Social Media Experience | What is it and How can you build it
More and more companies are automating their operations and establishing strong brands on online platforms like Facebook. This trend has opened up thousands of opportunities for social media managers, marketers, and other digital specialists. Even if you are not looking for a social media job, having social media experience will help you stand out. For example, candidates for marketing jobs will find elements of social media in the job description.
If you already have social media skills, you will need to describe them adequately in your resume to impress recruiters. This article includes tips to develop social media experience and the social media skills to win jobs.
What Is Social Media Experience
While many people use several social media sites, there is a difference between using a platform like Twitter for personal and professional purposes. Someone with social media experience will understand the strengths and limitations of various platforms. They will track trends, user demographics, and other analytics of different apps.
A solid experience can also mean people with active profiles on popular platforms such as LinkedIn. It will also help if you are familiar with social media management tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, Canva, CoSchedule, and Sprout Social.
How to Build Social Media Experience
Like any other skill, you can perfect social media marketing with practice. However, it can be hard to impress a potential employer without experience. The tips below will help you get sufficient experience to kickstart your social media career:
1. Engage in Content Creation
The best way to boost your knowledge of social media channels such as Instagram is to use them yourself. These platforms are always launching new tools to encourage more engagement among their communities. For example, Instagram Stories promotes authenticity by allowing individuals and brands to show their day-to-day activities.
You can use videos, blogs, and images to build an active online community. Robust profiles will add value to your resume and open up numerous social media opportunities. It is also important to track metrics like followers, comments and likes to demonstrate your abilities to an employer.
2. Take Online Courses
The social media sphere is incredibly dynamic, and academic institutions are yet to catch up. However, many online courses can equip you with the necessary skills and expertise. You can get certifications from Google, HubSpot Academy, Hootsuite Academy, LinkedIn Learning, and other reputed platforms. Choose comprehensive courses that include highly-sought-after skills like marketing analytics, search engine optimization (SEO), and affiliate marketing.
3. Seek Internships
The traditional approach of getting an internship will work very well for potential social media managers. Firstly, seek brands that you admire on social media and watch out for internship opportunities. Secondly, reach out to established businesses for a social media management internship.
When looking for internship positions, it is advisable to build a portfolio that demonstrates the value you will bring to the company. For example, you can describe a social media strategy you intend to use to boost customer support and improve online sales.
Social media interns are tasked with promoting the company’s brand on online platforms, and a lot of creativity is needed to ensure the firm’s social media posts stand out. You will be the brand’s gatekeeper and will need to stay on top of the changing social media sphere.
4. Volunteer
If you are part of a marketing department, you can volunteer for social media campaigns. You can also volunteer to manage the social media profiles of a school, non-profit organization, or small business. Such opportunities will help you learn how to develop a marketing strategy, measure results, and appeal to social media users.
Essential Social Media Experience or Skills for Your Resume
Social media managers refine a company’s brand image, and you will need to demonstrate expertise before you can be hired. Fortunately, you can work on the essential social media skills, including:
1. Analytics
Most social media platforms provide metrics to help you determine how users interact with your brand. You will need to analyze metrics like comments, likes, views, and shares and draw useful conclusions. Similarly, you should track business insights like conversions, leads, and traffic to measure the performance of your strategies.
During data analysis, you will decide which metrics matter to your company and which do not. It is easy for brands to be caught up in the wrong measurements, and your insight will save time and money.
2. Communication
Strong communication skills are among the highly-sought-after skills in social media professionals. They will help you put your strategies into words and amplify the brand’s presence online.
Highlight your communication skills on your resume to assure your company that you excel in problem-solving. Most social media managers are part of a larger marketing department, which means that there will be plenty of collaboration.
3. Writing
Social media managers have to create compelling headlines to grab attention. Therefore, if that tweet is not captivating enough, your company will lose out on engagement. To hone your writing, you will need to understand the art and science of writing excellent headlines. Additionally, you should learn how to structure your text so that it is readable or skimmable.
Pay attention to grammar, tone, spelling, and punctuation when crafting content. If you are writing for global customers, adjust your text where necessary to accommodate dialects and culture.
4. Creativity and Design
The social media landscape has become saturated, and users are treated to a lot of generic posts. As a result, creativity is necessary to stand out. For example, some brands use controversial content to spark debates, while others use humor to encourage shares. You will also need to jump on trends quickly before they die out. Remember to keep posts visually appealing, and do not shy away from taking risks.
Designing visual content is a desired skill among social media managers. Thankfully, there are numerous tools to use, including Canva, Google Slides, and Adobe Photoshop. It is advisable to be familiar with the basics of design, photography, and videos to make your work easier.
5. Community Management
An expert social media manager should know where to find the news and trends. Subsequently, you should react quickly and accordingly to drive conversations around a trend or hashtag. You should continuously monitor Facebook posts, tweets, and stories and engage brand advocates. Additionally, your job will include handling trolls and managing negative feedback. In summary, you will act as part of a PR team.
6. Efficiency
You will rely on project management skills to handle all your tasks. In addition to maintaining social media accounts, you will schedule your posts, conceptualize campaigns, manage budgets for ads, and many more tasks. To keep up with all these job demands, you will need excellent organizational skills.
You will also need to plan your time correctly and schedule strategic planning, report writing, and data analysis. In short, you will need to be a multitasking guru.
7. Customer Service
The primary benefit of social media platforms is driving engagement between people. Therefore, a social media campaign that is solely focused on promoting your brand will be ineffective. People want to be part of important dialogues, and it is your job to engage them and receive feedback. You also have to understand your online customers’ concerns and be proactive about the perception of your future clients.
Social Media Experience is Key
Social media platforms are invaluable tools for a business that wants to grow its brand. If you aspire to be a social media professional, the first thing to do is gain experience. You can seek an internship, volunteer in small businesses, and take online courses. Additionally, work on your communication, organization, creativity, writing, and customer service skills.
