5 traits that social media managers should have
Till some time ago, anyone could appoint or refer to himself as a social media manager. With new platforms and the idea of social media having undergone a rapid change in the last few years, in terms of its purpose and advantages, the role of social media managers have changed. It is not just a leadership role but a participatory one too. Hence, a social media marketing manager is expected to have multiple attributes and talents so that he or she can convert social media platforms into a beneficiary partner for individuals and businesses. Here are 5 must-have attributes:
- Active online presence: This is one attribute that is a necessity of course. A social media manager should have a wide online presence and that means he or she should be everywhere on social media actively. Regular posts on Facebook, daily tweets of Twitter, articles on LinkedIn, regular blogs and so on should be their regular work. They should also forever strive to increase their contact base by reaching out to new contacts on a regular basis.
- Editing and writing skills: Words, good and effective words, drive social media. Thus a social media manager should have journalistic skills as social media marketing is all about content marketing. Thus, the managers should have the ability to create content that is eye-catching and attracts traffic. Every major and minor social media campaigns and activities depend on the content and the words used. Hence, the ability to write clearly and expressively is a must-trait for any social media manager. A social media manger has to be like a gatekeeper or a filter who allows what is best for the business and sieves out what is not. It is not just writing that the social media manager should be good at but he should be adept at the art of writing. An able social media manager is one who can grab the attention of the visitor in that split second with great content.
- A good understanding and awareness: A social media manager has to be aware of trends, audience requirements and content across social media channels. There are many factors that are common within different social media platforms and there will be many that are completely different from one another. The social media manager should be able to navigate his way through smoothly.
- A sense of humour, genuineness and empathy: These are attributes that should be ideally in every person, and these can be of special help to social media managers. Having a sense of humour helps in all situations. Dealing with different channels and a larger variety of audience can be nerve-wracking. At such situations, humour does help. Not only that, when you have incessant queries from customers, a reply laced with humour does help to establish lifelong relationships.
- A leader but a team player as well: A social media manager has to play two roles at the same time. He has to be a leader who can lead but at the same time, he cannot afford to be aloof. He has to be an efficient team player also. As a leader, he should know what information to be shared and what not to be. He will have access to lot of information related to the brand and he has to be a sacred keeper of the information. At the same time, he should be a good communicator who will reach out to his department people and seek their opinions and suggestions. A social media manager is as good as his team and he should try to involve them as much as he can.