Managing a brand’s online image is essential in the digital age. Social media managers are the ones who handle the accounts of companies or individuals to keep their audience interested. This job is important because social media is a key way for people to stay connected.
To enter this field, you must be good at communicating, study a related subject, and know how to use different social media platforms. With these skills, you can help grow a strong online presence for any business or person. Learning how to become a social media manager is the first step to building a successful career online.
This article explains the role of social media managers and guides you on how to start a career in this job. If you want to thrive in this field, it’s important to understand how to become a social media manager.
Important points to remember
- Social media managers can be employed directly by companies or work for agencies that serve different sectors like healthcare, construction, travel, hospitality, business, and food service.
- To pursue a career as a social media manager, it helps to get a degree in fields like marketing, build your own social media presence, and gain skills in analyzing data deeply, thinking strategically, and adjusting campaigns based on results.
- Their job involves shaping how an organization appears online, which means they need strong communication skills, the ability to create and monitor content, and a solid understanding of social media platforms and the latest.
What work does a social media manager do?
Social media plays a big role in how businesses connect with people. A social media manager handles the company’s online accounts, posting updates and replying to followers quickly. Because things change fast on these platforms, they need to act fast and share news as it happens. They also must know a lot about the company and its field to share the right information. This helps the business keep a strong and active presence online. Being prepared for these tasks is part of understanding how to become a social media manager.
Many businesses rely on social media to attract new customers and keep them engaged. That’s why having someone to manage their online presence is very important. This helps the company build strong relationships and stay visible to its audience. This demand is one of the reasons why learning how to become a social media manager is so valuable.
The key tasks they handle are:
- Planning and scheduling posts using content calendars to keep social media organized.
- Sharing updates and posts across platforms that fit the audience and brand goals.
- Creating campaigns that reflect the brand’s voice and connect with followers.
- Replying to comments and messages to build strong relationships with users.
- Monitoring how posts perform using analytics and engagement data.
- Helping design visuals and graphics for posts and campaigns.
- Using strategies like influencer marketing, paid ads, and organic growth to boost reach.
- Reporting key results and insights to managers for future planning.
- Reviewing underperforming platforms and adjusting strategies for better ROI.
- Keeping up with trends such as short videos or memes to stay relevant online.
- Making sure all content follows brand rules and keeps a consistent tone.
- Shaping the brand’s personality, serious, professional, or fun, to suit the audience.
- Defining how the brand interacts with customers, partners, and even competitors (e.g., using humor like some fast-food brands on Twitter).
Average Earnings of Social Media Managers
Social media managers usually earn around $60,994 per year. Their pay can be higher or lower depending on their skills, work experience, education level, the type of company or industry they are in, and even the city or country they work in. To see the most current salary details, check the link shared. Knowing the earning potential can motivate you to learn how to become a social media manager.
Easy Steps to Become a Social Media Manager
1. Build experience in social media marketing plans
Gaining real experience is key if you want to become a social media manager. One way to do this is by volunteering with a small business and learning why they want to use social media. Understand their goals and how social media can help attract new customers and grow their business. Social media can do many things, like sharing posts from users, targeting local people, and reaching the right audience. But businesses should always have a clear plan before posting anything. Building this experience will help you become confident and ready for a social media role. Hands-on experience is one of the strongest ways to start on how to become a social media manager.
Businesses carefully think about how they use social media, and they might change their plans if a certain site isn’t helping them. Each social media platform is good for different types of posts, so companies pick the ones that are worth their time and money. The best way to get better in this job is by working in real situations so you can learn the skills needed to help the team. This experience is a key part of how to become a social media manager.
2. Earn a certificate or gain real work skills
You don’t always need a college degree to become a social media manager. But studying subjects like business, marketing, advertising, public relations, psychology, or communications can help. You can also take classes that focus on social media skills and planning. Doing internships, volunteering, or starting with beginner jobs that use social media is a good way to practice what you’ve learned. Online classes from websites like Udemy, Coursera, and Google can teach you about analyzing data and planning social media campaigns. Educational growth plays a big part in how to become a social media manager.
3. Get more followers by posting useful and planned content
To show you can handle social media for a business, start by growing your own followers. Share fun and interesting posts that get more likes, comments, and shares. Talk to the people who follow you and plan what kind of content you want to share. This helps you learn the skills needed to manage social media well. Building your audience is a practical way to understand how to become a social media manager.
Follow good social media rules to prove your methods work. Find your own way of sharing and make sure your photos and pictures look similar. If you use someone else’s images, always say who made them. This is an important step if you want to learn how to become a social media manager.
4. Learn how to analyze social media and marketing info
Social media managers check data to find out how well their posts and campaigns are working. This data shows what followers like, don’t like, and how they react to the content. Key things to look at are the number of followers, visits to pages, clicks, likes, shares, comments, and how many people see the posts. It’s good to know how many people see your content, but it’s more important to use this data to make better plans and improve your work. Analytics skills are crucial if you want to excel in how to become a social media manager.
There are many tools that help track social media numbers and spot trends. As you learn and work through school, internships, or jobs, you’ll get better at using these tools to improve your posts and campaigns. Small businesses often use Google Analytics, while bigger companies use more advanced tools like Core Metrics. Reading analytics can seem like looking at big, complicated reports and might take time to understand. Many people use charts and graphs to show their results more clearly. Mastering these tools is essential if you want to learn how to become a social media manager.
5. Join training to learn skills
Along with getting a degree, you can learn a lot by taking online social media classes. These classes help you build skills like researching, understanding data, and talking clearly. They also teach you how to solve problems when working with social media for a company or brand. You can also find lessons that show you how to use popular tools for sharing posts, scheduling, tracking trends, and listening to what people say on social media. Taking these courses helps you prepare for how to become a social media manager.
Because social media is fast and happens in real time, many companies use special tools to listen to what people say about them online. Some of these tools are Hootsuite, Hubspot, and Sprout Social. You might not need to know how to use these tools perfectly to get a job, but it helps to understand how they work and how they can make your marketing better. If your past experience is in a different area or you want to learn more about social media, you can take training classes. These classes often give certificates you can add to your resume or work samples. All these skills will help you understand how to become a social media manager.
6. Share your work on the internet
Having a strong collection of your social media work is very helpful when looking for a social media manager job. Whether you’ve worked on freelance projects, managed your personal accounts, or volunteered for a nonprofit, saving your best posts and engagement stats gives you proof of your skills. This way, you can confidently show employers what you can do during interviews. Building and keeping this portfolio ready can make a big difference in landing the job you want. A portfolio is a key asset when proving how to become a social media manager.
Helpful Tip: You can make a personal website using sites like WordPress or Squarespace to show more about who you are and your work. These sites usually charge a monthly fee. If you want something free, you can use sites like Behance or Coroflot to upload and share your work online without paying.
7. Stay updated with companies you like on all social sites
Watch the top companies in your field and also from other areas to see what works well and how they talk to their followers. Make sure you follow them on every social media site because they might share different things on each one. Observing brands helps you learn trends and discover how to become a social media manager.
Social media manager FAQs
Below are some common questions about how to become a social media manager to give you a better idea about this job. Reading FAQs can clarify the journey of how to become a social media manager.
1. Do social media managers share posts for their clients?
Some social media managers work for different people or companies and make posts and plans for them. Most of the time, they also put the posts on the client’s social media pages. But some clients like to post themselves and only want help with making the posts. This variety of roles is part of understanding how to become a social media manager.
2. What skills are important for a social media manager?
These are some important skills that social media managers often have:
- Visual sense: A social media manager should know what looks good and fits the brand style, even if they work with designers or make content on their own.
- Customer service skills: They must reply to messages and comments in a polite and helpful way to keep the brand image strong.
- Perfect spelling and grammar: Clear and mistake-free writing helps the company look professional online.
- Time management: They need to plan their work well, especially if managing accounts for more than one client, so posts go live at the right time and keep people engaged.
What types of industries need social media managers?
These days, almost every type of business uses social media to reach people. Companies from many fields need someone to plan, create, and share posts for them. As a social media manager, you could work in areas like business, restaurants, hotels, travel, healthcare, construction, or many others. This job fits any place that wants to grow its online presence and connect better with customers. This wide demand highlights why so many people are exploring how to become a social media manager.
In some jobs, you might be part of a company’s creative team, while in others, you could work for an agency that focuses on social media marketing. Many times, you will report to a digital marketing manager. For smaller businesses, you may also take care of other marketing tasks besides managing their social media pages. This variety gives you the chance to grow your skills in different areas of marketing. Exploring these roles will help you understand how to become a social media manager.
What Makes Someone Successful as a Social Media Manager?
People who do well as social media managers often share certain qualities. These include having strong communication skills, being creative with content ideas, staying organized, and understanding how to connect with audiences online. They are also good at solving problems, keeping up with trends, and managing their time effectively. Developing these traits will help you succeed once you know how to become a social media manager.
- You enjoy exploring how social media fits into the bigger picture of a marketing strategy.
- You’re passionate about analyzing data and using insights to improve results.
- You value user-generated content and know how it can boost a brand’s image and sales.
- You’re naturally curious and eager to keep learning as trends and technology evolve fast.
- You’re great at understanding a brand’s voice and spreading it across different platforms.
- You like working fast, keeping up with news cycles, and figuring out the reasons behind trends.
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