The Role of a Social Media Manager
The roles and responsibilities of an in-house social media manager are incredibly important, it is clear that social media is here to stay and that it plays a vital role in any digital marketing team. Your Social Media Manager will be the face and voice of your company on the web, the first point-of-contact for customers and also be responsible for conveying the identity of the brand. It is an incredibly important role where the candidate must be perfect for the job.
In-House Social Media Managers, Role & Responsibilities
This piece will highlight a lot of the responsibilities of a social media manager and why they are vital to any business with an online presence. These days social media can make or break companies, there are examples of restaurants operating solely Instagram account that have amassed a large following due to the content posted that are always busy, every day. However, there are still similar venues that remain empty, and have no online presence.
The Social media manager's roles and responsibilities into three important sections:
MARKETING
Content Creation and Blogging: The social media manager (SMM) will post industry-related blogs that your online audience will find interesting and relevant and hopefully share amongst their followers.
Implement Campaigns: The SMM will oversee developing and implementing the online marketing campaigns across a variety of platforms such as X, Facebook, Tik Tok etc.
Competitor Research: Social media enables businesses to get a closer look at their competitors and the way they are using their online platforms. Their actions are in the public domain and can be researched and analysed in order to identify ways to improve your own company's social media strategy.
Build & Maintain Key Relationships: Social media platforms such as X allow users to communicate with hundreds of different demographics, interact with business partners, potential customers and key stakeholders casually to strengthen the relationship.
Opportunistic/Instant: social media is a unique marketing tool that enables companies to use instant and opportunistic marketing tactics to capitalise on topical events. For example when the social media craze about whether the dress was blue or gold, brands quickly jumped on the bandwagon such as Dunkin’ Donuts, Lego and laundry detergent company Tide.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH / CUSTOMER SERVICE
Interaction: Interaction is key with social media. A social media manager should be creative, confident and love talking to people through whatever mediums are available. Customer Service: Social media allows firms to receive customer enquiries directly and in the public domain. It is very important to deal with these in the right way, the worst thing a company can do is attempt to censor or delete comments complaining about the company. Users are often extremely satisfied to receive any sort of reply at all and the responses are visible to other followers.
MANAGEMENT
Generate Traffic: Posting content on social media channels linking back to the parent website can be an excellent tool for generating traffic if used effectively.
Paid Advertising: Many businesses use Paid Advertising campaigns on social platforms, with all offering a targeted, curated approach. Social platforms such as Facebook, X, Instagram, Tik Tok and even LinkedIn. This is particularly valuable as the business can target a specific demographic, interest and customer behaviour. This is tangible and can measure goals such as brand awareness, website traffic acquisition, sales conversions, app downloads and event promotion.
Updates: By maintaining a constant online presence, the SMM will be aware of any new updates and technologies being introduced and therefore, will be first in line to adapt and use these new updates to the company's advantage. For example, early adapters to Facebook introducing hashtags to their posts.
Track and Monitor Success: There are many social media managing tools that provide reports on performance that are simple and make it easy to understand the measurable impact of a campaign, or even just a post.
Manage Brand Identity: The SMM will be able to manage the brand identity and how the company is perceived by others through their digital channels. If the company wants to change or adapt a part of their identity (e.g. Corporate Social Responsibility) the first point-of-call is with the SMM to change their online presence.
