Anybody working within digital marketing doesn’t need to be told the power and importance of social media. Learning how to transfer your skills into this niche or upgrade your resume to fulfill the specifications of a high-paying social media marketing role will ensure you can easily pitch for your perfect vacancy – and showcase those proficiencies recruiters will prioritize.
Social media marketing is certainly not the only major growth subsector in digital marketing, but it has captured serious attention from businesses throughout the industries, that recognize the ability of social media to drive engagement, followers, and brand loyalty.
Specialist social media marketers often transition into these roles from more conventional digital marketing posts. They usually need to rework their resumes to pinpoint the abilities most relevant to a new position or show how they’ll bring experience to a demanding social media marketing job.
Today, we’ve broken down the role of a social media marketer in a generalized way to show you how to stand out, and the types of knowledge, skill, and expertise agencies, recruiters, and businesses expect from candidates applying for social media marketing vacancies.
Understanding the Role of a Social Media Marketer
Of course, social media covers a vast scope, and there are potentially hundreds of roles, from entry-level positions to senior, executive, and directorship jobs you might fill, all of which fall under the umbrella of social media marketing.
You can visit our job description templates to get a clearer idea about the exact abilities you might need for a particular role, with entries for:
- Social Media Analyst
- Social Media Assistant
- Social Media Coordinator
- Social Media Copywriter
- Social Media Executive
- Social Media Manager
We’re focusing on social media marketing rather than individual roles, because many requirements apply across the board – including social media campaign management, monitoring feedback, comments, and review ratings, measuring impact across multiple platforms, and developing a strong social media strategy.
The trick is to show that you have the experience or passion for social media necessary to create optimized campaigns that communicate brand values, track response rates, and make necessary adjustments to maximize traction.
The list below covers the sought-after skills relevant to most social media marketing jobs and why they’re important for recruiters when comparing applicants.
1. Social Media Campaign Design
The first thing a business expects from a professional social media marketer is an inherent knowledge of how campaigns, posts, live feeds, reels, polls, and interactive sessions work on all the major social media channels.
While you might not necessarily be expected to have exceptional design abilities if you’re applying for a social media job in copywriting, for example, it still helps to show that you’re knowledgeable about how campaigns work, the design elements that attract attention, and how campaigns need to be reformatted and repurposed for cross-channel posting.
Junior social media marketers who have creative design certifications or even free online qualifications from various apps and video editing platforms should include these in their resumes since being able to assist with campaign design or manage edits will give them a great advantage over other candidates.
Companies also commonly expect all social media marketing professionals to understand hashtags, links, tags, and keywords and to know how the style and audience on each social media platform might influence the tone and style of content that will garner the best responses.
2. Customer or Client Communications and Reputation Management
Part of the appeal of social media marketing is that it connects brands directly with their audiences and enables them to respond to questions or feedback or manage criticisms first-hand, rather than relying on static marketing media that is less interactive.
However, that also emphasizes the importance of solid communication skills, where social media marketers might need to:
- Reply to both positive and negative feedback or reviews
- Deal with mistakes, issues, or errors on a public forum
- Respond to communications and questions
- Provide updates or insights into why changes have been made to a service or product range
Great communication skills are fundamental, especially when brands need marketers to manage forums or posts with potentially multiple participants. These skills help steer the dialogue in the right direction and shut down any harmful or inappropriate comments responses immediately.
It’s common for first-class responses to customer complaints to go viral since consumers appreciate transparency, authenticity, and quick responses from the brands they choose to buy from. You’ll be doing your job perfectly if you’re on the other end of that post, review, or live chat and can handle it calmly and competently while placating a disgruntled customer.
3. Sector and Demographic Focused Research
Social media users are accustomed to personalized, relevant, and immersive content that aligns with their expectations, values, and the types of media they want to see—but this isn’t a happy accident; it’s down to the skills of the social media marketers working behind the scenes.
The dynamic and fast-paced nature of social media means that marketers need to be continually up to speed with the following:
- Emerging trends
- New channels or platforms
- Changes to post formats
- Updates to algorithms
Marketers with proven abilities to conduct in-depth research into consumer behavior, new trends, daily and active users of each existing and potential new channel, and the types of content that have the biggest impact can add serious value to the companies or brands they work for.
Knowing how to conduct research using various software tools or reporting functions also ties into campaign management, where marketers understand how to optimize posts or campaigns for different devices or user groups and can report back on performance at any time.
4. Running and Monitoring Paid and Organic Campaign Outcomes
Businesses commonly use a multi-tiered approach to social media marketing and might, for instance, have:
- Pages across all the high-footfall platforms
- Organic posts and content schedules
- Periodic paid campaigns to support events or new launches
Social media marketers don’t just need to know how each channel works but should be able to clarify the contrasts between paid and organic ads or posts, the potential cost per click or interaction associated with a paid advertising campaign, and how brands can target and refine their ads to improve returns on investment.
While most platforms provide useful tools to extract data and performance metrics, you can also demonstrate how you utilize that data to provide meaningful insights for decision-makers who might control social media budgets or approve changes to underperforming ad campaigns.
If you can cover social media marketing campaign management and reporting against performance and key performance indicators, you’ll be better suited to a social media analytics role. Brands need marketers who can effectively adapt campaigns to hit their core objectives—whether lead generation, market share, higher viewer numbers, or more website visitors.
Developing Your Skills as a Capable Social Media Marketer
This concise guide has hopefully illustrated the skills recruiters will want to see from applicants for any social media marketing vacancy – and those capabilities should shine through on your resume or be included in the lists of experience and knowledge you’ll bring to the role.
Remember, it’s always worth customizing your resume and cover letter if you’re keen on a social media role, without assuming a business, agency, or recruiter will make guesses about your marketing skills if you’ve not spelled them out!
For more information about current social media marketing vacancies, job requirements, and salary expectations, please filter the hundreds of roles available through our Digital Marketing Job Board to see what’s out there right now.
