Many believe that working on social media all day is all fun and games, however being a social media manager is a full-time job and definitely not an easy one. A little bit of content creation, curation, audience engagement, social outreach, and scheduling through Onlypult all add up to make a super busy tedious day believe us.
This goes without saying that being a great social media manager is not merely someone who just posts to Facebook and Instagram all day, it certainly requires dedication, passion, and someone creative (this is most important)! It’s a special skill set that truly needs to be taught and gained, so being proficient in this skill is sometimes a prerequisite for reaching the top of the marketing food chain.
So we ask the question. Why is it that
social media management gets overlooked and is undervalued constantly as a career path? Some or many in fact would argue that relative to social skills like verbal and non-verbal communication and hard skills like mathematics and finance, that social media skills are less critical in a workplace. Often times others may associate the importance of a particular job or career path with the difficulties or challenges that accompany it. For example, a web/product developer is most of the time faced with the challenge of modifying the code in the system and fixing bugs. These complex challenges require absolute intelligence and technical thinking, making product development a highly esteemed profession. Now in light of this view, social media managers don’t really face any “real” challenges opposed to other titles and aren’t viewed as a great asset to the company. BUT that is completely and utterly false! While social media managers aren’t actually responsible for modifying computer codes, they still face legitimate business challenges just like any other person in their chosen profession that once a problem is solved, can have an immensely positive impact on the company’s performance and success. In this article, we are going to shed light on some of the most common pain points faced by social media managers on a daily basis as well as demonstrate how they can easily counter them to substantiate their worth in the company.
1. Connecting Marketing with Sales
It is a known fact that most sales and marketing teams are misaligned. Despite their similarities, they often sit in different rooms and on occasion even on different floors. With the visible lack of communication between sales and marketing poses a challenge for the social media manager who’s at the frontline of the company’s online communication.
So social media is where 65% of B2B buyers learn about your company and 94% of CEO’s and VP’s make purchasing decisions. So trust that the information they get, better be 100% accurate! As buyers move down the funnel, if the core messages they’re seeing on Facebook and LinkedIn are inconsistent with the core offerings communicated by sales, and they will be more reluctant to convert. As the voice of the company, social media managers have the responsibility of understanding exactly who their target audience is so they can craft and create hyper-relevant content. Really what a better way to gather this information than from the people who know prospects best – sales! By encouraging the sales and marketing team to meet on a regular basis, the two can then start sharing insights, brainstorming ideas, and ensuring that all messaging is seamless across every social media platform/channel. There is also another way to bridge the gap between sales and marketing that ultimately aligns their objectives, this would be done through employee advocacy. On one hand, social media managers must provide fun-sized content that is interesting and relevant enough for sales to share. And on the other hand, sales must use this content as a way to stay up to date with industry insights and attract prospective clients. Sounds just like a win-win situation right? However, employee advocacy not only helps to create a stronger relationship between sales and marketing, it helps position the social media manager an important player in this power-relationship.
2. Aligning Business Goals with Social Media
You know showing always goes further than telling that’s a fact. In most cases, social media managers are strong at crafting social content and promoting it across the different networks, but one of their biggest challenges is demonstrating measurable results, results that can speak for themselves and be aligned with business goals. Whether the business goal is to generate new sales opportunities, retain customers or explore a new market, social media can help achieve that as long as there’s a clear strategy in place. So if the goal is to retain customers, social media managers can align their activities by spending more time on social listening, monitoring live channels, responding directly to customer questions, and engaging in relevant discussions. Once social media managers have a defined path to reach this business goal, they need to be able to track and measure their activities. The secret to real measurement lies in implementing tools and KPI’s that enable social media managers themselves to visualize and report the data. Without taking the time to look at the data, all social media activity is a shot in the dark. On that note, Onlypult caters for this exact challenge. As a B2B social media management platform, Onlypult equips every social media manager with advanced Social Analytics where they can access unlimited metric reports to understand what’s working, what’s not, and what can be improved. Beyond likes and shares, they can track clicks and conversions from social media to identify which channels and messaging drive results for their business. What’s next? Social media managers can start taking ownership of their results and ensure that their role is being taken more seriously by upper management.
3. Increased Engagement in Loaded Networks
Social media is saturated with information no one wants to listen, yet everyone keeps on sharing content. This reality sets new obstacles for the social media manager who’s tasked with the goal of increasing engagement. What makes this task even more challenging is the fact that they have to post messages from the company’s corporate social channels. And let’s face it, audiences are tired of being targeted by company promotions.
But luckily, this issue does not solely lie in the hands of social media managers. In fact, many marketing leaders have been awakened by the problem of Information Overload and have been forced to find new approaches to communicate with audiences that don’t take the form of advertising. This is where employee advocacy comes in. Employee advocacy is extremely important for B2B marketers because it’s a clever strategy for attracting audience engagement despite the barriers. Instead of messages being delivered by the company’s name, the social media manager can mobilize employees to share content on behalf of the company. When employees speak positively about their company’s new product, their message carries more weight than a company boasting about its own success. By tapping into this effective strategy, social media managers have a much greater chance of building their audience trust and increasing engagement. sharing insights, brainstorming ideas, and ensuring that all messaging is seamless across every channel. Another way to bridge the gap between sales and marketing and ultimately align their objectives is through employee advocacy. On one hand, social media managers must provide bite-sized content that is interesting and relevant enough for sales to share. On the other hand, sales must use this content as a way to stay up to date with industry insights and attract prospective clients. Sounds like a win-win situation right? Employee advocacy not only helps to create a stronger relationship between sales and marketing, it helps position the social media manager who is an important player in this power-relationship.
Takeaway
The value of a social media manager in a workplace can sometimes be overlooked. On the surface,
social media marketing isn’t seen as an important skill set, nor is it considered to be a complex role with “real business challenges”. However, as you dive deeper, you begin to understand how the challenges facing social media managers are likely to affect the rest of the organization. Whether it’s helping to drive growth in leads, build audience trust through employee advocacy, or strengthen the relations between sales and marketing, social media managers have a lot to offer!