🚀Entering Tech #004: How to become a social media manager

Some trivia before we begin. Answers are at the bottom of this newsletter. 

You’ve definitely heard about social media managers.

You know how every company, brand or celebrity these days has a Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or even TikTok account?

It’s all social media managers. They’re the brains and fingers behind the screen.

💡 About 59% of the world’s 7 billion+ population is on social media; that’s 4.70 billion people either watching videos on TikTok, connecting with friends on Facebook or joining 7 PM Spaces on moaning on Twitter. 

Social media managers present brands to these people using content creation to endear you to different products. They are the digital voices and community builders that amplify the work of businesses and people. 

Think about any time you’ve bought merch from a celebrity or a company? Or think about tweets you’ve seen that made you buy a product. That’s what social media managers do, they market products and services through storytelling and community building. 

A great example is the Netflix Naija Twitter manager who uses tone and trends to get more subscribers for the company. Because the social media manager tweets relatable things, more people will follow the page and they’re more likely to sign up for Netflix because of it.

They go by other names too including digital marketer, brand manager, audience engagement manager, and community manager.

🌟The good news? Social media management is one of the few tech roles you can learn and do with just your mobile phone.

Social media managers are in charge of monitoring, evaluating, measuring and increasing the presence of brands online.

The very best social media managers are able to help brands gain more customers through the following steps:

How do they do this? Well, today’s guest—TechCabal’s Bright Azuh Ucha—has given us the dos and don’ts on how social media managers work.

• Do create a social media strategy. It’s the first thing you should do in your first week as a social media manager. It will list things like the social media sites you want to use, the kind of tone you will take, and the words or images you will and won’t use.

• Do create different content for each platform. What bangs on Twitter falls flat on Facebook—and not just because Facebook people are of a different species. Each social media platform you use has a different audience so you need to find out what content works for each. Pictures may work on Instagram but long posts may work better on Facebook.

• Do create a social media calendar. As a social media manager, you’re always plugged in so there’s a tendency to have information overload. A social media calendar will help you plan and create regular content, even when there are trends. Here’s a free template from Hubspot.

• Do engage. There are no introverts on social media, the internet must mask your shyness. You need to engage your audience, like and respond to their comments and questions. If they feel like you listen to them, they’ll be back for more.

• Don’t do too much. Know when to stop. Once in a while, there’ll be trends you can jump on but don’t do too much. Maybe a few well-timed posts but nothing more. Don’t be the internet explorer of trends. 

• Don’t get attached. Social media managers are the receiving end of whatever people are saying about a brand, good or bad. So don’t get atatched to the praise or criticism; your work is not you. 

• Skills needed: Content creation, simple design skills, copywriting, and storytelling.
• Salary range: ₦85,000–₦420,000 per month || Ghana: GHC700–GHC3,000 per month || Kenya: Ksh 25,000–Ksh 351,000 per month.

Social media managers do quite a bit: content creation, designing, scheduling, analytics. Here are the easy-to-use tools that most use to see this through.

✍🏾 Writing/Storytelling: The bulk of a social media manager’s work lies in storytelling so here are tools they use:

Google Docs || Microsoft Word or any writing software.

🎨 Designing: Social media managers are not designers, but knowing how to make simple designs and templates make their jobs faster. Here is one easy-to-use tool most use:

Canva

📊 Analytics: Social media managers measure the trends. They’ll evaluate their own followers and engagement—and their competitors’ too—to discover which type of content moves the business forward. Tools they use include:

Google Analytics || HubSpot || Facebook Insights || Twitter Insights || Buffer

🗓️ Scheduling: Need we explain? Tools social media managers use to schedule include:

Buffer || Later || Canva || Dlvr.it