As more and more businesses are moving to the online world, a good social media presence is a must for them. That’s why learning how to become a social media manager now is an ideal opportunity, for all of you who are looking to work online.
Social media is what businesses use to connect with their audiences, potential clients and current customers. These businesses aim to attract more views on their brands on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and TikTok which essentially brings them new clients, and more money down the line.
With Social Media, you can promote yourself in new ways each day to attract more business. This is where a social media manager comes to help.
What is a Social Media Manager?
A social media manager has access to the accounts that a client wants to use to gain more attention, grow their following, brand awareness, and increase their revenue. As a social media manager, it is your job to research your client’s ideal customer and create content based on what would attract that specific customer.
For example, if your client is a nutritionist, or health coach, you would want to create content related to health tips, healthy lifestyle, nutrition plans, advice and inspiration. You’re not the one to “invent”all of these content. Your client is supposed to provide you with topics and materials that you can use. If you post consistently, make engaging content, interact with other accounts, your client’s social media account will grow, which leads to more business.
A social media manager also engages with other accounts under the premise that the client is the one engaging, and also commenting, liking, and sharing other accounts’ information to create connections and build a larger presence online.
Do you need a certification?
As per experience, you do not need a lot of experience, testimonials, or certifications to start working with clients You need to show that you can do the job. However, there are several free resources, like blogs and youtube videos, and also paid online education options you can choose to take to increase your knowledge in social media marketing strategies, in platforms like Skillshare , Coursera , or the very affordable platform, UDEMY. These education options will provide you with a certificate that would be beneficial to show to potential clients.
Other Requirements:
When you’re learning how to become a social media manager, there is much more that goes into being a successful one. It’s not just posting pictures and writing captions. There is marketing strategy that goes behind the process and a skill to know how to ride with the algorithms.
Social media managers should be patient, dedicated, and trustworthy. You will be handling accounts for clients. That means they will have to share passwords and other private information about themselves with you. They need to know they can rely on your discretion with that kind of information.
Communication and grammar skills are also necessary to become a social media manager. That said, not always you will be required to write captions or long posts for your clients, but a good knowledge of the language you are working with is a must.
Let's start with
1. Choosing Your Niche
Choosing a niche, or industry, as a Social Media Manager is different then choosing a niche as a Blogger, or Content Creator. It is important because it gives you a direction as to which kind. of businesses or industry you want to work with. If you have a passion for things relating to fashion and lifestyle, or beauty, nutrition, photography, then offering your services to a tech company or a real estate agent, may not work out for a number of reasons.
The more you know about the niche you want to work with, the easier becomes for you to create relevant content and have happy clients.
As a social media manager, your future clients will want to know what niche you have experience in before deciding to hire you.
2. Finding Clients
Start by creating your own social media manager pages on the platforms you will be specializing in and build a following there. This will increase awareness of your services and it will also show potential clients that you know what you’re doing because you have proof with your own social media accounts. This will help you as a start, when you have no Portofolio to showcase. Keep in mind, you can always use your own accounts as proof.
You can also join entrepreneur groups on Facebook to make connections and respond to posts when they are searching for social media advice or recommendations. Reach out to family and friends to see if they know of anyone looking for a social media manager. Reach out to local businesses. There is no limit to where you can find clients.
3. Promoting Your Services
First, you have to leverage your social media platforms for yourself before you can do so for your clients. Talk about your services and how you can help others with your Instagram content, on Facebook groups with posts that tell readers what you specialize in and how you can help them. You can also create short. and entertaining videos for TikTok, or longer and more explanatory videos for Youtube.
Optimize your social media profiles with information about your services and how clients can get in touch with you. Never miss an opportunity to tell others what you can do.
4. Asking For Client Tesimonial
With each client that you serve, ask for a testimonial about the work you did for them. The best way to grow as a social media manager is to provide social proof. This shows you are a legitimate manager and you can do the job well.
Written testimonials are good to use in addition to video testimonials. Take advantage of both types of testimonials when you ask your client for their recommendation.
Per experience, I do know it’s not that easy to get a testimonial, especially after the contract is closed. Here is my personal advice: Ask for the testimonial in the upcoming 3-4 weeks of working together, or 2 weeks before closing the contract with a client. A long email or written testimonial, plus video would be ideal, but rest assured that screenshots of DM-s and messages between you are also worth to include, and look much more genuine.
5. Creating Rates & Packages
It can be difficult to price yourself right and set a rate as a start. It’s even more difficult to know what other people are charging but you can always learn about that by doing some competitor research. Ask around in the connections you make to inquire about the kind of value other social media managers are bringing. Understand how much their clients are paying for it.
In the end, it’s all about what you can do for your client, how much time you spend on their accounts, and the content you create.
Start by timing everything you do for your own social media accounts and see how much it takes you to perform certain tasks.
Make a list of all the services a client requires, calculate the time it will take you, add an hourly rate you’d like to receieve, and offer that as a weekly or monthly package.
I do suggest not to offer an hourly rate, as the client may ask to track your time, and in the end, you can spread the time according the needs of the moment, the client does not need to track or micro-manage you.
Also, you don’t have to stick with just one rate for your whole career. You can give yourself a 25% raise after each client assignment you complete.
6. Standing Out From Others
Seems like social media managers are everywhere these days. Because of this you have to find something that sets you apart from the others. Consider questions like: What kind of special service can you provide that others don’t? What makes working with you the better option than working with anyone else?
Social media managers are in constant demand. The more social platforms are used to grow businesses and brands, the more managers will be required in those businesses.
Many brands and businesses simply don’t have the time to devote to their social accounts. Therefore, a social media manager will be the person they will be hiring for help.
PRO TIP: You don’t have to start by managing all social media platforms. You can start by specialising in one platform, and serve only for that. That’s what I did as a start, and it worked perfectly.
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I think you make 2 very important points here. 1) You do not need “certifications” – we all know there are people certified up the wazoo who don’t know their arse from their elbow 😂 – and 2) you absolutely DO have to differentiate yourself amongst the sea of beige.
Happy to share. Thank you for your feedback!
I am looking actually to hire one this year heheh
I am the girl for you
I visited this blog to learn about growing my own social media account. I didn’t knew that I can work for others too. This was helpful. Keep sharing more content like this. I would love to know more.
Yes, definitely. Happy to share.
This is a great simple tutorial to follow on how to become a social media manager. I do feel that people can make a nice living doing this kind of work because there are so many of us online entrepreneurs who need this service. I do wish that people would charge a more reasonable rate for doing this though.
Yes, so true. Thank you for your feedback.
This is great stuff. I have always been interested in doing social media management for others, but I didn’t know if I had enough credentials to do it.
Of course you can. Happy to share this!