How To Become A Social Media Manager (Without Experience)

With the ongoing advancements in the digital platforms, and businesses shifting towards online systems, the importance and influence of social media is growing, significantly. Companies are investing heavily on their social media platforms. They are always in search of people who can handle their social media profiles effectively. What started as a means of communication for people around the world and a platform where people shared their photos and personal lives, has now turned into a great source of revenue for businesses. 

Social media managers are highly sought after nowadays and companies are willing to pay them handsome packages. Often, such hot jobs are reserved for people who have acquired a special set of skills. However, this is not the case with social media management. So, if you’re looking for a dynamic and exciting job career, you only need to be thorough with Facebook and Instagram and you’re eligible for the job! Social media managers usually enhance their social media following by posting creative content, boosting their products/services through advertisements, doing a thorough analysis of user data, and keeping their pages updated with the most trending topics or events. 

With that said, you should also know that no company takes the risk of hiring someone just like that. They’ll thoroughly inquire about your experience and skill set in this work before they hand over their revenue-generating and public relations platforms to you. The question here arises, how do you satisfy the company that you have the right skill set or experience to get on the job? Listed below is an outline you can follow to become a good social media manager.

1.Learn And Identify What The Business Wants To Achieve Through Social Media

• Develop Creative Thinking:

 Social media is all about catching the eye. You cannot expect good viewership and heavy traffic with substandard or ordinary content. Your content and everything you put up should be unique. Keep yourself updated with the on-going trends and always have an eye for what stands out on the screen. In addition to this, you should also be able to think ahead of time, have the ability to predict what has the potential to be viral on social media. Creativity and enthusiasm are the foremost pre-requisites for landing a social media manager job. If you’re looking for ways to strengthen your creative side, find posts on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms that inspire you. You can use them as a reference when making your new posts. 

• Learn To Be Flexible:

Adaptability is very crucial when you’re working in the department of marketing, and especially in social media marketing these days. Social media is very fast, the top trends of today can become old-school practices in a matter of days, and this is why you need to be very flexible. Learn how to use new tools and be daring enough to try out new features or change your ways to suit the trends. Always run analytics and testing on your posts to see what is happening. And once you see loopholes or weak areas, you must know how to incorporate new things to make things work. 

• Good Writing Skills:

Even though graphics, visuals, and images attract people more, but written content will always hold its importance in every era. Social media managers handle everything that happens over there for the company, which includes captions on posts, comments, descriptive content, and even one-liners. As much as social media has the power to grow your business, it can also throw it down in the deepest of pits in no time! This is why social media managers have a huge responsibility on their shoulders. Any content that is full of typos or wrong grammar, can end up badly tarnishing the image of the company. If you’re about to be interviewed for the position of social media manager, we recommend you to learn some important tips for writing different types of content so that you can apply them when you’re tested. 

• Multi-Tasking:

The job of social media requires you to be extremely fast and dynamic. If you’re not suited to work in a fast-paced environment, you should look for another option then. Social media management keeps you on your toes at all times. You’ll be required to post frequently, on different platforms. Moreover, every platform demands a different kind of content and tone. For instance, Instagram and Snapchat only deal with pictorial and video contents, the posts on Facebook have written content as well as pictures. Twitter is mostly used by companies to stay in touch with their customers and keeping them updated with recent news. Other than frequently posting on various platforms, you will have to keep track of all your posts, looking at the reach, dealing with comments, and planning for the upcoming posts, simultaneously. Unlike other areas of work like SEO, web development, or design, the issues and flaws on social media need to be fixed on an urgent basis. Your posts are made available to the whole world as soon as you click on the “post” button. Therefore, if you have the talent to have too many irons in the fire, this job is for you. 

• Time-Management:

A good social media manager must have command on their time management. The ability to produce creative and eye-catching content isn’t the only important skill, but to know when and where to put it up completes the job. As a social media manager, you need to have a very deep understanding of your business’ target audience, which is made possible with user data analysis. So for instance, if the majority of your viewers are active at a particular time of the day, you should post then. Moreover, every social media page of the company; be it Facebook, Instagram or videos put up on their Youtube channel, needs to be given equal time. Neglecting anyone could bring losses to the organization. Social media is very fast, and if you want to make this your career, you’ll have to be active at all times. An hour delay creates a big impact. 

• Handling The Budget:

As a social media manager, you will continuously be running campaigns for the target audience. Have a strong command on how to target the right segment, understand what type of content that segment demands, and then increase your reach. Those who don’t have a grip on these aspects are most likely to spend a lot on social media marketing. Learn these areas well and you can impress your boss by hitting the right targets in the least amount of budget. 

2.The Fundamentals Of Social Media

• Do Extensive Research On Social Media Tools:

The tools and techniques you put into practice will help you go a long way in social media. Use these social media management tools to learn effective ways to save time and money and bringing new content. The tools are getting smarter with every passing day, for instance, you can employ content calendars to keep reminders for yourself, schedule posts for the coming hours, other tools can notify you for important stuff is worthy of your attention. Let your interviewer know about the latest tools that can help the company achieve big, and you will surely get on the esteemed position.

• Study Social Media Marketing:

You get a good grip on social media management with more and more practice, but enrolling in courses that can teach you new practices and technicalities will help you stand out. There are various social media marketing courses custom-designed for topics like SEO or data analysis. Learning this will help you do things differently as compared to an ordinary social media manager. 

• Work On Building An Online Community:

Apart from the official pages of the company that you’re handling, make your pages on all social media sites like Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, LinkedIn, etc. these pages can be used to build an online community where you can actively engage with people and thus enhance customer satisfaction. 

3. All Set For The Job Now

• Do Not Ignore Any Job Opportunity:

If you dream to get a job at a well-known, reputable company, you must start small so that you have some experience under your belt. Regardless of how small the work may seem, take it up and learn from it. An effective way for beginners is to look for gigs that are relevant to social media management. 

• Look For Non-Profit Organizations Or Small Businesses

To build a strong resume, you will need to have worked in several places. A great way to kick start your journey is to volunteer for the job of a social media manager in a non-profit organization. Most often, these NGOs or other small scale start-ups do not have a dedicated budget for their social media marketing, yet they direly need it to get their message across. Such opportunities will be a win-win for both parties because you’ll help them market for free and you will get to learn a lot of new things. It’s best to learn from small because you have the space to make mistakes and nurture. Avail these chances to groom yourself and become an expert before applying for a job at a higher level.