If you are in need of a Social media manager or you want to be one? The skills that are expected of social media managers are relevant skills in today’s society.

The social media managers have the responsibility of increasing the marketing profiles of companies, brands, and organizations. Given the expectation for brands to be consistently and concurrently present across several platforms, conceive efficient social media campaigns, interact with the audience, and evaluate results, the need for a social media manager has never been higher.

While it may be difficult at times to parse through the convolutions of the social media landscape, a good social media manager will go a long way to boosting the profitability of a firm. They assist in building bridges between brands and their target populace, foster business development and finally, sales outcomes.

Although it is quite common to see that many companies are too stingy to hire professionals to manage the SMM, giving these insignificant tasks to interns is not the best solution for today. A strategic thinker as a social media manager ensures that the organization or brand does not turn into a PR disaster and that the right message is sent to the audience.

Thus, it can be stated that the existence of a social media manager is crucial for the management of social networks in the modern world. There is nothing better for a company than having an expert who will work for the company’s website and guarantee its success.

Qualifications for a Social Media Manager

Hiring a perfect social media manager for your company is for often an arduous process. With hundreds of approximately inviting resumes, glamorous agencies and hardworking contractors in social media eco-space even having gorgeously designed websites and long lists of clientele, the choice may become a very stimulating activity. As it emerges, how does a firm make its way through the maze of choices in order to arrive at the best candidate? What characteristics should a perfect social media manager contain?

When it comes to social media, the manager one chooses has the potential of making or mar a company’s online platform. For real, at our company, we are one of the most aware of the importance of this decision.

Now we will discuss 10 skills that play critical importance for the effective functioning of a social media manager.

1. Advanced social strategy abilities

Therefore, every firm that wants to be relevant in today’s business world needs to incorporate effective social media strategy. What is more, recruiting a college-intern, not having an experience in the process of hiring employees and using the latter’s own activity on the social media network is insufficient as well. Setting up of business pages may not operate in the room same way that our individual pages do. The problem is that for all the engagement that can be achieved on a post, it may not necessarily translate to promoting the brand or achieving tangible results.

It requires a carefully planned approach to one’s social media posts with the specific goal of contributing to the increase in the amount of coverage, the development of a brand image or identity, the acquisition of leads, the eventual sales, as well as the development of an enthusiastic group. This need involve a professional who understands social media management in order to come up with the best plan that suits your business. This includes top hashtags to use, when to conduct a contest and the kind of content that may be suitable for sharing.

As such, a person who has had prior experience in social media marketing should be hired to handle the social media marketing of your company in order to reap high returns.

2. Knowledge of social media management tools

When managing social media, some tools work hand in hand with the social media manager to increase their efficiency. These tools as we shall see offer useful supervision, hence the activities can be closely overseen by managers. For example, Agorapulse supports several options that allow a manager to assign some tweets to other users or mark them as important.

Furthermore it is also a fact that social media management tools can greatly complement social media marketing. For instance, while contest application can be used simply to get likes the option is made available to collect leads detail. Also some tools are designed to gather fresh and credible material to share it in various social networks.

In this context, it becomes possible to enhance the efficiency of social media campaigns beyond the capabilities of the platform’s standard set of functions. This means that freelance or contract social media managers for companies need to have access to such a tool to improve on performance and down on costs.

3. Strong and consistent communication skills

One of the requirements for the best social media manager is the ability to communicate both with the inside team and outside collaborators. Social media managers work with other departments like product, customers, sale, and support departments. They too synchronize with supervising managing officers in various marketing specializations as far as marketing is concerned. Furthermore, social media managers may supervise a team of social media executives and working together with graphic designers, video and photo editors.

Besides, the social media of any brand involves its social media manager pointing out particular concerns or raising questions on behalf of the brand that directly interacts with customers. So, if a candidate is to be filled for this post he must be good at communicating and should be in touch with the customers most of the time. In fact, communication can be one of the most crucial competencies for the SM managers, let alone other demands they face.

4. Creativity to think outside the box

Like any other marketing tool, social media entails trying to figure out how to gain attention and interest to particular campaigns. If a firm posts content about itself on a social networking site that is interesting and edgy then one can generate a buzz about the brand.

Think of Wendy’s, which has built quite possibly the most famous social media presence today given that is runs a funny twitter account roasting competition and customers. This way they stand out and perform comedy for the people.

A second example of creativity targeting change is seen with Xbox’s creative way of encouraging people to wear masks back when The COVID 19 pandemic was on. Rather than, they opted to use cool and funky characters from the video game in passing a usual message to their fans.

If the social media manager can bring creative ideas to the table it goes a long way into establishing a brand and making a mark in all the social media channels. This capability for distinction is key to fostering a brand’s visibility on the WWW as well as its interactions.

5. Research skills to fact-check and stay up to date on social best practices

To begin with, to avoid the creation of fake news they need to be confident in the information they are sharing. Unreliable news are current in the social platforms especially considering the fact that we are living in the age of information. As a social media manager, one has to ensure that they check information before posting it whether it is Political, Economic or General information. Besides, they should be able to perform self research in other to source for information on products when handling customers’ queries.

Secondly, it is important to couple this understanding with the fact that the social media platform is dynamic. Key sites, including Facebook, Instagram, and tweeter, bring out updates with varied importance on a monthly basis. Pinterest also often introduces new features or updates to current features, Secondly. Unfortunately, the ability to be updated with such changes often goes with the toss if not monitored closely and this can lead to a company missing out on key algorithm updates that may spectacularly transform its organic reach. And the source of information help a social media manager to stay away from the issues related to the changes of the algorithm.

Therefore, for a proficient social media manager, the social media research needed to monitor the social media environment and to produce quality content.

6. Understanding of analytics and reporting

Every marketer should understand that analytics and reports are inevitable in today’s social media marketing.

Metrics offer great insight into how different promotional campaigns have fared on different social networks. Qualitative data, specifically, can be collected systematically and over time, so that trends and patterns can be extracted that are useful. This information can be then used to modify campaigns in the future to economize the outcomes of social media initiatives.

Apart from native analytics, social media managers should have a working understanding of third-party tools for analytics. In addition to learning how to obtain the required data, one has to develop documentation that reflects the achievement of the company’s goals.

In searching for a new social media strategist, a list of 20 questions can be used to ensure that their knowledge of strategy and analysis is appropriate for the position for which they are interviewing. This will ensure that the person selected for the job has a mindset that is oriented towards producing results using setting up of right analytical tools.

7. Strong planning abilities

The main tasks of social media managers are the accomplishment of several business goals at once on different social media channels. They should be able to have vision, which enables them to coordinate and organize efficient campaigns.

The work of a social media manager means that the final responsibility for all the textual and visual material created and to be published on the platforms that belong to the social media mix that compose the companies’ marketing communication campaign rests on the shoulders of the social media manager.

For instance, when the social media manager wants to conduct a competition in the official accounts, then they will need to source prizes from various companies within the area. It includes approvals, reaching out to businesses, claiming the prizes, building the contest landing page and rules, and spreading the word about the giveaway.

This is the case since, without a content calendar that has been developed carefully to meet important due dates, tasks may slip through the cracks, especially when using time-sensitive features like Instagram and Facebook Stories. That way, social media managers will not be left with unplanned schedules that may derail their campaign’s potency.

8. Knowledge of social PPC campaigns

Paid advertisement campaigns may or may not be the responsibility of a brand’s social media manager. Nonetheless, for a manager, it is critically important to have at least some understanding of how these campaigns are set up.

Some of the platforms that have when it comes to paid advertising include but not limited to the following; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Although, ideally, a social media manager may not be directly involved in pay per click (PPC) campaigns, he or she should be aware how they work.

At times, the social media manager may be expected to develop or find other organic messages that could be promoted through paid advertising methods. They also may have to face the challenge of providing assistance to customers through the comment section of a post, preferably a business advertisement.

It is important for social media managers to comprehend what goes on behind ad campaigns especially when they are not directly involved in the creation of such ads.

There’s no doubt: the digital revolution has changed the manner in which individuals react to marketing. On account of improvements like cloud solutions, data analytics, artificial intelligence(AI), and machine learning, marketing strategies and approaches have developed drastically in only a few years.

In this rapidly evolving market, advertisers need to work fast to keep up – however on the positive side, they have a totally different universe of chances opened up for them to be innovative. In addition to other things, they currently depend on things like marketing personalization to improve results. Here’s the reason customizing your marketing approach is so crucial– and why you should do it.

What is marketing personalization?

People are continually bombarded by a wide range of information targeted at them, be it billboard ads, TV advertisements, emails, social media, and many brands clamoring for their attention. So it’s just normal that we’d block out the majority of that, particularly what we don’t find personally relevant to us.

This implies that in case you’re attempting to contact your audience with generic, impersonal content, you’re losing perhaps a chance to engage them and encourage them to remain with you in the long run. Talking to them directly, with laser focus around what they like and are normally interested in, is your smartest move to win them over.

That is the place where personalization comes in. More or less, marketing personalization implies interacting with your audience and clients in a way that feels individual and human, taking into consideration their likes, preferences, and interests.

A personalization strategy can incorporate customized email marketing campaigns, customized ads, targeted product recommendations, custom-made content, and lots more.

Why does it matter?

Personalization is turning out to be an upper hand, yet something that your clients expect through each interaction with you. 31% of customers say that they wish their shopping experience was more customized than it currently is, and just 22% are happy with the level of personalization they are getting. A Deloitte study also found that 36% of clients are keen on purchasing customized products, and 48% said they would be willing to wait longer to receive them.

A study by Evergage has discovered that advertisers also see the value of personalization: 96% of respondents felt that it assisted them to advance customer relationships, and 88% said that they saw a measurable lift in business results. 61% also said that personalization assisted them to deliver a better customer experience.

The figures are clear: what clients truly need is a personalized experience, tailored to their interests and requirements. Indeed, many currently consider client experience to be the key brand differentiator for clients, more so than cost and product.

How can you use marketing personalization?

With so many personalization choices and potential outcomes, things begin to get complex  – how are you expected to understand what all of your clients like? How can you tailor your campaigns around them individually without investing too much energy in it?

That is the place where automation and data analytics come in. Your client information is the most important thing you can use to construct the best personalized campaigns. For instance, in order to build newsletters that suggest significant substance for your clients, you can automatically gather information from their previous reading history and suggest other blog posts and articles on comparative or related subjects.

Similarly, knowing your clients’ job title, area of expertise, topics of interest, and surprisingly their geographic area can work in your favor to help you segment email marketing campaigns.

Benefits of personalization

Exceptional customer experience

Having friendly customer agents to assist your clients is extraordinary, yet it isn’t sufficient these days. Companies must provide exceptional client experiences all through their journey with the company or its products – and that incorporates social media interactions, automatic emails, recommendations, and much more.

In fact, more and more customers are anticipating a customized and extraordinary journey with organizations. Research conducted by Salesforce has discovered that clients will give more information in return to customized advertising, with 58% of respondents saying that a customized experience is vital when dealing with a company.

Also, 52% of purchasers are somewhat likely to switch brands if an organization doesn’t give enough personalization, and 57% will share individual information in return for customized offers and discounts.

Increase revenue, sales, and conversions

Offering customized services just makes business sense. In the event that clients are getting reading and item suggestions that speak to their interests, they’re more likely to consume them. If they’re happy with the service they get and the communications they get from a company, they’re bound to stay loyal and choose the company over its competitors.

It makes sense that customizing your services and offering a customized experience will help your sales and conversions, and the figures support it: 75% of buyers lean towards purchasing from a brand that knows their name and purchase history, and analysis by Forbes shows that advertisers that deliver customized web experiences are getting double-digit returns in marketing performance and response.

Source- Hubspot

Boost customer retention

Customer retention is essential. Expanding client maintenance by 5% can increase benefits by 25% up to 95%, and it’s notable that it’s less expensive to hold existing clients than to gain new ones. Adobe’s Digital Index shows that 40% of eCommerce business income is generated by 8% of repeat clients, and advertisers in the US and Europe should get somewhere in the range of 5 and 7 new customers to equal the revenue of just one repeat customer.

Your chances of hitting these numbers increase if you provide a personalized experience: as indicated by research by Segment, 44% of clients are probably going to become repeat purchasers after a customized experience with an organization, while 49% have bought an item they didn’t at first expect to purchase in the wake of having a customized insight.

Source- Hubspot

3 ways to personalize your marketing approach

Segmented email marketing

Research shows that customized emails have 29% higher opening rates and 41% higher click-through rates, so on the off chance that you need to customize your promoting approach, fragmenting email advertising correspondences ought to be at the first spot on your list. Almost certainly, you have a lot of significant client information put away in your applications, similar to your CRM or email promoting apparatuses, looking like tags, categories, labels or custom fields.

This data would enable you to separate your clients into groups based on their interests, preferences, or necessities. You can utilize this sort of information to make segmented email records and send customized messages that your clients really want to read.

You can also section your campaigns dependent on demographic data, geographic location, or purchase history, and you can gather this data through sign-up forms, surveys, quizzes, and client profiles that accumulate information about their topics of interest and preferences.

B2B companies can segment their client base as per industry, size, revenue, and area, for example. When this data is automatically collected, you can make intelligent work processes to automatically take care of this into your email marketing tools.

You can also make customer-specific news feeds, topic pages, and content collections by optimizing your content topics and clusters as indicated by what your shoppers look for and like.

Targeted discounts and offers

Clients are extremely receptive to customized discount codes and offers, and most of them actually expect it. Salesforce’s research found that 62% of buyers anticipate that companies should send them custom-made offers and discounts based on their past buys, and 57% of them are willing to exchange personal data in order to receive it.

For example, you can offer customized discounts on comparable products to the ones they’ve bought previously, or you can reconnect clients who haven’t connected with you in a while by sending them coupons and offers dependent on their last buy with you.

Campaign Monitor shares this example from Sephora, which joins a divided email campaign and targeted discount offer. They sent one sort of email to VIP clients offering them a special discount on their new product line, and another sort of email to non-VIP clients.

Source- Hubspot

Personalized reading and product recommendations

This is a relatively basic approach to draw in existing clients and reconnect older ones. By showing them similar products to those they’ve bought previously, or by sending them customized reading suggestions dependent on the topics of their interest, they’re more likely to engage with your campaign.

For instance, the online publishing platform Medium requests its clients to pick their topics from interest when signing up, and afterward utilizes this data to send newsletters with reading suggestions on the topics that interest them or that they’ve read about previously.

Source- Hubspot

Amazon is another incredible example of this, showing clients customized product suggestions dependent on items they have seen, bought or added to their wish lists.

Source -Hubspot

How to use your customer data for personalization

Remember that you’re not ensured to engage every single customer, regardless of the amount of personalization you use, however, utilizing client information the correct way can teach you what your shoppers need and the best approaches to contact them. A/B testing is an extraordinary method to figure out what turns out best for your brand and what your clients react most to.

Moreover, recall not to try too hard – the line between personalization and invasion of privacy is remarkably thin. Spamming your clients, asking for too much information, or utilizing data they didn’t give you can end up scaring them off – one survey has found that 28% of individuals don’t care for it when organizations utilize their information when they haven’t explicitly given it first. You additionally need to ensure your information protection strategies are clear and agreeable with guidelines like GDPR.

At last, it’s difficult to come up with a killer personalization technique if your client information is everywhere. For instance, imagine a scenario in which your support agents gather a great deal of valuable data about clients, but your marketing team doesn’t have access to it because that data is stored in a different tool. That data could have a significant effect while making division or a customized marketing campaign – but if it’s not being put to good use, it loses its value.

To make the most out of the client information you have, matching up your contact information is the way to integrate everything.

Digital marketing has proven itself to be the most effective type of marketing. For instance, email marketing\, social media, content marketing, search engine optimization, to name a few, are types of digital marketing strategies that are fundamental for business success in today’s world.

It’s obvious why as many as 95% of organizations have expanded their digital marketing budgets in recent years and also why nine out of ten marketers expect that their budgets will increase in the forthcoming years.

All things considered, digital marketing is very complex and includes various strategies, all extremely important. As the consumers progressively expect omnichannel experiences and need to have the option to reach brands on all their preferred channels, marketers have the big challenge of loosening up that spending plan for countless channels and strategies.

So how would you make a budget that ensures your marketing strategies will flourish?

Know your marketing objectives

First thing first – What are your main goals this year?

The most ideal approach to begin planning your budget is to be extremely clear and realistic about your objectives for the upcoming year (or quarter). Having objectives set up will allow you to focus on the strategies that you should focus on the most.

For example, if you wanted to grow the business website and bring more business out of it, then you should invest more in delivering high-quality content, leveraging conversion optimization to boost conversions on your website, and invest in better search engine optimization to support the targeted traffic and any other strategies that drive targeted traffic.

Audit your past results

When you understand what you need to accomplish this year, you should take a look at your past results to help inform your 2020 strategy and budget.

Using the same example as before – creating more business from your site – in order to identify the best tactics to achieve that goal, you should review your past results to see which channels and strategies performed best before, just as what hasn’t filled in as you’d needed it to. Which channels drove the most (targeted) traffic? Which ads created the most leads? Etc.

For example, some of the things you should look into:

• Which channels drive the best outcomes, reliably, based on your marketing objectives? These are the channels you’ll need to keep on putting resources into and even increase your spending.
• Which channels aren’t performing well enough? If you evaluated certain channels and they’re basically not creating results,  it might be worth removing them totally from your methodology or cutting down the spending plan.
• Which marketing tactics have you used in the past? What was your ROI (return on investment) for every one of these strategies?

When performing the audit, remember your objectives so you will know which strategies will really help you achieve these goals.

All things considered, if a strategy didn’t turn out for you as you would hope it would, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should altogether eliminate it.

For example, your SEO efforts in 2020 probably won’t have worked out as you needed. Search engine optimization is an unquestionable requirement with regards to digital marketing so rather than totally eliminating it from your budget, you should rather attempt to understand why it didn’t work and what you need to improve for the next year/months.

For example:

• Your financial plan probably won’t have been sufficiently high for all you needed to accomplish and you should, in fact, allocate a bigger budget in the future.
• You haven’t utilized the correct methodology: evaluate your whole way to understand why it’s not proceeding as it should.

Evaluating your options

As mentioned before,  digital marketing is a complex practice, with various strategies and systems – and large numbers of them are must-dos.

Allocating your budget

So, what should your marketing budget be?

Preferably, it’s suggested that your marketing budget is somewhere close to 7% to 15% of your complete business income – the sweet spot is around 9-10%.

When you realize exactly how much your spending plan is and have a list ready of all of the digital marketing strategies to use in 2021, it’s an ideal opportunity to begin allotting that budget to the different strategies.

It is ideal to allocate the majority of your budget to any strategies that have demonstrated success before, while additionally guaranteeing that they’re in line with your objectives. Be open minded to explore new strategies, because the digital is constantly changing and you have to keep up to be at the forefront.

There is no solution that works for everybody – every business is different and recommendations will change significantly relying upon your industry and niche, your products and services, your business objectives, and obviously, your actual budget. That is the reason you need to remember these things when you plan your budget and designate assets.

Don’t forget marketing software’s

Marketing is practically impossible without devices and software, and you need the tools for a variety of marketing strategies and it’s something that you should investigate in great detail, each time you plan a new budget or strategy.

Here is a list of the most important marketing tools and software’s to consider: 

• Social media marketing/management software
• Project management and collaboration tools
• Email marketing tool
• Marketing automation software
• Personalized marketing software
• Outreach tools
• Content creation tools: video creators, graphic design software, and so on

Budget for trying out new strategies

To wrap things up, it’s critical to understand that testing is fundamental with regard to marketing.

All in all, you should consistently put a portion of your marketing budget just for testing new marketing strategies, platforms and tools. Some will work, some may not – yet testing and experimenting are a major piece of the work and how you introduce new and quality techniques with your overall digital marketing strategy.

For example, some of the strategies you might want to try:

• Customized advertising: make more customized content, introduce personalization programming on your site to show customized content automatically, set up automation to deliver customized emails at the correct time, etc.
• Video marketing: on the off chance that you’ve not utilized video yet, presently is definitely an opportunity to begin – or be abandoned. Use video on your points of arrival, via web-based media, on your blog, or even form a YouTube channel.

At last,  crafting a comprehensive digital marketing budget can be complex, but if you get it right, it can have a major impact on your businesses’ success in 2021.

At the point when you plan your budget, follow the tips illustrated in this article and focus on your goals and your previous outcomes – without overlooking the significance of attempting new strategies and techniques also.

Hiring a professional and experienced digital marketing agency can be a major benefit to your business, as it may bring to light the latest within the digital marketing and truly help your business grow.

For assistance connect with us at [email protected]

Based on LinkedIn learnings and expertise, the specialists have named it the “Secret Sauce” – in simple terms, it is the recipe which helps in providing the best results on the platform to the customer, and this is developed through deep testing and experiments.

Let us explore one of the characteristics of campaigns that tend to breakthrough cluttered social feeds: A bit of spice.

What does Spicy Content mean?

The same as what spicy food does to our taste buds, usually it enhances our joy when indulging in tasty spices making us enjoy the food more. However, if adding too much spice, the dish could become overly intense and thereby making it inedible food. Same can be applied to marketing: You will need sufficient punch to catch and keep the audience’s attention, but not so much to turn them away or affect them in a negative way.

“Provocative” would be too strong a word to use here, but spicy content is somewhat fitting. “Edgy” might be a better descriptor. The headlines are important and should grab your audience’s attention, with striking points of view in your content that shake business as usual or challenge individuals to reevaluate their work and make them think.

Gaining this without going out of the boundaries requires marketers to walk a fine line, and many companies are doing an excellent job. Following are a few examples of spicy content campaigns that hit the social media sweet spot.

How to Spice Up Your B2B Campaigns 

Visual Presentation & Creative Content

Rather than a simple and blank headline such as “Avoid These Oilfield Service Mistakes”, VistaVu did a smart approach changing the headline to “7 Deadliest Sins Oilfield Service Companies Commit”. Grabs your attention more, right? It certainly makes you want to know what are those sins and how to overcome them.  

Vitally, the substance conveyed from VistaVu satisfies the reader, following up a zesty headline with a delicious course!

Spicy Snackable Quotes & Stats

A provocative quotation from a big brand is a great way to stand out, example below:

In a different campaign,  A/B tests were conducted to understand which version of an ad is performing better, and as per the results, the one on the left proved better results. The findings further showed that the call-to-action was prompting to download ‘research’ document, rather than an “eBook” (a trend that came into sight through such comparative tests). Keep in mind the set up also, as that punchy stats in the first version was considerably more prone to catch a forthcoming client than the basic “how-to”.

Call for a Change

It’s a common thing that companies and the people fall into comfort zones. Highlighting the potential mistakes in the standard operating procedures, can assist in actually drawing attention of your audience. Jive Software represents this in a Sponsored Content campaign that featured the following as, among others. Here we track down a saucy explanation challenging the status quo, supported by information representation for a really convincing post:

Spicy Content Can Be Aspirational, Too

One misinterpretation about these types of spicy content posts is that they require a negative implication. Which is not true. Sure, there will certainly be a “ruffling of feathers” angle, but it’s really just about being bold and daring. We see these features on display in the Following LinkedIn ad from Aspect Software, with Valentine’s Day-themed message which is sure to grab the interest of any business leaders.

The Power of an Eye-Catching Proclamation

Marketers understand that they often have only a few seconds to grab the attention of the user. Knowing this, it very well may be useful to lead with an especially jolting snare that triggers a twofold take. While promoting sustainable energy activities, Total included hypothetical looks into a future with no waste or uber-efficient water usage. They followed by showing how they are pursuing these improvements, getting in the brand’s value proposition as a natural progression.

Heat Up Your Marketing on LinkedIn

Eventually, the level of spice in your content will be directed by various elements. Several organizations have more adaptability than others in such a manner, and certain industries need far more caution. In any case, we urge all advertisers to consider ways they can make their ads stand out and features more strong, interesting, and unexpected content.

These are the main points that could help you grab the attention of the audiences in general through various platforms, but in particular LinkedIn – Spicy content will help your ads break through the everyday online clutter.

At Blupord we help our clients reach their target audience and grow their online platforms through relevant and creative content. For assistance email us at [email protected].

Source – LinkedIn