The responsibilities of an SMM specialist depend on the company, its strategy and goals. But there are basic skills that need to be developed to become in demand.
1. Think ahead
To grab the attention of your audience, publish regularly and very deliberately. A competent SMM specialist draws up a content plan (for a week, one or several months) and, as necessary, corrects it in order to promptly respond to current news feeds.
Third-party services will help facilitate this work. The simplest is SMMPlanner, where you can schedule up to 100 publications per month for free. In addition, Publbox and Amplifr provide recommendations on topics and times of publications, and also keep statistics.
2. Write competently and fun
As with design, the marketer deals with the content on his own or oversees the work of the copywriter. Even if an SMM specialist does not write himself, he will have to communicate with users, respond to comments and messages, evaluate the work of a copywriter.
Important!
An SMM specialist must be able not only to write correctly, but also to feel the style of the community in order to communicate with the audience in its language.
In order to avoid mistakes, it is better to check spelling, punctuation and stylistics using online services, for example, Test The Text, Spelling, Yandex.Speller or Glavred.
3. Understand advertising
Any internet marketer should know the basics of content marketing and advertising, since digital marketing works in a complex. How do customers come to the site? How to set up an advertising campaign for maximum impact? What should be analyzed in user behavior? What is your audience interested in?
The most famous tools for scraping the audience - Pepper Ninja and Cerebro Target - will help to attract interested users. And for more advanced knowledge in the field of SMM, Skillbox conducts an online course "SMM Marketer from A to Z".
COURSE
SMM marketer from A to Z
Promotion of goods and brands on social networks consists of several large stages. We will tell you about each one honestly and in detail: from developing a strategy to achieving the desired KPIs. We will explain how to select target audience segments, launch and test an advertising campaign, and, if necessary, optimize it.
More details
4. Be able to handle photos
Posts with images get 94% more views compared to texts without images, experts say. Wishpond estimates that Facebook posts with photos are 120% more popular than other content, and tweets with images get 18% more clicks.
A professional SMM specialist works on the style and visual concept of the community, decides how to illustrate information, monitors the quality of images, works with photographers and designers.
Small projects do not always have a designer, and the work with images falls to a social media specialist. In this case, it is important, at least at a basic level, to master the graphic editors Adobe Photoshop, Pixlr and Lightroom. And with Canva or Recite, even a beginner can create stylish images from ready-made templates.
An example of Instagram posts with the same style
5. Communicate with the client in his language
Tune in to ongoing dialogue with your audience. Even if the community is not created for direct sales, it is important to be as customer-centric as possible and realize that social media is the face of the company. Consider the interests of the community when determining how you communicate with it.
Helpful tips, inspirational quotes, and funny pictures will be of little use if your followers don't feel important. Responding to them on time, handling negativity and tackling difficult issues is an important part of working on social media.
To quickly respond to reviews and suggestions, use Chotam, Facebook Pages Manager and VK Admin.
It is always pleasant for the subscriber to receive personal answers, and not stereotyped
6. Get what you want from opinion leaders
As soon as a popular video blogger or musician lights up in a brand's T-shirt, the audience will immediately distinguish him from the crowd. To work effectively with celebrities of different levels, you need to have a good understanding of the interests of your followers. The fame of a character does not at all guarantee absolute success: teenagers are unlikely to be impressed by the response of a rock idol of the eighties or a famous politician, and a mature audience is difficult to influence with the help of a young YouTube star.
When communicating with an influencer, it is important to control his presentation of the material, correlating with the interests of the brand, and choose interaction mechanics that will definitely affect his audience.
Many brands order ads from influencers
7. Feel the trends
Another task of an SMM specialist is to follow the trends of social networks and use them profitably, because this is a great way to get a loyal and engaged audience.
Everyone loves to laugh, so love of memes has become a meme in itself. However, humor is a subtle thing, it is easy to spoil the image with the help of it. The joke may be inappropriate, inappropriate for a specific audience, or outdated.
Many memes
die as quickly as they are born. What the entire Internet is laughing at today will be forgotten or will look ridiculous in a couple of months. Therefore, a good social media manager should constantly monitor various resources and be among the first to respond to popular topics.
Conclusion
A successful social media manager has a variety of skills, is familiar with the news agenda and is friends with professional software.
Online courses and communication with social media experts will help accelerate learning and organize knowledge. You can improve your skills in SMM or learn it from scratch on the course "SMM Marketer from A to Z".