... and why you shouldn't underestimate social media marketing.
Years ago, I had planned a really long holiday at a company I haven't mentioned. When I asked who could take over my work during this time, I was told: I'll do it on the side. Put positively: After my return, my work was much more appreciated than before.
But what does a social media management job actually involve? What areas are covered and what are the tasks? Answers to these and other questions can be found in this blog post.
Only those who have a goal can achieve it
Firstly, the company's goals, vision and mission should be clearly formulated and structured. The overall communication and the individual marketing objectives are derived from this. Only now should you talk about individual measures that contribute to the defined marketing goals. This structure not only facilitates the selection of measures, it also defines the direction of communication and is the prerequisite for measuring your success.
The choice of platform(s) - crucial!
Before a company takes the social media world by storm, you should think about which platforms are suitable for your company. A comprehensive analysis of user numbers, development, potential, competition etc. is of course helpful. In simple terms, however, the following questions should be answered:
- Am I reaching the right users via the respective network?
- Is the network in question a good fit for my company and my goals?
- Do I have the appropriate resources to serve this network?
Further goals
The selected platform should contribute to the marketing objectives. Not every platform has to cover all marketing goals, but can also support sub-goals. It is important to be clear in advance about the purposes for which the respective social media network is to be used in your company. Define goals for the individual platforms. This makes reporting easier and helps to avoid getting lost in the selection of content.
Set Up & Tracking
Once selected, the next step is to set up your presence on the respective platform. In most cases, a personal profile is required for this. Only with this can the company profile be managed.
Attention! On many platforms, verification is now required for both the company and for personal profiles that advertise.
In addition to the necessary company and payment data, suitable images (background image, profile picture, logo, etc.) must be created in the appropriate sizes. Descriptions, links and contact information should be up to date. Outwardly, the basic structure of a site is now in place.
In the background, however, there are further tasks, namely setting up the tracking. To do this, the codes (pixel, insight tag, etc.) of the platforms must be integrated into the website. Derived from the company goals, the marketing goals or the defined goals for the individual platform specify which tracking events are to be created - in other words, which parameters are to be taken into account for analysing and measuring success.
Communication
Even if the ideas for various postings and content seem endless at first - they usually are not. Constant communication with several instances is therefore advisable in order to constantly deliver new content. The PR and HR departments will play a central role in this. A good relationship with your data team and developers won't hurt either.
Company-relevant updates should be posted by you on social media before others publish them on their private profiles. For updates from the individual departments and scenes behind the scenes, it is good to have a contact person in each division and to request regular updates.
Planning content
Depending on the size of the company, this task is usually divided up within the team. In smaller companies, however, it is often the case that a social media manager also works as a graphic designer, copywriter, crisis communicator, analyst and strategist.
All branches are relevant for the creation of good content. It depends on the ideal content mix to really reach the community, cover the defined goals and convey the company's sovereignty.
In addition to the types of content, the different formats available on the respective platforms also play a decisive role. Not every format is suitable for every type of information.
The mix and formats can be continuously optimised over time through a good analysis of the content published to date. More on this in the "Analyse and optimise" section. The perfect frequency of posts can also usually be found through trial and error, as this can be individual for each company and on each platform.
A good social media content plan sets priorities, covers different subject areas and formats, contains relevant information about the respective post - date/time, text, image/video, link (UTM), additional information, the platform, who should publish it if applicable and the planned budget if applicable.
Creating content
Here, the social media manager needs knowledge or help in the areas of graphics, video creation, copywriting and a large portion of motivational skills, as the involvement of employees is particularly important for content that shows the company behind the scenes.
Each platform has its own visual language. The texts must also be adapted in order to reach the respective target groups and do justice to the different algorithms of the platforms. For example, hashtags are essential on some social media channels, while on others they tend to be perceived as annoying.
Ask yourself for every image and every text:
How does this information help my target group?
How does the post contribute to my defined goals?
Would I myself pay attention to this post in my feed?
Whether written by yourself or by a team member, proofreading is also a key task of a social media manager. Embarrassing mistakes and incorrect or old information must be avoided.
Networking
Posting articles yourself is only half the battle on social media platforms. Interaction with your own employees, industry experts and even the competition pays off. Exchange and communication show expertise and authenticity. You can find out more about the relevance of interaction and how to implement it in our article Interaction wins in social media.
You have probably already heard the saying "People prefer to follow people than companies". This is the reason why communication via the company page is usually not enough to reach the target groups. Many social media managers are also brand ambassadors for their company. Ideally, you should also find other people who are suitable as corporate influencers and actively help them to present the company. For example, by providing information, texts and image material, holding training sessions on communication and the use of individual platforms, as well as data security.
Advertise
Hardly any company achieves its marketing goals through organic content alone. Advertising costs money and time, and this also applies to social media. To promote posts or set up entire campaigns, social media managers need to be able to navigate the backend of the respective platform. Many platforms have a similar structure, but there are special features everywhere. Regular updates via news tickers or corresponding forums and blogs help to keep up to date with the numerous changes and thus fully utilise the possibilities of each platform.
A social media manager needs in-depth knowledge of which goals can be achieved with the respective setting, which targeting options are available on the individual social media platforms and which ad formats best suit the respective purpose.
Added to this is the responsibility for the budget and its allocation to the individual platforms, campaigns and posts. Regular monitoring and checking of invoices and, if necessary, forwarding them to the relevant department is one of the basic tasks of a social media manager.
Tip: In most cases, the budget is predefined and the social media manager considers the most strategically sensible distribution. The reverse order would make more sense: defining the goals and estimating the budget required to achieve them.
Analyse and optimise
Without regular monitoring and analysis, your social media presence will not develop further. It is therefore important to define the relevant KPIs in advance, to know how and where to read them and, of course, to understand the correlations between the key figures and advertising campaigns.
Creating a report on the basis of which further decisions can be made is just as important as presenting it to the relevant steakholders. Only if they recognise the importance of what you are doing will money continue to flow into your department.
Optional: Human relations
Many platforms are ideal for advertising jobs, finding good candidates and initiating an application process. Sooner or later, almost every social media manager will find themselves immersed in the spheres of the HR department.
Here, too, the task is to create a good basis for communication between the departments. The focus is often on advising on the use and possibilities of the individual platforms in this field. In this way, entire application processes can be covered on some channels. The social media manager is responsible for training and various approvals for working on the site.
Tip: Good friends, strict accounting. The Human Relations department usually has its own budget pot. Activities on social media that can be clearly assigned to recruiting should also be financed by the HR department.
Conclusion
The tasks of a social media manager are varied and constantly changing. In my opinion, this is what makes the job particularly exciting. In every company, the tasks mentioned above may be weighted differently or even fall to other departments. Nevertheless, knowing about them is part of a social media manager's repertoire.
Personally, I always find it fascinating to hear what employees from different companies have to say about their areas of responsibility in the field of social media and realise that hardly any two jobs are the same. Therefore, this article cannot provide a complete list of all tasks in this professional field, and that's a good thing. This flexibility in particular is an enrichment and a good motivation to keep learning new things.
In any case, one thing should be clear: it's not a job for on the side!
