No matter your industry, chances are you’ve heard the term “social media marketer.” As one of the most in-demand freelance services several years running, social media marketing has fast become the cornerstone of many brands’ customer-facing strategies. From developing a social media presence to cultivating quality viral content to creating integrated marketing strategies, a social media manager always has their finger on the pulse of the community and the latest social trends and sites—and they do it all in real time. They always strive towards one unified end goal: connecting and engaging consumers to drive deeper relationships and increased conversions.
How Social Media Experts Work
Today, consumers are increasingly multiplatform. They’re coming to a brand’s website, downloading a mobile app, visiting a store, watching a commercial, “liking” the company on Facebook; often doing all of these things in a single purchase cycle. Understanding how social media fits into the equation will lead to better results. Skilled marketers can meet objectives like:
- Setting initial benchmarks for followers, increased traffic, etc.
- Preparing quality content for blogs and social platforms
- Creating promotions and contests to increase engagement
- Engaging experts and influencers to increase brand reach
- Using analytics software to measure campaign success
Social media marketers should have a strong background in creating engaging social content and posts, plus understanding how social media impacts a brand’s overarching marketing strategy. Social is often a consumer’s first experience with a brand so a strong social presence is essential to creating successful 360° marketing strategies.
Other attributes that make a social media professional successful are creativity, passion, and a commitment to delivering engaging, high-quality brand experiences. Successful marketers are always looking to push the envelope and to hone their skills in the space. Because the industry is evolving so quickly, these pros truly never stop learning or evolving their skills.
What Social Media Managers Do
Social marketers create, build out, and maintain on-brand social platforms for companies on sites like Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. Each of these efforts are designed to engage consumers, encourage them to like or follow a social feed, and ultimately click through to the brand’s website.
Social media managers are adept at sussing out market trends and customer needs. By pairing these insights with a brand’s objectives, social marketers devise, execute, and test ongoing campaigns while improving content and optimizing promotions along the way.
Depending on the specific industry, services may include:
- Developing strategy on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and other social sites
- Creating buzzworthy/viral content based on brand needs
- Developing an editorial calendar to coordinate publishing schedules
- Promoting viral posts and advertisements via social media promotions
- Growing social media followers through targeted promotions
- Ideating, developing, and running social media marketing campaigns
- Engaging with friends, fans, and followers on various social platforms
- Keeping on top of the latest social media marketing trends
Additionally, social marketers may work on complementary services such as SEO and inbound traffic generation, content management, and online reputation management.
How to Attract Top Social Experts
When hiring any type of freelance talent, it’s essential to write a thought-out project description that clearly states each of the goals involved. This helps professionals to provide a much stronger proposal, often with a plan of action included. Including things like the estimated project length and communication requirements can also be helpful to freelancers.
To help better define your job post (or project description), consider the following criteria:
What are the overall campaign goals?
It’s important to let professionals know up front what the social media campaign is for, the objectives to be met and the type of content that will have to be produced.
What types of skills or insights are required?
It’s also a good idea to tell professionals about your business since many social media managers specialize in certain segments. If you need a specific type of industry expertise, that information is helpful to include as well.
When will the project start?
Some professionals may be hesitant to take on assignments if they do not have clear start dates and estimated durations.
Sample Social Media Marketer Job Post
Below is a sample of how a project description may look. Keep in mind that many people use the term “job description,” but a full job description is only needed for employees. When engaging a freelancer as an independent contractor, you typically just need a statement of work, job post, or any other document that describes the work to be done.
<Project Title>
We need a skilled social media pro to help drive organic traffic to our automotive insurance website. This freelancer will be responsible for creating video, graphic, and written content for our Facebook and Twitter channels. This will be a 6-8 week project that may require at least 20-25 hours a week.
Skill Requirements:
- Excellent with creative concepts
- Great writing/editing skills
- Advanced knowledge of photo and video editing software
- Knowledge of building a large Facebook and Twitter following
- Basic HTML/WordPress skills
- Expertise creating consumer-facing content
- Automotive insurance knowledge is a major plus
To submit a proposal, please provide a brief cover letter highlighting your experience and a few links to some of your most recent work. We plan on selecting three professionals for a smaller project in the next week.
Read this article for more tips on how to write a great project description.
Choosing the Right Social Media Expert
Building a brand doesn’t happen overnight. Strong social marketers know that and won’t overpromise no matter how lofty your goals. Social professionals can readily provide examples of successful social campaigns they’ve executed. This should include the client’s objectives and the steps taken to reach those goals, as well as any associated success metrics.
One final note: there are less than optimal ways to grow social followings and drive engagements fast, but they won’t yield positive ROI in the long run. The best social media managers will work with a brand to build a quality following, meaningful engagement, and a strong affinity that drives results. Professional freelancers will be able to give a better sense of timing and manage expectations in terms of follower growth, traffic, and conversion levels.
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