Over 90% of marketers use social media to attract new business, but less than 15% are confident in their execution. That has opened a huge market for interested freelancers. Everyone from bloggers and direct sales consultants to large brands is looking for social media managers.
What does a Social Media Manager do?
Social media managers manages the following:
- Content marketing
- Customer service
- Social media strategy
- Community growth & management
- Scheduling social media updates
- Sourcing viral content for sharing
- Responding to customer service issues
- Reporting on reach, traffic & growth
Skills:
- Grammar
- Time management
- Research – social media is so much more than broadcasting your own stuff, you will need to know where to find great viral content to share in addition to your client’s stuff
Start learning
The best place for you to start learning is with your own profiles. Very few people will hire you without being able to show you are on the major platforms. Create profiles for your services on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.
Once you have your Pages and profiles created, it’s time to start learning.
- Hootsuite offers a free course that covers the basics. You can also take their paid course if you decide Hootsuite is the social media scheduler you would like to use.
- uct.getsmarter.co.za
One thing I really like about the trainings offered by popular tools is that they are usually really up-to-date on the latest tactics and best practices. It can take months to update traditional curriculum. Online resources can change their resources on the fly.
Develop a Strategy
It’s so important to have a strategy to pitch potential clients. When I’m looking for help, I want someone to say, “for this amountI post this many times per day which includes your posts, popular posts from your industry and this other thing.” I do not want to hear, “I charge Rand/hour and I’ll post whatever you want.” If I knew what I wanted, I’d post it myself.
Create a Website
Create a basic website to promote your services. A website will help your interested parties to learn more about you and what you have to offer. When you are starting out, you can simply include a little about you and list your service packages and contact information.
Tools needed
There are some awesome schedulers out there that will not only provide you with scheduling ability to save you time, they can also offer awesome reports, moderation capabilities and more.