The majority in this small business are internet natives who adore digital platforms/ social media & community development.
Why not use your knowledge to earn money as a side business idea since we’re all culprits of occasionally spending too much time on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest? Numerous businesses, particularly startups and those in the tourism, retail and influencer industries, as well as influencers, have active social media presences and are frequently in need of staff to assist with developing their online identities.
On websites like Flexjobs and Career Builder, you may locate these kinds of job openings, and the majority of the employers there are accustomed to working with people who run these services as their small business concept. You can eventually expand your service offerings as you become more adept at utilizing different social media platforms, such as by managing Facebook Ad campaigns with high ROI or holding profitable sweepstakes contests for the brands you wish to partner with.
You’ll have a ton of opportunities to turn these kinds of side business ideas into a full-time business if you develop your own social following and establish a personal brand for yourself on social media, as Matt Nelson, the founder of WeRateDogs, did (growing his following to more than 2.8 Million people).
To become a social media manager, take the following basic steps:
- Obtain knowledge of social media marketing tactics.
- Obtain a degree or professional experience that is pertinent.
- Create a social media following of your own and share well-thought-out material.
- Learn how to use social media and general marketing analytics.
- Become trained.
- Create an online portfolio.
- Follow businesses you respect across all of their media.
STEP 1. Obtain knowledge of social media marketing tactics
There is a misconception that because young people have grown up with social media and have had smartphones with cameras since they were teenagers, they can all be excellent users of it. Furthermore, while they are excellent at picking up new platforms and posting for their specific audiences, a lot of planning and thought goes into a brand’s social media platform or efforts.
If managing social media is something you’re interested in, you can gain expertise by getting in touch with a friend or relative who runs a small business. Learn about them and how or why they might wish to post on social media sites.
Learn more about the goals of the business and how social media may improve it and even bring in new clients. Social media has many benefits, including user-generated content, geographically relevant data, and target marketing potential, but no company should post content without a plan.
Each company approaches social media differently, and to be fair, they may alter their approach over time if they find that a particular platform is not effective for them. A corporation or brand may need to decide which platforms are the optimal time and financial investments for them given the value and type of content that each platform offers.
STEP 2. Obtain a degree or professional experience that is pertinent
Although a college degree is not a requirement for all social media management positions, many employers choose applicants with a bachelor’s degree. Business, marketing, advertising, public relations, and general communications degrees are some of the best to pursue for this job path.
Because they are knowledgeable with customer psychology, human behavior, and the reasons why people choose to buy from particular businesses, psychology majors excel in this field.
Additionally, search for academic programs that offer instruction and courses in social media management and strategy. In order to put the concepts and techniques you learn in class into practice, think about seeking internships, volunteer positions, or entry-level jobs that entail dealing with social media.
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a great way to learn about analytics and how to plan social media campaigns. These are available on websites like Google, Coursera, and Udemy.
STEP 3. Create a social media following of your own and share well-thought-out material
Being able to produce engagement on your own is one approach to demonstrate your capacity to manage a social media following for a company. Increase the number of likes, comments, and shares you get on your posts while connecting with your followers to grow your personal accounts. To hone this talent, you can also create a content plan for your individual profile.
Apply social media best practices to provide evidence that your strategies are effective. Make sure your visuals, such as photographs and graphics, adhere to a specific style and feel. Also, be sure to define your unique brand voice. If you use photographs that are not your own, be careful to provide credit to the photographers or creators of the original content, as appropriate.
STEP 4. Learn how to use social media and general marketing analytics
Analytics are used by every social media manager to evaluate the effectiveness of campaigns and content. Social media analytics enable you to evaluate the impact of the content you provide and to spot trends among your followers in terms of what they like, dislike, and might not respond to. Followers, page views, clicks, likes, shares, comments, and impressions are the major analytics to examine.
Although impressions—the number of users that view your content—are wonderful, it can be useful to know how to integrate all analytics components into an action plan. Even though the impressions might be excellent, if the engagement is minimal, you can still make improvements.
There are numerous tools that track these metrics and provide patterns. You can become familiar with these techniques as you gain practical experience through your schooling, internships, and other practical positions, and you can utilize these insights to update campaign and content plans. Google Analytics is used by a lot of startups and small enterprises, whereas Core Metrics is an enterprise-level tool.
Analytical reviews frequently resemble thorough data reports, and it can take some effort to identify and comprehend key conclusions. Knowing how to deliver these facts to high leadership also requires a keen visual sense. Utilizing visualization tools to present their findings is something that many individuals find useful.
STEP 5. Become trained
You can profit from taking social media management training courses from a variety of online platforms and providers in addition to obtaining a degree. These training programs assist you in acquiring the required communication, research, and analytical abilities as well as in learning how to handle obstacles that could arise when managing social media for a company or organization.
You could also decide to enroll in classes to master new skills like trending, sharing, posting, and listening tools for social media platforms. It is important to realize that many businesses use social media listening software so they are constantly aware of what customers are saying about them due to the rapid pace of social media and “real-time marketing.”
Hootsuite, Hubspot, and Sprout Social are a few examples. Even if you might not need to be an expert in social media listening tools to get a job, it is still beneficial to know how they operate and how they might improve your marketing efforts.
STEP 6. Create an online portfolio
It’s possible that you’ll be asked to present your portfolio of prior social media work during an interview for a social media management role. Maintaining a portfolio of your best posts, engagement statistics, and other relevant information will ensure you have documentation of your qualifications to present during interviews, whether you choose to take on freelance clients, manage your personal accounts, or volunteer to create a page for a non-profit organization.
Although they do require an investment for monthly hosting fees, you can create a personal website utilizing hosting services like WordPress or Squarespace that can include additional facts about you as a person.
You can also submit files of your work for sharing on free websites like Behance or Coroflot. If you are able to post work samples underneath your work experiences, LinkedIn is another excellent free choice.
STEP 7. Follow businesses you respect across all of their media
To learn what works and what they are doing successfully to engage with their followers, follow the leading brands in your business as well as those in other sectors. Don’t forget to follow them on all social media channels because they could use each one for a different purpose or to spread various messages.
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