Are you technologically savvy? A storyteller capable of engaging audiences at will? Do you have the ability to multi-task when required or remain current with the latest social media platform or application features?
Do you have good Photoshop or design skills? Are you able to write killer content or quick to complete a long list of tasks? It sounds like the job requirements for a digital agency position, doesn’t it?? You may be right.
Below are some of the key skills needed for nurturing or developing a great social media marketer. Whether you are an independent consultant, working in an agency or simply managing the social media profiles of your business, you will learn some great social media marketer habits.
When it comes to social media marketing, most of us in the field know how much hard work it takes to get Facebook pages or other social media profiles in the groove. In fact, you will often be overwhelmed by the list of activities or tasks that need to be done on any given day.
For a social media marketer, this list is never ending. However, setting priorities and establishing a routine can carve a path towards becoming a great social media marketer. Adopt these 5 life-changing habits to help you become proactive and get your work done.
1. Remain Current
It goes without saying that this is one of the most important habits of a social media marketer. But how do you stay on top of everything when there is so much noise on the web?
You can save time by ensuring that you look for information in the right places. This is why it’s best to look for social media marketing updates on social media itself.
Twitter is a great platform when searching for trending topics. Simply go your Twitter search bar and look up a related term like #socialmediamarketing. Be specific with your search and do not include broad terms.
Follow some top social media influencers on Twitter. Often you will find influencers discussing industry news and updates. You may want to create a list of the social media influencers on Twitter that interest you. You can also create your own list of favorite influencers, either from among these top social media rising stars or by using Google alerts to build a list of your favorite websites. Using the web, you can monitor your list without worrying about whether or not you’re missing important news or updates.
After you have set an alert and depending upon the type of alert you choose, you will be notified periodically via email with respect to your topics of interest. This is a great way to monitor what people are saying about a product or a brand as well as to actively keep track of the stories.
LinkedIn groups provide a valuable learning resource with respect to the latest industry-related discussions. And as if that was not enough, you will also receive an opportunity to network with other industry-related professionals.
Get started today by joining Linkedin group directories.
The following is a popular social media marketing LinkedIn group. Be proactive. Join the group. Pick a discussion that interests you and jumps in. You never know who you might connect with – perhaps a top industry influencer who can either be of assistance or guide or mentor you?
2. Take Advantage of the Right Tools
As a social media manager, you will need to be able to handle several social media profiles. Logging in and out of a profile can be time-consuming and is not, therefore, recommended. But what if you could have all of your social media profiles in one place and be able to monitor, schedule and analyze them all from a single platform?
Wouldn’t life be so much easier? You can use SocialPilot or Buffer for scheduling your posts and managing multiple social media accounts from a user-friendly platform. These platforms provide very affordable plans for social media professionals, agencies, businesses, and enterprises. They also have a free starter pack for anyone interested in trying out a trial version.
Other than being at the top of your social media managing game, you will also need to update your knowledge on a daily basis. There is new social media industry news every day and this tool will make your life easier.
Feedly helps you obtain the latest updates using different web blogs. With SocialPilot, you can share Feedly articles with your social media profiles. Sharing Feedly content with your viewers can be a very effective part of your content marketing strategy. However, be sure you only share highly relevant pieces of content with your target audience using minimal effort. Learn how to share Feedly content with SocialPilot.
3. Make a Habit Out of Reading Tweets, Posts, and Articles
Other than following different blogs and social media influencers, it is important that you actually set aside some time each day to listen to what are your influencers or followers are Tweeting about. As a result, you will learn a lot about your industry and its audiences, as well as to be able to interact with them within a better context.
Follow industry blogs that share valuable content about the latest app features and algorithm changes to be sure that you don’t miss an update. Here are a few blogs worth following:
Outset aside a minimum of 15 minutes at the end of each day to read Tweets, posts and articles related to your industry. This is a great way for you to update your industry-related knowledge. Follow the best practices and leverage the new features and trends as soon as updates are released.
4. Solve Users’ Problems
Listening to your audience is an important life-changing habit and a sign of a great social media marketer; however, are you interacting with your audience? Pay attention to what your audiences are saying about your product and your brand as there may be a problem with placing orders for your products or receiving the wrong set of products for an order.
Users generally appear on social media in order to interact with the brand if they are facing any issues. Take advantage of this opportunity to impress your customers with great customer support.
A great social media marketer’s job is to make the social media profile as humanly as possible. You need to solve each customer’s problems by reaching out to them, building trust and creating customer loyalty.
5. Attend Live Events and Live Chat
Go to a social media conference and/or monitor the conference’s Twitter stream in order to update yourself about what other pros in the industry are doing so that you can learn from them. Conferences provide a great opportunity to improve upon your own social skills by allowing networking with top influencers, speakers, and social media professionals. Social Media Week and Social Media Marketing World are conferences you might find useful and should attend.
If you have money or your company/agency is willing to send you and your team to a conference, then do not skip the chance. Take a bus or a flight, do whatever you need to do in order to reach it because it is a hell of a lot of fun. You can meet industry professionals and build connections. Most importantly, you will return home feeling more confident and informed about your industry as well as what other great social media marketers have already achieved.
Apply These Tips to Become a Great Social Media Marketer
Just like a fitness model doesn’t get the body by itself, the model has to continually work in order to sculpt the body. There are also some practices that you, as a social media marketer, need to follow so as to make you into a successful social media marketer.
Managing a brand’s social media account is not an easy job. It requires constant activity on all of your client’s social media profiles as well as active postings, interactions or replies to audiences, community management, page likes, followers and page engagement are all important as well. We need to meet our promised brand goals in terms of likes, followers or engagement or at least be able to show a return on investment in terms of conversions, sales or brand awareness.
Lastly, do not worry about whether or not you are not alone in this journey. Here are some great tools to help you current with social media marketing.
Bottlenose: This tool will enable you to discover all kinds of data from any given social network. Bottlenose makes it easy for you to identify what is trending on a given platform, be it a trending topic, hashtag, person, link, or anything else.
Mention: Worried about your reputation management on the web? Mention is an effective tool for tracking brand name, keywords, Tweets or other articles across the social web.
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