13 Crucial Skills for Your Agency’s Social Media Manager
Got your copywriters? Check.
Got your designers? Check.
Got your developers? Check.
Got your editors? Check.
But what you may be overlooking is a social media manager.
And no, social media can’t just be managed by a college intern.
See, it’s easy to overlook this crucial position. You might just delegate social to your copywriters and designers.
However, that would be a mistake for your agency.
Because a social media manager will transform the brand awareness for your clients.
That way, you have happy customers, and you keep getting paid.
Today, I want to talk about the skills to look for when hiring a social media manager.
And the benefits of hiring a social media manager with all the necessary skills include:
- Your clients’ social media followings will grow, causing website traffic and sales to soar.
- You won’t have to worry about coming up with social media marketing strategies for your clients.
- Time will be freed up for you and your other workers to be more productive.
Before we get into the list of social media manager skills to be mindful of, let’s take a look at the importance of having one to begin with.
Why Does Your Agency Need a Social Media Manager?
To take control of your client’s social media accounts, duh.
But seriously, if you have a solid social media manager that knows what he or she is doing, you can feel rest assured that you’ll have a sound strategy in place for each client’s target audience.
Not only that, but this individual will know how to leverage each social media channel.
Because what works on Facebook won’t necessarily carry over to LinkedIn. And what may be great on YouTube could be disastrous on Instagram.
The idea is, your social media manager will ensure that all your client’s channels are being used to maximum potential.
Even more, a good social media manager will know which platforms to use and which to cut — something that’s the biggest social media challenge for marketers, according to HubSpot.
Whether your clients are in B2C or B2B commerce, it doesn’t matter … they’ll need an outstanding social media marketing mix to drive demand.
The following social media platforms are the most popular among marketers:
- YouTube
- TikTok
And according to HubSpot, the platforms and features that are being invested in more are:
- Twitter Spaces
- YouTube Shorts
- Instagram Stories
- Facebook Live Audio
- Spotify Green Room
With billions of people using social media platforms, it’s crucial to really excel at them.
And although 1 out of 3 consumers follow their favorite brands on social media, those that do are extremely profitable for businesses, like your agency’s clients.
According to research from Sprout Social, 90% of social media users that follow brands will also make purchases from them.
So right there, you have your biggest brand advocates at your fingertips providing you with valuable insight into what makes them tick.
And a good social media manager will pick up on how to resonate with them.
Not only that, but they’ll find ways to attract new customers too.
Okay, so now that you know why you need a social media manager for your marketing agency, now it’s time to see what kind of skills you should be looking for when it comes to hiring one.
Skills of a Great Social Media Manager #1: Research
A great social media manager will need to always be researching.
Whether it’s to keep up on trends, identify the best keywords, or to share interesting industry topics, your candidate needs to be skilled in being resourceful.
Besides that, social media managers need to research influencers that your target audience would identify with.
And without good research skills, that will be an impossible task.
Skills of a Great Social Media Manager #2: Knowledge of a Target Audience
This is key to growing your brand on social media.
Because if you don’t understand who your audience is, how are you going to make sure that people are seeing posts that they might be interested in?
According to Salesforce research, 63% of B2C consumers and 76% of B2B buyers expect brands to understand their unique needs and expectations.
So your agency’s next social media manager must be able to understand what topics interest target audiences and how they live their life to better help reach out to them.
Skills of a Great Social Media Manager #3: Graphic Design and Video Editing
Having an eye for design makes a huge difference when it comes to social media.
Unsurprisingly, Sprout Social finds that 68% of social media users prefer images and 50% prefer videos.
If you have a great image that is going to catch the viewer’s eye, then they’re going to want to follow your page and learn about your business.
In fact, 64% of marketers say video and images are the best ways to keep your brand top of mind, as per MotionCue.
Skills of a Great Social Media Manager #4: Writing
Having to write posts, replies, bios, captions, etc. is an important aspect of being a social media manager.
According to research from Later Blog, your social media manager could be posting up to 20 times per week for a single profile of one of your agency’s clients.
And since you have between 10 to 20 clients at any given time, that’s a whole lot of writing your social media manager will need to do. Even if you have multiple managers, writing is going to be a major skill that the position requires.
Having said that, if your social media manager can’t write eye-catching copy, then you won’t maximize your social channels.
On top of that, you want your social media manager to also have great knowledge in grammar and punctuation so that you don’t look unprofessional in the public eye.
Skills of a Great Social Media Manager #5: Scheduling and Organization
Being organized is vital for your business.
To be truthful, it’ll save your agency a lot of money.
As reported by LinkedIn, employees can cost you roughly 7.6% of their annual salaries simply due to disorganization.
That’s basically an hour a day wasted on payroll.
But sticking to a schedule is a great way to stay focused and plan ahead.
So it’s important that the next social media manager your agency hires is able to manage a content calendar and schedule posts well in advance.
That way, your clients’ pages have a consistent flow of information and keep viewers interested and engaged with your brand.
Some things you might want to see on a resume or which you can discuss with a candidate that relate to social media organization include:
- Scheduling tools
- Content calendars
- To-do lists
- Setting time limits
- Having a system for responding to inquiries
Skills of a Great Social Media Manager #6: Analytics
With companies always looking for numbers to back up their claims, having a social media manager that understands how to analyze these numbers is crucial.
This includes figuring out which posts are doing well, what type of images work best on certain channels, or knowing when the best times to post are.
You see, with social media managers being in charge of your clients’ online presence, they need to know how to dissect data and use it to make more informed decisions.
Skills of a Great Social Media Manager #7: Customer Service
I know, I know ... this article is supposed to be about marketing, not customer service.
But the truth is, on social media, you have to put on the customer service hat.
For example, 79% of consumers expect brands to respond to their social media inquiries within 24 hours, according to Sprout Social. Moreover, 4 out of 10 consumers expect you to respond within an hour.
Luckily, if you can offer great customer care, you can expect 93% of your customers to be more likely to become long-term customers, as reported by HubSpot.
Skills of a Great Social Media Manager #8: Networking
The social media space is a very competitive one, and knowing who’s who in the industry is a great way to keep up with your competition.
Having said that, your agency will have a leg up if your social media manager possesses good networking skills because they will be able to make connections with the top influencers in your industry.
Not only that, but they’re able to stay up to date on what industry experts are doing to evolve. With that, you can give your clients the best social media services possible by using best practices and leveraging new tools.
Skills of a Great Social Media Manager #9: Creativity
If you look at all the best social media campaigns out there, they all have one thing in common: they’re creative.
For example, Taco Bell’s Cinco de Mayo Snapchat filter that turns your face into a taco. By the way, that lens was viewed 224 million times in just a day, according to TINT.
As an agency, you have a lot of different clients with various social media needs.
Now this can make it challenging to consistently keep all their channels running optimally.
But with a creative lens, your social media manager can offer up new ways to re-engage your followers and capture new ones.
Skills of a Great Social Media Manager #10: Flexibility
Your social media manager needs to be flexible because what works for one client might not work for the next.
This is why it is important for them to understand how to create various types of content, whether that’s images, videos, GIFs or something else.
And they need to know which type of content will work best on each channel since TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms all operate differently.
Plus, there’s always new trends and buzzwords that require your content strategies and tactics to be adjusted.
Skills of a Great Social Media Manager #11: Storytelling
Whether it’s your company’s mission or a product you’re selling, you want to tell a story that connects with people on an emotional level.
A good story helps people recall your brand more easily.
So it’s important for your social media manager to be skilled in creating content that emotionally resonates with users so they can feel connected to your business or brand.
As an example, check out this Instagram post from Starbucks featuring one of its employees — which is something that 4 out of 10 consumers want to see from brands, according to Sprout Social.
Skills of a Great Social Media Manager #12: Crisis Management
There are times when things can go south real quick.
Some examples of things that could cause a crisis for your clients include:
- Product failure
- Unruly customers or outlandish claims
- Poor employee behavior exposed
- Perception of an ethical breach
- Technical failures (website outage, broken app, etc.)
So there’s a lot of ways a business can face disaster.
It can also have some serious consequences, such as damaged brand reputation and loss in sales.
Just take a look at the following graph that depicts consumers’ willingness to fly with United Airlines after a PR blunder in 2017.
And since social media is the go-to channel for customers to communicate with brands, your social media manager needs to know how to deal with unforeseen events.
You could possibly use “crisis management” as one of your keywords for your ATS to track.
Or you could ask your candidates during the hiring process how they’d respond to crisis management scenarios you present them with.
Remember, nowadays, bad press spreads quickly.
With Salesforce research finding that 62% of consumers say they’d share negative brand experiences with others, your client could have a PR disaster in the making if criticism isn’t handled properly.
But if your social media manager is on top of crisis management and knows how to deal with negative publicity effectively, then adverse effects will be minimal for your client.
Skills of a Great Social Media Manager #13: Marketing Tools and Automation
There are all sorts of marketing tools out there that can make life way easier for your agency.
And there’s a wide range of functions that these tools carry out.
Here are just a few:
- Scheduling multiple posts at once
- Topic ideation
- Analytics tracking
- A/B testing
- Content creation
- Keyword research
Bottom line is, someone who’s going to be responsible for managing your clients’ social media accounts should have experience using some of these types of marketing tools.
So, if you look over a resume and there’s no mention of any marketing tools, it may be a red flag that the individual lacks the experience to be a social media manager.
Look, it’s one thing if you’re filling an entry-level position.
But a social media manager needs to have a minimum of 3 years of experience, according to Robert Half.
Conclusion
Without a high-quality social media manager, your agency won’t ever tap into the potential of each of your clients.
Because taking a “wing it” approach to social media isn’t responsible.
A lot of people just look at social media marketing as something anyone can do.
After all, we all use social media in our daily lives anyhow.
But there’s certain skills that someone needs to be equipped with to actually be effective.
And if you’re not ensuring that your next social media manager possesses the 13 skills listed in this article, you’re asking for trouble.
Not only are you hurting your clients, but you’re not realizing the gains of social media for your agency’s own social media accounts. More social media success equals more clients.
Now tell me something …
Are you planning on hiring a social media manager in the near future?
Let me know in the comments below.
Keep AutoGrowin’, stay focused.
