How to Become a Social Media Manager in 5 Simple Steps

Are you interested in social media or content creation? Want to become a social media manager? But not sure how to start? We got you covered!

In this blog, we will look into 5 simple steps to become a social media manager. From gaining relevant skills to getting your first job as a social media manager, this blog covers everything in detailed steps, along with the necessary resources required in each step. Without any further delay, let’s get started!

Who is a Social Media Manager?

In this modern digital world, we all know the importance of having a decent social media profile and being consistent in posting. A social media manager helps brands stay active and visible online. For instance, brands that post consistently see better engagement and sales, while those that don’t risk losing customer interest. Let’s look into the responsibilities of a social media manager

• Creating, posting, and managing content for their clients’ social media accounts.
• Staying updated on the current trends on various social media platforms.
• Engaging with the people in the comment section.
• Develop and execute a social media strategy for the brand to stay consistent across platforms.

Necessary Tools for a Social Media Manager

Tools help social media managers to automate the process, analyze the details and improve the strategy. In this section, we will look into the necessary tools for social media marketing.

• Buffer: It helps in scheduling the posts on different social media platforms.
• Hootsuite: It is used for fully featured social media management.
• Vista Social: It is used to manage small teams.
• Loomly: It helps in automating any social media service.
• Iconosquare: It is used for creating visual content.
• Typefully: It is used for text-based social networks.
• Sendible: It is an all-in-one social media management app.

In the next section, we will look into how you can build skills to perform these responsibilities.

5 Steps to Become a Social Media Manager

This section covers a detailed 5-step process to become a social media manager. By following these steps, you can become a social media manager within a few months. 

Step 1: Gain Relevant Skills and Obtain Certifications

The first step to becoming a social media manager is to learn relevant skills. You may have doubts like what skills it needs? We have the answers ready for you!

If you think carefully, social media comes under digital platforms, and most of the companies, celebrities, and brands use social media to market their products. So, you must have a decent knowledge of digital marketing. It can be in the form of certifications or a formal degree. Having a social media marketing course certification or elective is a plus. Consider enrolling in online course platforms like Guvi, Hubspot, or YouTube for quality content and mentor support.

Step 2: Get an Internship

The third step is to get practical experience in working and managing high-quality professional accounts. It may be hard to get your way in social media marketing, but doing an internship is a great way to start gaining experience. Look for digital marketing or social media marketing internships in career platforms such as LinkedIn, Naukri, or the company’s career page. 

While applying for internships, make sure to focus on the certifications, some basic experience through your social media accounts or other relevant educations like a degree, freelancing in your resume.

Step 3: Build a Strong Digital Presence

The third step to become a social media manager is to build a strong digital presence and a history of maintaining a good account on any of the social media platforms, such as YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

To start with, pick a product to market and create a public professional account in any of the social media platforms. Start posting your creatives in that account to practice digital marketing. The creatives can be anything from a post or an ad banner or a reel video, and check how people are responding to it. This way, you will experience creating people’s loved content.

Step 4: Apply for Entry-Level Roles

The fourth step to become a social media manager is to apply for entry-level roles. Once you build a strong digital presence for yourself, try to apply for entry-level roles in digital marketing or social media marketing. 

Remember that entry-level roles are the stepping stones to the manager roles. Once you are good at social media marketing and gain a handful of experience in creating posts managing posts, you will be promoted to manage the company’s clients’ social media accounts, or if you start doing freelancing, you can even get your clients.

Step 5: Stay on Trend

Keeping up with the latest social media trends is necessary for staying relevant and engaging your audience. Trends help you share the content that people are currently interested in, whether it is a viral challenge or a new content format. 

By quickly adapting to these new trends and incorporating them into your strategy for the brand to increase visibility, connect with a wider audience, and how that it is updated with what’s happening online. 

Skills Required to Become a Social Media Manager

This section covers a summary of the skills required to become a social media manager. These skills are a basic building block to your end goal. Tune in!

• Digital Marketing Knowledge: A strong understanding of marketing principles, which includes SEO, paid ads, email marketing, and social media marketing, is fundamental.
• Content Creation: Creating engaging texts, images, and videos tailored for each platform to attract followers.
• Strategic Thinking: It is the ability to plan and execute effective social media campaigns that support a brand’s objectives.
• Analytics: It is the ability to analyse the metrics on social media to improve content and campaign performance.
• Creativity: Having a creative mindset is a great thing to develop fresh, original, and eye-catching content that stands out.
• Communication Skills: You must be able to write clearly and have the ability to maintain a consistent and authentic brand.
• Trend Awareness: Keeping up with evolving trends on various platforms, viral content is necessary to stay relevant to the audience.
• Time Management: Scheduling posts, campaigns, and interactions across multiple platforms will boost the brand’s popularity.
• Community Management: Engaging with followers in their comments is a key way to build a loyal audience. 
• Crisis Management: It is important to have the ability to handle criticism, negative feedback, or online controversies calmly and professionally. 

These are the fundamental skills for a social media manager.

Get started on Guvi

Ready to become a social media manager? Get started on your journey on Guvi with a FREE E-book on Digital Marketing. This is the first step towards your end goal. This E-book will provide you with a detailed roadmap towards Digital Marketing, which includes SEO optimization techniques, Content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, paid ads, analytics, emerging trends, and case studies along with their applications in the real world.

Once you have a general understanding of digital marketing, consider learning advanced strategies in promoting posts, ads, and growth to understand the audience and their preferences. Guvi’s Meta Certified Advanced Digital Marketing Course will be a great start. This course teaches you how to create and manage paid Meta and Google ads, effectively use SEO, email marketing, online brand management, and AI tools. 

How Long Does it Take to Become a Social Media Manager?

If you take an online bootcamp or mentored courses such as Guvi’s digital marketing courses, you can become a social media manager in 3 to 4 months. However, if you choose to self-learn using books and videos, it may take around 8 months to 1 year. The duration can vary depending on your learning pace and level of dedication.

Conclusion

In conclusion, these 5 simple steps are a great way to start your career as a social media manager. Starting from learning the necessary skills such as digital marketing, social media marketing, and gaining real-world experience through internships and entry-level roles will shape you to have your own clients one day. Start your social media manager journey today with Guvi!

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