How to Be a Successful Social Media Manager

Working in social media requires a mix of creativity, analysis and knowledge of media trends. In fact, according to Birchbox’s Senior Social Media Manager, Juliette Dallas-Feeney, combining these three things effectively is the key to a successful career in social media. “You have to be creative and thoughtful and be able to adapt quickly because it’s such a fast-moving industry,” she explains. The best way to do this is by having in-depth knowledge of your channels and maximizing their potential through the effective use of testing and analytics.

Here are some things to focus on if you want to maximize success.

1. Be an expert on your social channels

Being successful as a social media manager starts with knowing your channels. This means understanding the most effective use of each channel and setting goals that are specific to each one. For example, if Facebook is the biggest traffic driver for your website, knowing what drives engagement on this channel (and how to capitalize on that) should be your main priority.

Pro Tip: Knowing what doesn’t work is just as important as knowing what does work so be sure to keep a close eye on your campaigns and optimize your results by testing.

2. Know what your competitors are doing

As well as being an expert on your own channels, being successful means knowing what others in the space are doing. Are they designing campaigns based on trending news stories or using paid ads in a specific way? Those are both great things to be aware of. Although you don’t need to imitate your competitors, it’s important to understand what they’re doing and why. This will give you a sense of how to streamline your own campaigns and what you should be testing on your channels.

3. Set aggressive but realistic goals

Once you have a full understanding of your channels and your competitors, the next step is setting goals that are aggressive but achievable. In order to do that, it’s important to understand how your channels are performing and to develop goals based on previous performance. For Juliette and the Birchbox team, this means focusing on engagement as their primary goal. “Our main goal is to be engaging as many people as possible every single day,” she explains, emphasizing Birchbox’s interaction their community. Doing so will not only improve your relationship with your existing community but will also help the continued growth of the brand.

4. Use analytics effectively

Few things are as important for optimizing social campaigns as understanding what’s working and why. “There’s a ton of room for experimentation in social media and that’s really key to being successful,” Juliette says. The best way to experiment effectively is by tracking every test you run and using metrics from analytics tools like Google Analytics and Facebook Insights to optimize your campaigns as needed.

5. Learn the basics of graphic design

Although graphic design skills aren’t a “must-have” for a position in social media, having them will definitely help you do your job more effectively, particularly since graphics are becoming increasingly important for engagement. This means using tools like Canva or Buffer to design graphics that can be used across all of your social channels and creating unique memes and gifs to show off your brand’s unique personality.

Although there’s no magic formula for being a successful social media manager, by following these steps you’ll be sure to maximize engagement and increase awareness for your brand.

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as 5 Things You Must Do to Prepare for Your Video Interview and find answers to common interview questions such as Are You Willing to Relocate?