What Does a Social Media Marketer do?

If you’re looking into social media marketing services and hiring a social media marketer, you may also be wondering just what it is they do all day. With traditional forms of marketing you can measure work output in a number of ways, but how do you quantify a social media manager’s time? They need to spend a significant portion of their day on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media channels. 

Curating content

The content your social media marketer shares on your channel needs to be appropriate, respectful, and yet still strike a chord with your followers. They need to be so tickled that they share or otherwise engage with the post. This is very important for increasing your brand’s reach. 

Content can come from anywhere. It could be a stock photo that your social media manager has utilised in a charming way. It could be a response to a news item, or to a competitor’s post. Part of your social media freelancer’s role will be to find the content that will work for your company, and decide how best to use it to your advantage. 

A social media marketer will, firstly, plan how much of the content on your channels should be original and how much should be curated. A ratio of around 20:80 might make the best use of your budget, but it will depend on the industry you’re in, your product or services, and who your audience is. 

Next, they will use tools such as Feedly to keep an eye on the most suitable sources for content. A good deal of content on social media channels is shared, often alongside a comment or quote from your company. This keeps even retweeted or re-pinned items fresh.  

Engaging with customers

Another way your social media manager will spend their time is by engaging with current and potential customers, and anybody they think might be a good brand partner. This sort of engagement might take the form of answering comments or questions below posts, or may be responding to private DMs. It could also involve forwarding customer service queries to the appropriate channels: some companies use software such as Zendesk, which can be linked up with your social media management system.

It is vital that engagement is professional, courteous, and maintains the brand’s voice. This is the sort of delicate work that really requires a practised hand, and a dedicated social media marketer. 

Engagement also includes managing any reviews that come in. This might be simply keeping a note of them, but reviews that really show the company in a good light can be utilised as content across multiple platforms. 

Social media admin

There’s also a good deal of administration that goes into marketing on social media. Coming up with a publishing calendar that can still be flexible enough to account for any reactive content; scheduling posts for later in the day, week or month: these are all tasks that can be very time consuming, and require a knowledgeable professional with good attention to detail. 

Other aspects of the social media marketing that your manager will take responsibility for include reviewing analytics, which can be very time-consuming; following up with contacts and new acquaintances in your network; and monitoring brand mentions and keywords. This could also include any hashtags specific to either your brand or your industry. 

A social media manager’s tasks also include keeping on top of subscriptions to CRM systems and other tools, making sure that your company is actually using all the softwares that you have licenses for, and finding more suitable solutions otherwise. 

And finally, they will need to check every social media account, even the ones that aren’t routinely used as part of your company’s strategy!

Conclusion

A social media marketing expert will never have a dull moment at work. Every day, they will have to make sure to stay on top of regular tasks, engage with customers, curate new content, keep an eye on channels to see what’s going on, and analyse data as it comes in. 

Whether you are looking to hire an agency, a consultant, or even an independent freelancer to work on your company’s social media marketing strategy, Bark.com has the right person in your area. Find the ideal solution for your team and be confident that they are utilizing every moment to do the best for your business.