13 Skills Every Social Media Manager Needs
Looking to become a social media manager? In this post, we’ll take a look at what social media skills are essential for the job.
Whether you’re working for a large company or managing your own brand, there are a number of skills you need to succeed. Social media managers need to be versatile as the role is ever-evolving.
In this article, we’ll take an in-depth look at the essential skills every social media manager should be able to demonstrate.
We’ll cover how to develop your skills and look at some real-world examples that show top-notch social media skills in action.
13 skills you need as a social media manager
1. Organisation
One of the most important skills for social media managers is organization. You’ll likely be juggling a lot of different tasks and managing the output of content on multiple platforms, so having great project management skills is a must.
The best way to stay organized is to use a social media scheduling app. There are tons of different options but my top pick is SocialBee.
SocialBee is really useful when it comes to scheduling posts and managing your content on different social media platforms.
You can view all your posts across channels in one content calendar, and you can separate your content into categories and stagger their release to suit your campaigns. There are also AI features that can help you to write captions and plan your social media strategy.
Choosing an all-in-one tool like this makes it easy to streamline your workflows and stay organized.
2. Creativity
Social media platforms are saturated with content, so it’s important to get creative to stand out from the crowd.
Being creative involves thinking outside of the box and inventing new and insightful ways to capture your audience’s attention.
Take Spotify for example. The brand doesn’t just focus on pushing sales when it comes to social media.
One of their biggest social campaigns is Spotify Wrapped. This feature shows users their listening habits for the last year, packaged neatly to make it easy to share on socials.
Spotify Wrapped goes viral on social media annually and helps to drive sales and build a stronger community around the brand.
Although campaigns of this scale aren’t always possible for smaller brands, it’s a great example of how getting creative and taking a fresh approach to content creation can pay off.
If you’re struggling to get creative, try taking courses on Skillshare or Udemy to improve your skills.
3. Writing skills
When it comes to writing, social media managers need to put a strong focus on honing their skills and adapting their writing styles when necessary.
Social media posts need to be clear, succinct, and interesting enough to grab the attention of your readers.
Take this post from Lulumelon as an example.
The writing in the post is short, punchy, and informative. It’s easy for followers to read and it gets straight to the point. This is a great example of a direct sales post.
However, content types vary, so it’s important to have a good grasp of different writing styles to keep your content fresh. Some styles you might like to try include:
- Caption writing for videos and images
- Short form story-telling
- Eye-catching introductions
You can also use tools like Grammarly to ensure your spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure are always perfect.
Bonus tip: Get familiar with emojis. Although it’s not technically writing, using emojis is an easy way to make written text more eye-catching and engaging.
4. Graphic design
Having a sharp eye for design is essential for excelling as a social media manager.
You’ll be tasked with creating visually engaging content that looks awesome and aligns with the brand’s identity.
Thankfully, there are tons of tools available to help with this.
Recently I switched over from Adobe Photoshop to Affinity because it was far cheaper.
However, both of these tools are quite technical and aren’t easy to get to grips with.
There are a lot of online courses and YouTube that can help you find your way around, but they can take a while to master.
If you’d prefer a quick and easy tool for creating social media graphics, Canva is a great choice.
It’s a drag-and-drop tool with a great selection of post templates and graphic elements to use in your content. It also has some free options which is great if you’re working on a tight budget.
5. Video editing
Video content has become one of the most important formats on social media, playing a crucial role in engaging audiences and driving results.
As a social media manager, knowing how to create video content is an invaluable skill.
In particular, short-form video plays a vital role in social media these days. You can share short-form videos on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.
There are a lot of tools to choose from when creating video content. For intensive video editing projects, Final Cut Pro is a popular option for Mac.
But a great alternative is Da Vinci Resolve. This is the same sort of software used by movie studios but it’s available for free. There is a paid version but the free version supports Ultra HD and up to 60FPS. Most will never need to upgrade to the paid version.
Still, these tools do have a significant learning curve.
Kapwing is ideal for those that want an easy way to edit videos for YouTube and other social media platforms.
And for the times when you just need to edit short-form videos on the fly, CapCut is a great choice.
6. Follower relations
Building strong relationships with followers on social media is essential for a brand’s success.
Social media is more than a platform for promotion; it’s a space for building brand trust and loyalty, so effective communication skills are vital.
For this reason, it’s super important for social media managers to know how to interact with a brand’s followers the right way.
Every brand will have a distinct voice that will be used when interacting with followers. Depending on the brand, this voice may be super professional, personable, or humorous.
Starbucks is a great example of a brand that’s mastered the art of communicating with its followers. Their social media interactions have a casual, personable vibe.
They interact with followers using a casual tone that humanizes their brand, injecting a little humor into the conversation while offering followers a helpful solution to their problems.
The important thing to master when it comes to follower relations is creating a brand voice that encourages your followers to interact, ask for support, and join your brand community on social media. This will have a huge impact on your social media presence.
7. Data analysis
One of the most important parts of a social media strategy is tracking the success of your campaigns to ensure that you’re meeting your goals.
As a social media manager, you’ll need to be able to gather and interpret data analytics correctly and make changes to your campaigns based on the outcome of your research.
Some of the metrics you will want to keep track of are
- Engagement (likes, comments, shares, etc.)
- Follower growth
- Post reach and impressions
- Conversions (clicks, sales/revenue, leads, etc.)
Thankfully, most social media tools offer a range of analytics features that can help you track and analyze these metrics in depth. Here are some of the best choices:
You might also want to use social listening features on tools like SocialBee to keep track of brand sentiment on social media.
As well as analytics, these tools also include reporting features that allow you to share your findings with your clients or other people in your social media team.
For this, I’d just recommend Brand24. It’s a fantastic way to monitor keyword mentions across the web.
8. Trendspotting
When developing content ideas, it’s important to keep a close eye on what’s trending on social media.
One of the best ways to market a brand is to get involved in existing trends. Here’s an example:
Oreo got involved in the trending ‘Is water wet?’ debate, adding ‘Milk is wet, case closed’. This short and sweet post gathered a lot of viral interest and put the brand name at the center of an ongoing trend.
Similarly, you can start your own trends and invite followers to get involved. A good example of this is Wendy’s ‘National Roast Day’.
The brand invited followers to be roasted for a day and users jumped at the chance. The trend was a viral hit and even encouraged engagement from other large brands like McDonalds.
Of course, trends come and go pretty quickly, so be sure to move quickly if you want to jump in.
9. AI skills
AI is a relatively new technology, and knowing how to harness its power to enhance your campaigns is a key social media skill.
One of the best ways to utilize AI for social media is to use it to generate post ideas.
If you’re short of content ideas and need some inspiration, tools like ChatGPT can give you tons of ideas in just a few seconds.
Also, social media tools like SocialBee now offer built-in AI features for tasks like caption generation, image generation, and strategy development.
Right now, AI is best used to improve research and planning, but platforms are also beginning to introduce AI search functions and features.
TikTok was one of the first platforms to jump on the AI train by introducing an AI-powered search function.
AI use on social media is a fairly new concept but as a social media manager, it’s important to stay informed so that you can adjust your content strategies in line with new AI features and algorithm changes.
Just be careful when it comes to using AI for content creation. There are some folks that will unfollow anyone that’s clearly using AI content.
And I believe we’ll see increasing anti-AI sentiment as time goes on.
10. Business management
Many social media management jobs are freelance roles, which means you’ll have to run your own business which includes finding projects, managing your funds, and more.
Some things that you need to consider when you’re running your own freelance business are:
- Accounting. Managing your funds correctly, finding easy ways to receive payments, and managing tax obligations are essential. Try tools like QuickBooks and Sage for accounting. You can also consider payment systems like PayPal and Wise for receiving payments from clients.
- Marketing. Finding clients is a whole job within itself, so you need to set aside time to apply for roles, interviews, and more. Keeping an up-to-date portfolio can make it easier to show clients how you work right from the get-go. Also creating and managing a marketing website is an easy way to reach out to clients and share information about yourself when making applications. A lot of businesses will appreciate being able to view an optimized site, instead of reading reams of text-based application forms and resumes.
- Outsourcing. If you need to focus on your social media management goals, it’s worth considering outsourcing business-based tasks to help save time. Hiring accountants or marketing managers could help to improve your success in the long run
Some opportunities may be in-person, permanent roles but social media managers often work in remote, freelance positions.
11. Adaptability
Social media is an ever-evolving industry, and a good social media manager needs to be open and prepared to change their plans at the drop of a hat.
Social media platforms are constantly introducing new features and you may need to make significant changes to stay ahead of the curve. Also, it’s important to be ready for the emergence of completely new platforms.
For example, Bluesky is new to the social media sphere, but it’s growing quickly in popularity due to changes on X (formally known as Twitter). The platform has over 23.2 million users, and this number is growing fast.
Big brands including Netflix, Hulu, and Duolingo are already using the app. As a social media manager, it’s important to be ready to join new platforms and learn about how to use them to benefit your digital marketing strategy.
12. Budgeting
When planning your social and digital media strategy, budgeting will play a key role. How much money you have to work with will determine the style and the scale of your social media campaign.
To manage your budget effectively there are a few things you need to think about:
- Content creation. How much does the content cost? Do you need tools? Will you need to outsource the content creation tasks?
- Influencer campaigns. Are you planning to work with influencers? How much can you afford to spend on influencer campaigns?
- Paid content options. Are you planning to use paid social media channels like paid ads?
Although the overall use of the budget may fall to the social media manager, it’s important to refer to the brand’s managers to decide on the overall goals and expectations of the social media campaigns.
With the help of the brand manager, you can set out some KPIs to help guide your strategy and your budget management.
Bonus tip: Avoid taking on too much work in order to save money. Overworking and working on projects outside your skillset may save money, but it could also affect the quality and success of the campaigns.
13. Social media experience
Although knowing your way around social platforms is a given as a social media manager, it’s important to keep your finger on the pulse.
This means spending a lot of time on socials, interacting with influencers, checking out competitors, and generally staying ahead of the curve when it comes to social media strategy.
You can also use online resources like courses, blogs, and YouTube videos to stay ahead of the game and focus on learning new skills as the social media landscape evolves.
In short — stay current and keep developing your social media marketing skills in order to be a true social media expert.
FAQ (Frequently asked questions)
What is the role of a social media manager?
A social media manager oversees a brand’s online presence by creating, scheduling, and analyzing content across social media platforms.
They develop strategies to engage audiences, grow followers, and align with business goals. Additionally, they monitor trends, manage interactions, and ensure the brand’s voice remains consistent, fostering strong relationships with the online community.
What qualifications are needed to be a social media manager?
Social media management is a skill-based profession, so official qualifications aren’t always necessary in order to secure jobs. Some qualifications that might help your chances include:
- A degree in marketing, communications, or similar
- Online certifications in social media and marketing from companies like Google, Hootsuite and Meta
In addition to this, evidence of the skills listed above and a solid portfolio with also help you to get hired.
What are the best tools for social media managers?
The main tool I’d recommend for social media management is SocialBee. It is great for scheduling content and planning social campaigns. It also has an extensive feature set that will help you with a range of social media tasks.
How do I find social media manager jobs?
The easiest way to find social media management jobs is to search online job boards. Boards like LinkedIn and Indeed are great places to search for more permanent positions. Alternatively, boards like We Work Remotely or Fiverr can be used to find remote and freelance positions.
Conclusion
And there you have it—the key skills social media marketers and managers need to succeed. We hope this guide has given you valuable insights into the role, along with actionable tips to sharpen your expertise, boost your performance, and grow your business.
If you want to know more about social media management or social media in general, check out my posts on how to get more followers on Instagram and ways to build your social media presence.
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