Social Media Manager: what role does he really have?

Home > Marketing | 16,295 views | 6 minutes read
26-10-2013

It is now becoming common for companies to hire a Social Media Manager. But do you know exactly what you expect him to do?

Whether you want to hire a Social Media Manager or are one yourself, clearly defining what a Social Media Manager should be in charge of is important.

JulienRio.com: Social Media Manager: what role does he really have?

Social Media Manager: a new position

Since the large development of  Social Media back in 2007 many companies have moved part of their marketing efforts online.
This new trend has influenced the job market and enabled the creation of new positions specialized in this field.
Social Media Manager is a newly created position in most companies and isn't always well defined.  However,  having a clear definition of the scope of tasks is essential for this manager to excel in what he does.

When you decide to open a specific position in your company for Social Media, you should also think about regulating the use of Social Media within your company for all other employees.

What are the various aspects of this particular position

Social Media are getting more and more popular among companies because they give a more human and less corporate aspect to their image. A good Social Media page usually talks to people about what they want to read, not about the company itself.
This is achieved because Social Media is a cross department platform that covers most of what the company does.

Your Social Media Manager is doing marketing.  
He is also taking care of sales when replying customers enquiries or redirecting them to the right offer.
He does PR when he handles the company's external communication of internet.
Finally, he handles customer service when replying customers' requests or complaints.
 

What are the daily tasks of a Social Media Manager

The real question is: what do you expect him to do?

JulienRio.com: Social Media Manager: what role does he really have?


The Social Media Manager should have a marketing background and understand the importance of positive communication.  
Part of his job will be to identify key Social Media to use and follow trends. He will need to check on what the competition does to be able to stand out of the crowd.
A Social Media Manager is also in charge of tracking Social Media pages figures and insights. Based on such analysis he would then be able to identify key elements such as posting rate, post timing and types of posts in order to improve pages' efficiency.
The last and most obvious part of the job is to give life to those pages and animate their respective communities by posting and improving content over time.

 

The first task of a Social Media Manager is to coordinate

As mentioned earlier, this position covers a large panel of tasks and knowledge from various departments within your company.

JulienRio.com: Social Media Manager: what role does he really have?

Your Social Media Manager will certainly not have sufficient knowledge and experience to cover all on his own. Part of his work is to redirect the right communication to the right person.

For example, all questions related to prices, discounts, promotions, etc. should be sent to the sales department to be handled by them.

Customers complaints, when specific, should be sent back to customer service to be handled privately instead of publicly.

For more common messages, it is the duty of the Social Media Manager to respond.

In the end, the main task of a Social Media Manager is to coordinate internal actions with all departments.

 

The limitations

Like for any other position within your company, your Social Media Manager must report to someone and have limits in what he can or cannot do. But how to organize this?

JulienRio.com: Social Media Manager: what role does he really have?

As the main tasks of your Social Media Manager will be related to marketing, it makes sense to place him in the marketing team. Nevertheless, as a coordinator, the Social Media Manager will have to deal with most departments and should therefore be attached to someone who could monitor this activity from the top management perspective.

Regarding the online communication, it is essential to give space to your manager: if he is required to get approval for each single post or answer, the whole process will not work.

To be able to deal with negative messages on Facebook, you will need to give him sufficient power.

One of the key of this position is the freedom to act quickly. Any delayed action lose of its impact. If you cannot trust someone to handle your communication, you are not ready to have a Social Media Manager.

 

Social Media isn't a trend you can copy

There is no recipe with Social Media.

JulienRio.com: Social Media Manager: what role does he really have?

You can't ask your Social Media Manager to build a standard strategy, follow it and be successful. It will take some trial and error to build your customized strategy.

The first thing is to make sure your Social Media Manager is in touch with your marketing and design team. He has to have a clear understanding of who are your readers and what they expect from you. He must also understand the DNA of the company in order to properly communicate it online and know all about your new products and promotions in order to push them on the front line.

Take some time building and updating the Social Media Strategy as new events come up: an efficient strategy is a strategy that adapts to the situation.

 

Now it is your turn to get the best out of Social Media!

 

Julien Rio.



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