Things You Need to Know to Become a Social Media Marketer

Social media has become a source of trusted information for many people globally. For many businesses, social media is a platform to connect a product or service to its target audience. Social media increases brand visibility and awareness, encourages customer engagement, and allows businesses to communicate directly with their clients. With 61% of the world having a social media account and spending an average of 2.5 hours a day surfing through their feeds, businesses need to take control of their social media presence to stay relevant in the modern marketplace.

The demand for qualified professionals to manage the online social media presence of a company has resulted in the creation of social media marketing careers. Done correctly, social media marketing can positively influence business and consumer behavior, build the integrity of a company, and persuade consumers to support a company's mission and values. To do this, social media marketers need to understand consumer behavior, the way that their brand is perceived by their target audiences, and how to frame products and services to best align with a company's ideals and mission.

A career as a social media marketer can be very fulfilling and rewarding. In this article, we will discuss how to become a social media marketer; we will cover the essential skills, qualifications, and experience needed to have a successful career in social media management. If you are interested in a career in social media management, this article is right for you!

The Role and Responsibilities of a Social Media Marketer

Social media marketing falls under the umbrella scope of digital marketing; many of the responsibilities of a digital marketer and social media marketer overlap in many aspects! The primary responsibility of a social media marketer is to use social media platforms to promote a company and its products. This means that to become a social media marketer, you need to understand the dynamics and importance of different social media marketing strategies, the advantages and disadvantages of different social media platforms, and the ins and outs of maintaining a company's brand to retain its target audience. Social media marketers also deeply understand and use data from marketing analytics and social media analytics to optimize their content calendar and maximize their overall marketing efforts.

While many social media marketers work in-house within a company, the responsibilities of this particular social media position can also be contracted out to freelancers. That said, whether it be a full-time on-site employee or a contracted freelancer, social media marketers typically work in a team. This team closely collaborates with other departments within a company. For instance, social media marketers need to work with other marketing departments to gather the necessary data analytics to optimize their community management and content strategy. They also need to work with the product marketing and design departments to ensure that the company's product/service aligns with their brand's online presence.

Social media marketers have a diverse range of responsibilities, including overseeing an organization’s overall social media strategy, working with copywriters and designers, and monitoring social media metrics. Social media marketers usually launch social media campaigns on multiple platforms; this allows them to create content that is both diverse and reaches as many people within their target audience as possible. Social media marketers understand the different social media platforms and the optimal content to be posted on them; for instance, social platforms like Instagram allow one to schedule posts and are optimized for photos and long captions, whereas X (formerly Twitter) is designed for short, bite-sized snippets of information to allow readers to stay up to date with updates to a product or service.

How to Become a Social Media Marketer?

A social media marketer generally should hold a university degree and possess certain qualifications to remain competitive and relevant in the field. This section will discuss how to become a social media marketer and the qualifications that potential employers look for in prospective candidates for a social media marketing position.

Education and Certifications

Formal Education

Most social media marketing positions require at least a bachelor's degree in a relevant major. While a degree in social media marketing is not widely advertised by universities, relevant degrees and courses that employers look out for include majors in marketing, communications, and business, to name a few. These degrees teach communication skills, the ins and outs of executing an optimal digital marketing strategy, and other valuable insights into the day-to-day responsibilities of positions such as social media marketing.

Online Courses and Certifications

In the Internet Age, access to information has never been easier; a widely popular way to boost the appeal of an application portfolio is through obtaining certifications from online courses. To be a successful social media marketer, you need to understand the different aspects of marketing and how social media marketing fits into the business’ holistic marketing plan. This information can be easily learned through taking a relevant online certification course. These courses are generally self-paced and can even be offered for free!

Online courses and certifications, such as HubSpot Academy and Digital Marketing Institute, can provide the necessary knowledge and skills needed to succeed as a social media marketer. These courses teach social media marketing skills, social and digital media advertising skills, how to establish social media marketing campaigns and so much more!

Certifications also can provide technical skill training on hard skills needed to be a social media manager. Certifications in applications such as Facebook Blueprint or Google Analytics show demonstrate your technical knowledge and skillset that can be directly applied to a social media marketing position. What's more, obtaining these certifications sets you apart from other social media marketers and can greatly boost the appeal of your application portfolio!

Practical Experience

Before you become a social media marketer, consider completing an internship or volunteering at an established company in need of social media content creation and management. Internships and volunteer jobs are great ways to build video content and other content creation skills, get exposure to marketing campaigns and marketing analytics, and learn how to optimize social media profiles for specific social media sites.

While internships offer great insights into what it means to work as a social media marketer, for many the voluntary nature of the gig places it out of financial reach. The alternative to this is to find a freelance position as a social media marketer or to engage in your project. Freelancing social media marketing jobs usually include smaller outsourced tasks to support in-house digital strategists. This makes freelance jobs a great way to stay up to date with the latest industry trends and to build individual media marketer skills to support a future career in social media marketing!

Develop necessary skills

To become a social media marketer, one must have a certain skill set to successfully meet their short and long-term responsibilities.

Firstly, social media marketing professionals must have a deep familiarity with social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This allows marketing campaigns to maximize the features of these social media sites. For instance, a social media marketer who launched a marketing campaign on Facebook must understand how to analyze Facebook insights and other metrics to make changes to their content creation that will reflect positively on consumer interactions.

In addition to understanding social networking sites, a professional in the social media landscape must be proficient in analytical tools like Hootsuite, SproutSocial, and HubSpot. These services are used in tracking performance, analyzing trends, social listening, and mitigating risk in digital marketing campaigns. For instance, social media analytics can show the optimal content creation schedules to maximize engagement, highlight social media trends influencing target audiences, and even demonstrate the successes (and failures) of a social media strategy being tested!

Many other social media marketing skills are needed to become a successful social media professional. These include:

How to Be a Good Social Media Marketer?

Gaining Practical Experience

One way to gain experience in social media marketing is to volunteer or intern for local businesses or nonprofits, allowing you to build a portfolio and gain hands-on experience in creating social media posts, emerging social media platforms, and building a personal brand or a company's image.

In addition, freelancing or volunteering can help build experience and strengthen a portfolio. This form of work is unpaid but has the benefit of being a fully immersive learning experience where up-and-coming social media marketers can pick up on core skills they will use daily in a full-time position, including written and video content creation, social media calendar and scheduling development, and much more!

Creating a Strong Online Presence

Having a strong online presence, including a professional website and social media profiles, is essential for a social media marketing career. Managing strong and engaged social platforms can help you establish credibility and attract potential clients or employers. Those in the social and digital media professions should be able to demonstrate their ability to manage a social media platform; a great place to show this is through their social media profiles!

Networking and Job Search Strategies

Networking is key to career growth, and engaging with industry professionals on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Cake’s Meet and other platforms can help you get your foot in the door at a company. Connecting with professionals more experienced than you can give you insight into social media expertise you can learn and grow from.

Developing a professional network can be as easy as joining groups for social media professionals on LinkedIn or Facebook. These social media channels can expose you to different job postings and make you more familiar with the job landscape, which will lead you to be better informed and prepared as you prepare to apply for that dream social media marketing job!

Landing Your First Job as a Social Media Marketer

Assuming you have the experience, required education, and necessary qualifications, it is now time to begin the search for a position in a social media marketing career!

Search for jobs online

Searching for jobs online is, by far, the fastest and most convenient way to go on the job hunt! There are many online platforms where one can search for social media marketing jobs. These sites usually offer a way to easily upload required documents and apply from within the website, making the application process very streamlined and simple.

If you are looking for a trusted job search platform, consider checking out Cake! Our comprehensive and user-friendly interface uses AI to analyze your job preferences and saved positions to display the most suitable jobs for your preferences and needs! If you are looking to break into the social media marketing field, check out Cake's job search platform today!

Preparing for Interviews

Congratulations! You've submitted your social media resume and have been contacted to come in for an interview. It is now time to conduct your field research. Prepare for your interview by researching the position you are applying for. Cross-reference the job description with similar positions, and research the market rate for salaries in the general field to which you are applying. This will ensure that you are prepared with the necessary information to properly negotiate your compensation package about the skills you possess and the responsibilities that come with the position you are applying for.

Similarly, conduct market research into the company to which you are applying. Look for the company's mission statement and see where the values of the company align with your own. You can use this information in the interview process to make yourself seem like an excellent fit in the work culture and environment of the company you are applying to. Furthermore, look through websites like GlassDoor to see how past and current employees have reviewed the company's operational management. This information is crucial to getting an "inside scoop" into the day-to-day operations of the company and will allow you to make a better-informed decision should you be presented with a job offer later down the line.

Finally, carefully read through the social media job description and determine the skills and qualifications that the company is specifically looking for. Reference these skills against your own and prepare metric-driven examples of how you display these results-driven skills by sharing your past experiences, achievements, and qualifications.

Considering Agency Jobs

If you are looking to hone specific skills to qualify for a higher-paying in-house social media marketing position later down the line, you can consider first working for a social media marketing agency. Agency jobs are great for expanding your skills in social media marketing and creating content. These agencies act as a form of middleman between companies and social media professionals. You will get the chance to work with a broad range of companies across many industries and will be exposed to many different technologies, standards, and work cultures. This can be a good experience for a budding social media marketer to get a feel for the industry or field that they would like to work in in the future!

In addition to learning many technical skills, an added benefit of working in a social media agency is the soft skills you pick up along the way. Being exposed to so many workflows and professional connections, you will quickly learn how to juggle multiple priorities at once and develop and maintain your professional relationships along the way. Picking up these transferrable skills early on will greatly improve your future job prospects and working experiences later down the line!

Conclusion

Social media marketing is a competitive and demanding position that is in high demand across many industries and sectors. In an age where virtually every business has some form of online presence, it is important to maintain a good brand image to yield positive feedback from a company's target audiences.

Social media marketers need to possess certain qualifications and typically need at least a relevant degree to stand a formidable chance in the competitive social media job market. To supplement academic and professional achievements, social media marketers can turn to online certifications to boost their application's appeal in the decision-making process. In addition, building and maintaining a strong professional network is important to keep up to date with the latest industry trends and standards.

Social media marketing is a strong and compelling market to enter now. If you are considering a career in social media marketing, the demand is there and companies want you! Take the chance on yourself and apply today!

— Originally Written by Alex Coye —