Monday 30 November 2015

Best Social Media Community Managers Actually Do in Their Jobs

Searching for someone to run your social media efforts can be both an eye-opening and frustrating experience. It might seem that, of the applicants who can boast any goal or metric from their job, social media marketing for dummies the one thing they point to doing is "driving engagement." While engagement metrics can be tied back to a business' bottom line, more often than not, social media marketers aren't moving the metrics CEOs care about.Years after the very first "Can we measure the ROI of social media?" blog post, the role of the social media community manager hasn't evolved much in the ways of goal-oriented, metrics-driven marketing. It's possible this is because many companies haven't figured out the right way to measure the ROI of their efforts, so they don't know to hire someone who can help them drive real business results.It becomes a vicious cycle. With little focus on the bottom line efforts from social media, companies relegate the social media role to people without much experience proving bottom-line results, and then once hired, those social media specialists don't have experience proving those bottom-line efforts. But someone's got to break out of the cycle. Whether you're a social media job seeker looking for your next gig or a manager trying to hire your next social media manager, keep on reading. I'll walk you through the seven other skills a social media community manager should have besides "drive engagement." Content is a key component in any marketing function, and social media is no exception. Even if you have dedicated bloggers, ebook writers, and designers, that content still needs to be adapted to each social network.A good portion of a social media community manager's role is creating and adapting content for each specific network.
This includes positioning content in under 140 characters for Twitter, creating images and graphics to accompany Facebook and Twitter posts, social media marketing definition taking and curating photos and videos for visual platforms like Instagram, Vine, and Periscope, coming up with several iterations of post copy (since the lifespan of a social media post is so short), and even creating content from scratch specifically for growing a following on social media. Adapting content specifically for each social network yields more clicks and leads. For example, in an A/B test, we found that tweets including both a link and an image optimized for the platform yielded 55% more leads than tweets with just a link. Adapting and creating content for each specific network is critical to driving results. As all marketing roles become more and more data-driven, a social media community manager needs to be able to dig into the data, analyze that data, and draw actionable insights. That includes macro data (like overall reach, leads generated, leads nurtured, customer cases supported) all the way down to micro data (like individual experiments around content positioning). This person should also know the pulse of the community and be able to set goals that are just out of reach -- and find a way to hit them.A successful social media community manager enjoys looking at data and knows how to use it to make informed decisions. At the same time, this person shouldn't be so stuck in the data that it prevents experimentation and risk-taking. It's important for a social media community manager to constantly test new strategies, new content, and new campaigns.

Social media and online networking

Social media is a core networking tool and an essential part of the marketing mix for businesses of any size. social media marketing firm Getting started with social media is as easy (if not easier) for a small firm as it is for big companies with large marketing departments and budgets. So it really does level the playing field.Many small firms are finding that a presence on Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn or Facebook opens up new lines of communication with their existing customers as well as bringing in fresh new business opportunities.But the digital world has not replaced other forms of marketing communication. Instead, businesses now have to ensure that they engage with customers wherever they would like to be found, both online and off. When it comes to social media, where you focus your activity depends entirely on where your customers and prospects expect to find you. Creating your profile is a vital first step. Unlike big businesses that rely on a logo or a corporate identity on social media sites, as a small business owner you can present a friendly and personal face to the world. Use a professional photo and make sure you convey what’s special about you and your business without sounding too salesy.Once you are up and running, you can focus on building up followers and finding key influencers that can help raise your profile. If you are thinking of working with an outside consultant to establish your social media strategy, think carefully about what to ask to ensure you find the right person for the job. It’s also worth researching how other companies like yours are using social media. Check out what your competitors post, and how often, and notice how they engage with their followers.
Social media can be a risky business. Make sure you protect your brand and keep within the law. It’s also worth drawing up a social media policy for your firm so that all your social media conversations are on message, social media marketing firms no matter which member of the team is posting content. Once you’ve got into good social media habits, you can set fresh objectives and try to improve your results. This could include anything from boosting your connections to getting more out of groups on LinkedIn. Social media tools can also help you to manage and measure your day-to-day activity on sites like Twitter.Constantly testing and analyzing results helps social media community managers build more effective standards in their routines. For example, that Twitter image test we spoke about before was run by our former social media community manager she designed the test, implemented it, and measured it all on her own. Being on social media is like being in a crowded room at a networking event and a social media community manager needs to be in the thick of it. A successful social media community manager will be able to find new opportunities for the company by keeping a pulse on the industry. They need to know where to look for the news and what people are saying about it. They also need to know what's changing on social networks and in the industry and be able to react and respond accordingly. They should be skilled at "tactful newsjacking," meaning the ability to (tactfully) capitalize on a news story, (think Oreo's Super Bowl tweet), trend, or hashtag. And if something goes awry, they need to be able to mitigate the issue calmly and diplomatically.

More People Look for Business on Search

Think about your own habits. Whenever you are looking for something, from an air conditioning repair company to a zumba instructor, where do you go first? Most likely, social media marketing books you will go to a search engine – Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, AOL, Blekko, or one of the many other options available.A report by Econsultancy found that 61% of consumers use search engines to help them in product research before making a purchase. This means that if you want to get discovered, you will want to rank well for your target keywords. When it comes to search engines, while the numbers might not be exact, you have a lot of great tools to use in your research of what people are searching for. Google AdWords Keyword Tool is a great start in this process. While “pet supplies” may not actually get an exact one million searches per month, you will know that “pet supplies” is a more popular keyword phrase over “pet supply” that comes in at only 368,000 monthly searches.If you can’t make it to the top of organic search results, you can always buy your way into the sponsored links section of Google using Google AdWords. In a search for “printer ink,” two domains that are not in organic search results appear in the top two spots. Even though organic search results might get more clicks, having any presence on the first page is still better than having no presence at all.The bonus of paid search listings is that you can customize your appearance in search results. Instead of your usual website’s title and description that is used in organic results, you can use something that calls out to a specific sale in sponsored results. As an example, the company ranking 2nd in organic search also shares its Cyber Monday sale in the sponsored listings to the right.
In the same report by Econsultancy mentioned earlier, they found that 75% of people in the 18 – 26 age group used recommendations on social sites in product research before making a purchase. social media in marketing One of the nice sides to social media is once you have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+, peer recommendations will happen when someone likes your page, mentions your Twitter handle, or tags your brand name. When someone takes these actions, their connections will see them which may help your business get discovered by others with that perceived seal of approval.One of the worst problems when it comes to search engine results, aside from not coming up in them at all, is having something negative come up. Online reputation management is a thriving service thanks to rip off reports, bad reviews, and other damaging articles about a business. Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to counter these in search engine results themselves.Whenever you are presented criticism on social media, however, you will have a chance to turn those complaints into compliments by responding back to them in real time. There is a lot of great information today, including books like The Now Revolution that help businesses learn how to plan for, find, and manage real-time crises in the social media space. Knowing how to do this is essential to showing current and potential customers how much you care about everyone’s satisfaction with your business.Thanks to Facebook Advertising, StumbleUpon Ads, Promoted Tweets, and other social media advertising, businesses can put their content in front of social media audiences.

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