketing. If there is a budget, a combination of these two will help in reaching out to the market. A brand could also concentrate on digital marketing, if there is a limited budget. In this case, a social media manager must be knowledgeable in paid online ads.
“It has finally reached that level where businesses can no longer operate without tapping their way through specific online channels, making social media one of the more important strategies to make their business more profitable,” Licad said.
“The most important thing social media managers must possess, and for marketing in general, is the ability to think like their audience and what you think they would want to see when it comes to your business,” she enthused.
- Know your SEOs.
“While a lot of people still believe that this isn’t important enough, one also needs to have some knowledge in SEO,” Licad said.
She explained that the concept behind CEO has evolved over the years, but simply put, it is the implementation of different strategies to increase the chances of getting your content on the first page of search engines (like Google) without spending on online ads.
“While most social media managers feel that there isn’t much relation between social media and SEO, having to know the latter can be easily used as an advantage to better sort out how to create content which will improve your impact on search engine rankings,” Licad enthused.
Social media managers must be flexible and adaptable, because their job is punctuated with changes. Relearning and unlearning the ropes of managing social media platforms might be tough, but this is the best practice among those who are digital savvy.
“Some will need to quickly adapt to the changes so keeping yourself updated with the trends is crucial, yet the others can always take a step back on these trends if they feel that their current strategy can still provide profit to their business. Never be afraid with the change because it will only make you a better social media manager overtime,” Licad said.