Is Social Media Really Worth It for a Small Business?

As a business owner and solopreneur, it's really important to know that the time, energy, and resources you invest in your business provides a generous return on investment.

Social media platforms are a powerful tool that can help you market your business, but unless you know how to use it to generate tangible ROI for your business, is it really worth it?

This article will provide you with a clear breakdown of all the information you need to make the best decision for your business.

How Much Time Does Social Media Require?

Even though having these accounts is free (unless you spend money on ads), that doesn't mean there are no costs associated to using these platforms to your benefit.

Since time costs money to business owners, let's look at the amount of time the average business owner spends on this entity.

According to a survey by Vertical Response, about 43 percent of small businesses spend about 6 hours per week on social media.

Writing and posting a weekly blog post can take 1-3 hours to do. So this means it takes a full day to write, schedule, and post plus write and post a blog article each week.

This is assuming you, the business owner would be doing everything required to fulfil these two marketing tasks. If you decide to hire someone to help, then the money you pay out needs to be the ROI factor as opposed to your time.

The Benefits of Social Media

On the flip side let's look at the advantages of social media for your business. In general, there are 5 benefits a business owner can count on if using this type of marketing:

1. Relationship Building: This is an excellent way to build relationships with prospects. It provides an opportunity for multiple exposures to your fan base by using a mixture of information and calls to action.

2. Lead Generation: Add followers to your email marketing list by sharing links to downloadable freebies on your accounts. This allows you to send follow-up emails and information that can lead to sales.

3. Traffic Generation: SEO optimized blog posts can help your website rank higher for important keywords in the search engines. Plus, when you post blog articles, you can tell your followers about them and share the link to your blog to read more.

4. Consistency: Staying top of mind requires frequent marketing touches. With many people spending hours a day checking their Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts on their smart phones, social media gives you lots of exposure to your target market.

Sharing daily posts and weekly blog articles keeps the relationship with your customers strong.

5. Customer Service: This offers an easy way for customers to reach you with questions, problems, or complaints about your products and services.

This gives you a chance to respond immediately to address the issue. Plus, giving the VIP treatment to customers in need shows that you are a company who cares and goes a long way towards building your reputation online.

Tactics That Drive Results

What actions should your business be doing regularly on social media to generate the best results?

Here are just a few of the tactics you should be employing on your social media channels:

- Strategically planning content in alignment with sales goals

- Curate content on a regular basis

- Promote LinkedIn Pulse and blog posts on social media

- Interact with other pages and groups to attract new followers

- Create and share graphics, photos, videos and infographics

- Listen and respond to comments on your own social media posts

- Engage in social listening and respond to those who mention you

- Promote high engagement posts with ads

- Review analytics and reporting on engagement posts and reach

- Plan opt-in freebies to share for list building

- Write and post blog posts

- Look for guest blogging opportunities

- and so on...

So you can see to really stay ahead of the game, realistically, you need to have a dedicated person or hire some help to do it right.

The ROI of Social Media

Because the benefits of these efforts are often intangible, such as the amount of brand exposure your business would get, it's often difficult to put an actual number to the ROI of your social media efforts.

But if you look at it this way, just a few new customers every month (depending on what you sell) would more than likely pay the costs of doing social media marketing for your business.

Plus, if you hire someone to manage your social media, it frees you to focus on other revenue-generating activities.

Bottom line, if you aren't on social media, you are missing out on business. The opportunity cost of not marketing within this realm is with lost visibility, less website traffic, slower list building, and weaker relationships.

Susan Friesen is the founder of eVision Media, a boutique web development and Digital Marketing firm of over 15 years that specializes in designing, building and marketing professional, unique websites for entrepreneurs, businesses and organizations

Starting Sept 21st, she'll be sharing her best secrets with a small exclusive group of individuals in a new 21 Day Social Media Challenge.

She'll be posting short, powerful tasks you can do to take your marketing to the next level.

Top 4 Tips To Attract Visitors To Your Site

One of the common questions among clients is how they can get more visitors on their websites. While the website doesn't have anything wrong with it as it is professionally designed but the problem is that it is not promoted well enough to get more visitors.

If you want your audience to pay attention to your work, you need to earn it. You cannot expect your job to speak for itself and accept that marketing is a part of your job.

Here are four ways which you can use to attract the right kind of visitors to your website.

1. Create and amazing blog.

You must not only post here when you have a new client or something new to sell, but you must make a blog that can grab people's attention by giving entertaining and useful material regularly.

• You can write about
• How you made the product - with pictures and videos.
• From what you were inspired - your audience will like it if you like it as well.
• How your viewers can make a similar product to yours
• Also about any gadget that helped you made your work better.
• Instead of writing your opinions in a long paragraph, you can:
• Devote an entire blog for ONE idea.
• Make a compelling headline.
• Give solid examples.
• Invite comments that end by a question.

Also, don't forget to ask for subscriptions. Repeat visitors should be kept close. Therefore, people an email option when subscribing so it is much easier.

In addition, make sure you're encouraging them to comment and like and share your content. Engagement is essential and it's a great gauge for you to discover what content your readers are seeking the most. When done properly, this can also give you a big boost from an SEO perspective.

2. Give (some of) your best work for free.

• Give people something valuable to share with their contacts.
• The first chapter of your novel
• A free report filled with important information
• High-resolution images
• A series of tutorials

Make sure whatever you give out, and it is valuable otherwise, no one would get excited about your products. Also, make sure you have plenty more in reserve for the people who want to buy from you.

3. Borrow someone else's audience.

Write high-quality guest posts for famous blogs in your niche and get yourself on the radar so people want to reach to you. This could potentially get you hundreds of new subscribers without trying that hard.

4. Get your content into circulation.

Use social media platforms to circulate your content. Share other people's content more than your own as it attracts more people's attention.

7 Steps to Building a Successful Social Media Strategy

Social media has been termed as the fastest growing marketing tool of the decade, as it gives companies the power to access millions of customers at the touch of a button. With over 91% of Internet users using at least one social networking tool, it has become imperative for every business to build an effective strategy. Here are 7 key steps towards developing a successful social media strategy for your business.

1. Establish your goals

The launch of a strategy is similar to any other marketing strategy. Determine what exactly your goals are before opening accounts in major social networks. An important point to be kept in mind is that social media is a long-term strategy aimed at building and strengthening relationships and brand identity as opposed to a quick selling marketing gimmick.

2. Create a plan

Your marketing plan should include choosing the number of social networks to get started with, determining the number of times each account will be updated and deciding on whether the updates will be announcements or conversations. You will also have to decide on how to integrate your social media strategy with your company's overall communication's strategy.

3. Appoint a social media manager

If you have adequate resources it is preferable to appoint a social network manager, with previous experience, to handle the regular updating of the different social networks. If not, you can delegate the updating task to a few of your employees who are familiar and comfortable with the domain.

4. Determine your niche

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, YouTube, Reddit, Yelp; the list keeps growing day by day. Each network comes with its own strengths and weaknesses and opportunities and threats. You have to research and determine as to which network will work best with your target audience. Remember that your niche will vary depending upon whether your business is local, regional, national or global.

5. Engage with your contacts

This can be termed as the most important aspect of a social media strategy. Your contacts are the main influence you have in building and sustaining a positive corporate identity. Engage with your contacts through both online and offline events. For example, social microblogging site Twitter offers opportunities for online engagement through TweetChat and offline events through Tweetup.

6. Evaluate and analyze your progress

Keep track of important statistics like the number of updates, new number of followers/fans that have been added, number of comments/feedback and other significant actions that were taken. Objectively measure and analyze these vital metrics against your social media goals on a weekly or monthly basis.

7. Adapt and improve when necessary

In conclusion, it is important to remember that there is no precise science where social media strategy is concerned. Strategies vary in accordance with business type and industry. It is only as you keep using the media, that you will be able to grasp what particular strategies work well for your company and what don't. For example, you may have learnt that while holding contests on Facebook may get you more 'likes', it may not necessarily help you connect with your preferred target audience. The secret is to not give up but to keep adapting and making improvements to your social media strategy whenever needed.

Social Media Tips For Beginners - Social Media Jins

Social media tips can be used by beginners very profitably and you can start your business with a company presence or profile on different, but suitable, social networking sites. There has been and will be a huge swing towards blogs and other free distribution platforms. There is an increasing trend towards getting every-day news and entertainment from bookmarked blogs or daily feeds straight to their inbox. There has been an increase in the trend in marketing techniques being used to engage customers and prospects.

There are many ways to increase your new media network. Latest new technologies are coming up every day to improve the working of these sites and it will also help to improve your business.

The new methods that are gaining popularity in using social media for improving business are:

• The explosion of eBooks
• Use the market strategy based on a blog, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook
• Video marketing is becoming a top online marketing tool
• Mobile marketing will stake its claim as the medium for all social marketing sites

There is an increase in attracting new customers from social media outlets, like blogs and forums. These are more in number as compared to print and radio advertising programs. Building relationships by listening and getting back to customers is a key factor that divides average businesses from the grand ones. Nowadays, new media sites and tools are becoming one comprehensive collection and there are all types of sites and tools for each and every business. A With this in mind, a company's social media management system should have one platform from where all the sources can be managed.

If you are out to attract prospective customers, you owe it to yourself and the financial future of your business to learn everything you can about social media.

Hiring a Social Media Manager: 21 Questions to Ask - Social Media Jins

The Social Media Manager is becoming the go-to person for businesses who require assistance with their online marketing efforts. It's no secret the impact social marketing can have on a business and the advantages its brings. And it's also no secret that most business owners cannot handle their social marketing all on their own.

A Social Media Manager does a whole lot more than just posting status updates on profiles. Social media management encompasses figuring out the who, the what, the when and why. Who does your business want to reach? What is needed to reach them? Where are they most active? Why should we use social media as part of our marketing efforts? Many businesses are finding that outsourcing or hiring someone to manage their campaigns is becoming an important part of using social media for marketing. An outside individual can usually see the bigger picture more clearly.

Social media management is a position that has attracted a huge amount of attention and membership in recent years. I see the main reasons for its popularity as:

- Low entry barriers
- A high demand for the services
- Big rewards

But is it really for everyone? Honestly, there are now a lot of social media managers. Some very, very good. Some really, really bad. So how do you filter out the bad ones and find the good ones? Well, the good social media managers will know their stuff and they understand what it takes to be successful.

Here are 21 questions you can ask your potential social media manager and what the better answers should look like...

1. How do you define success?

The amount of followers isn't the only sign of success in social marketing. A social media manager should be able to help you define success on a strategic and tactical level, in order to support your larger marketing goals. If a social media manager has a limited view of success, or is unable to explain performance measurement beyond the volume of audiences, they won't be able to provide you with higher level strategic solutions.

2. What sort of results can we expect?

A good social media manager will manage your expectations and let you know what results you could achieve. Remember that social media managers are not psychics. They should act on your behalf using the best practices of the industry, but there is a lot that is out of their control. They should be able to give you a rough idea of what they bring to the table based on their previous results and experiences. If a social media manager cannot communicate this effectively to you, then they probably don't have the level of experience you need.

3. How is ROI defined in social marketing?

Contrary to popular thinking, ROI can always be measured in social marketing. But it can be perceptual. What are your goals? Were they achieved? If so, then you had a positive ROI. Did your campaigns help your business in any way or have any positive effects? If they did, then you were successful. Social marketing ROI is not always tied to tangible business benefits. Ask the social media manager which factors can be measured and how they will be reported to demonstrate the value they bring to your business.

4. What social platforms do you specialise in? Why would these particular platforms be right for our business?

Different social networks have different audiences and practices. Not every network is right for every business or industry. For example, how could a pharmaceutical company possibly engage in drug marketing on Twitter? The reality is that most businesses can take advantage of the networks out there in some way, but if there are limitations, you want your social media manager to be aware of them.

5. Should we be on every social platform?

A social media manager who has done their research on your business should know your target audience. How this is answered is the key because it provides you with an instant understanding of their perceptions of your business. If a social media manager extends your business visibility to many networks, then your marketing efforts may spread too thin and mean some of the campaigns might suffer. They should pick where your target audience is already situated and focus on maximising performance on those platforms.

6. Would Google+ be worth using for our business?

This should highlight the extent of your potential social media managers Google+ knowledge. Google indexes Google+ content faster than content posted anywhere else. It's a platform that has grown rapidly since its launch in 2011 and is now one of the main social platforms. A social media manager should know this and should understand whether your target audience is present there, thus viable for your business, and how Google+ can be leveraged to fulfill your wider marketing objectives.

7. Could you give us an example of a limitation on a social platform that you have experienced? How did you overcome this?

A social media manager should know that social networks come with limitations; API calls, bandwidth limitations, character limits etc... If a social manager has never run into limitations and hasn't experienced how to overcome them, then this likely means that they are not very experienced. In fact, they will probably be completely new to the social landscape. Asking how they overcome any hurdles with their past or current clients will give you a good indication of how they respond to adversity.

8. Can we run a "Like and Share to Win" style contest on our Facebook page?

If a social media manager does not know the answer to this, then move on. Its imperative you find someone who knows the rules and guidelines of each and every social platform and who will not have your business in violation of any Terms of Service. As a heads up, on Facebook you have to use a third-party app to host the contest and cannot use the 'Share' button, 'Like' button or require a comment in order to be entered to win.

9. Have you ever had to handle a social marketing crisis? If so, could you provide an example?

Asking a social media manager to define what that 'crisis' means to them can highlight their level of experience. If their biggest crisis consists of miss-typing a URL on a Pinterest pin and not noticing until their client asks why there's so many messages about broken links, then chances are they are vastly inexperienced. It's also insightful to ask what steps they took to resolve the crisis and how the situation was handled.

10. Could you show us some of the clients or projects you are currently working with?

Any reputable social media manager will show you their client accounts. And be proud to do so. Some profiles will probably be doing better than others depending on each campaigns goals and strategies. If they dodge the question or cannot show you anything, then it should rightfully lead you to think they are hiding something. Social media managers who take pride in doing quality work should want to show you their portfolio. Imagine turning up to a sales pitch without a product sample. Clients would never even think about placing an order unless they can see what they are buying.

11. How would you allocate our social marketing advertising budget?

A social media manager should be able to describe a plan for how best to allocate your advertising budget and how they would know if it's successful. Specific metrics and KPIs should be given, analysed and reported. The choice of advertising platform will also allow you to gauge their perception of where they think your business should be promoted, in what format and to what audiences.

12. What will our responsibilities be as a client?

A social media manager doesn't operate in a vacuum. They will need to be in the loop with your other marketing activities. You'll also need to provide any necessary resources and wider marketing information or materials. A social media manager should have clear guidelines for their role, and yours as a client. This should typically be communicated to you prior to establishing a working relationship.

13. What are our competitors doing in social marketing?

Any social media manager who values your work opportunity will do initial research before sitting down with you. If they doesn't know what your competitors are doing, it should raise alarm bells. A social media manager should be able to give you insight into the way your competitors are using the major social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube right from the offset. This can always be researched fully later, but will give you an idea into their proactiveness and organisation.

14. How do you evaluate new social platforms? How do you stay on top of the latest updates and innovations in Social Marketing?

The social landscape is always changing. Even the most experienced social media managers need to refine their skills, update their strategies and practice new techniques. A social media manager should have experience with building engagement and showing results across multiple platforms and with several different tools. There are some platforms considered to be the juggernauts right now, but remember the days of AOL, MySpace and eBay? Would you hire a social media manager who pitched engaging your I.T customers on MySpace? I doubt it. The point is that the social landscape is dynamic and a social media manager should be constantly evaluating new platforms and making recommendations to you on whether they are suitable for you to explore.

15. Do you offer community management in your Social Marketing services?

Social engagement doesn't end when you publish your Facebook page. In fact, creating profiles is often the 'easiest' part of the process. The execution of the community management strategies that follows is the more difficult (and more expensive) element. It is important to know how your social media manager approaches community management and what strategies and tactics they will use to interact with your audiences. If you don't know this, then you will have no clue on how they will manage your brand online. You should have guidance and offer feedback into how your business is positioned and wants to be perceived online.

4 Ways to Use Facebook and Twitter Analytics to Enhance Your Online Marketing.

16. Do you have your own blog? Do you currently write content for various Social platforms?

Social media managers should practice what they preach. You can ask to see their blog in action and see if they are posting regularly. Being a social media manager is about so much more than updating Facebook and Twitter. Content should be balanced, otherwise your social streams will either be giant advertisements or lists of interesting articles that they came across. A good social media manager will be able to write effectively, allowing you to have a constant stream of interesting and engaging articles. They will also be SEO savvy and content will be optimised to have the right keywords in the right place, ultimately linking back to your business. You can ask to see what articles they have already written so you can determine whether or not their style of writing would fit your business.

17. What blogs or social sites do you regularly read?

Social marketing is always evolving and effectively marketing on social platforms can be a bit like trying to hit a moving target. Google+, for example, had become a commonly used tool for 40% of marketers within only a year of launch. That is a huge gain in such a small space of time. This is just how social marketing works. New blogs and social sites come and go within the blink of an eye. A good social media manager should stay on top of these changes, which means a lot of reading. They should be able to list multiple reputable social sites and explain why it is they follow them.

18. What is your understanding of Edgerank?

Social media managers that know their trade will be able to explain about Edgerank to you. Edgerank is basically what runs Facebook posts. Without knowledge of this, they will have little insights into how to properly optimise Facebook campaigns. Edgerank determines who sees what, when they see it and how often it's seen. It also provides a good picture into their technical knowledge and understanding of social marketing.

19. What do you think is the most important thing a Social Media Manager should be doing?

A solid answer you should look for would be something along the lines of 'monitoring' and/or 'listening' to your audiences within your social domains. It's quite an ambiguous question, but the answers will provide insight into their general thinking about managing your social campaigns. The key word many fail to incorporate is social. If answers are not somewhat geared towards a social dynamic, then they have missed the point completely.

20. Could you tell us a story?

These type of answers are commonly used in interview processes to see how someone reacts to a random question. In this instance, it's actually a well-thought out question for two reasons. Firstly, if a social media manager has the ability to tell a compelling story, that will give you a huge advantage in all levels of your social marketing activities. Secondly, it puts them under pressure and you are able to gauge how they handle something unexpected.

21. Why should we hire you?

I honestly don't like this question but I think it is fair to ask a social media manager this directly before hiring in order to see how they can sell themselves. This could have strong implications if your campaigns are tuned towards sales and lead generation. A social media manager should demonstrate how valuable they can be to you and what makes them different or valuable in your situation.

There are definitely more questions that could be asked. Some will no doubt be specific to your business or industry. Hopefully, asking questions like these will help you determine the right social media manager for your business.

What questions would you add to this list?

Essential Elements of a Good Social Media Manager - Social Media Jins

When hiring any social media manager to take the lead role in your campaigns, it is essential that you find the right person because they will be representing your brand.

If you are an organization that deals with a great number of social issues, a person's lifestyle and online presence may have a huge effect on choosing the right candidate.

List the qualities and skills that you consider the most important must have's for your brand and narrow your candidate choices based on those factors.

When you have narrowed down your choices, prepare what you want to know in advance, so you will already have an idea of what type of individual you are looking for.

Here are things that you may wish to consider asking when you interview them:

Do you feel comfortable taking the lead role in creating projects alongside our other departments in order to gain valuable company experience?

The answer to this question is vital because many social media managers do not understand SEO principles and this can cause a huge conflict if the posts and content they are posting is effecting SEO and vice-verse.

These two departments need to work seamlessly together for effective marketing to take place.

Do you like to work in a variety of different inbound marketing arenas?
If the social media manager is only able to post to platforms, but lacks skills in basic design, email marketing and content areas, they will not always be the best choice for your company.

Social media marketing involves a great deal more than just posting. Posting is what virtual assistants do, not managers. Managers should posses at least some of the skills that are listed in the job specific details below.

Are you up to date on today's latest on line trends? Are you energetic, creative and resourceful? Do you work well with others and are comfortable taking some direction?
This question is very important as the position requires the person to get along with others and find a variety of creative approaches in order to get the job done.

Social media marketing plays an integral role in assisting the corporate management team with overall brand strategy and requires the individual to communicate, promote and implement future marketing strategies through a variety of in bound marketing concepts.

These inbound marketing strategies may include some or all of the following skill sets; graphic design, e-mail marketing, promotion, SEO content, event planning and other services and tools that the company utilizes in order to maximize its brand initiatives. If the candidate is not able to utilize a variety of different applications, software and mediums, it is unlikely that they will be effective.

Many workers in this field think they are managers, just because they post on platforms, this is not so. They do not understand the concepts of marketing, they are only engaging, there is a difference!

Specific Skills Required to be a successful manager:

• Social media marketing candidates should be expected to have some of the following personal skills:
• A strong understanding of branding products and customer service.
• Excellent communication skills, and the ability to sell ideas through a variety of different means.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Basic design and graphic skills.
• A strong understanding of online marketing concepts such as video marketing, social media, email marketing and content creation.
• Exceptional writing and editing skills, as well as, the ability to adopt the style, tone, and voice of the brand's blog platform.
• Excellent organizational skills to be able to work independently and manage projects with many moving parts.
• Be sociable and engaging with other people.
• Possess exceptional leadership and group building skills.
• Socially responsible, humorous and open minded.

While not every skill is as important as the other, and let's face it, not every one can have all the skills required, it is expected that the candidate possess a least a considerable number of them.

The same can be said about the specific job skill requirements, which are:

• The ability to work and communicate with the appropriate department managers to launch corporate strategies.
• Create or gain access to content that helps articulate the value of the brand.
• Conduct Product research and marketing trends analysis.
• Provide detailed information, training, and product marketing reports to sales reps and other departments when necessary.
• Properly start up and maintain numerous social media accounts such as, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, etc under the guidance of the marketing manager.
• Provide communications on social platforms in a consistent, on-brand voice.
• Search and join brand related social media platforms.
• Create and evaluate social media strategies.
• Assist in growing the company's social media reach.
• Submit various types of articles on a wide range of topics for its' blog.
• Proper writing and editing skills are a must.
• Contribute to long-form content projects such as e-books and newsletters.
• Conduct analytical projects to improve blog strategies/tactics and expand users.
• Practice white-hat, honest, and creative SEO tactics.
• Assist in managing email campaigns from start to finish, including planning, testing, evaluating, and reporting.
• Developing and optimizing lead nurturing campaigns.
• Developing event planning specific strategies for the brand.
• Keeping up to date with practices and standards in the email marketing industry and growing the brand through its lists.
• Assisting all departments in day to day operations.
• A minimum of 2-3 years of prior experience in marketing or sales.

The truth is social media marketing entails a great deal more than just creating a few posts for Twitter and Facebook, it requires a great deal of time and patience and creative thoughts on the part of the manager to be able to carry campaigns for long periods of time.

Results are hard to quantify and are rarely measured in direct sales.

Business Owners Learn Social Media

What is all the talk about "My Face, LinkedTube and TwitIn ..." or is that Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter. If you are confused, you are not alone, but how does the average business owner learn this new language for results? Here are a few easy steps to help make the leap to social media.

First of all, it's just communication and that is nothing new. We have been communicating about business for years. All that has changed is the medium. What was it like when the phone came about? I'm sure people said "I don't have time for this telephone stuff, I have work to do". Yet, we found a way to integrate the telephone into our daily work life and have used it to produce results. The same goes for Social Media.

Second, you didn't learn to ride a bike by reading a book or just talking about it. You got on it and tried and after a few scrapes and bumps later you were off to the races. That's the way it is with Social Media, just try it and work with it so you will understand the dynamics and how it works.

Third, it's about relationships. Business people have been connecting at Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, Reading Clubs, and Social Clubs; Networking events like BNI, golf clubs and sporting events, then building business relationships. This is exactly what is happening in Social Media today. We simply connect on line in addition to meeting in person or in place of meeting in person. Sometimes we meet on line then meet in person.

So post your picture on LinkedIn or Facebook and reach your virtual hand out to meet and greet people in the world of the internet. Yes, sales will follow, business will get done and experts will be found, just like we have been doing for years in the real world.

The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Great Social Media Manager

A great social media manager is, as Ron Burgundy would say: "The balls".

It's an undisputed fact that every business needs to be active in social media. The ever-changing demands of the modern day consumer requires brands to think fast and adapt quickly in order to stay one step ahead.

The role of a social media manager has appealed to the mass generation of socially-active internet users. It's hard not to. Especially when some might think that you can earn big bucks from posting Facebook updates. Hardly.

Being a social media manager is kind of like being a stand-up comedian. You have to quickly understand your audience and your engagement with them is vital. In order to accomplish this, you need to know if the audience is laughing at your jokes and you need to know this in real-time. If you can do this, then you have already won the crowd.

So, how do you become a social manager? More to the point, how do you become a great social manager?

The answer will be surprising to some. Firstly, you have to want it. Second, you have to love it. Third, you have to learn it. And even if you tick all these boxes, you should ask yourself: "Am I a social person?" If the answer is no, then becoming a social media manager is probably not for you...

So let's take a look at the stats.

• LinkedIn shows 57,910 results for "social media manager"
• Social media has now overtaken porn as the number 1 activity on the web
• 97% of all consumers search for local businesses online
• 71% of consumers receiving a quick brand response on social media say they would likely recommend that brand to others
• 93% of marketers use social media for business
• In terms of difficulty of execution, nearly half (49%) of B2B marketers put social media marketing at the top, followed by content marketing (39%), SEO (26%) and mobile (25%)
• 77% of B2B marketers use a blog as part of their content marketing mix
• On average, 25% of marketing budgets are now spent on content development, delivery and promotion
• 78% of small businesses attract new customers through social sites
• When asked to rank their company's social business maturity on a scale of 1 to 10, more than half of global business executives gave their company a score of 3 or below

But the statistic that is most relevant to this article is:

• Just 12% of those using social marketing feel they actually use it effectively.

Being a social media manager brings with it some key benefits within a freelance setting. The most recognisable being the fact that you are your own boss. You make the decisions and answer to no one. You send the invoices and you set the policies. Heck, you could sit in your underpants all day on the computer if you wanted to.

The other is money. It is an in-demand role, but one that companies are still struggling to come to terms with. Some companies realise and understand the value social media could bring to their enterprise and are willing to invest heavily in robust social media campaigns. Being your own boss, you can decide how to set your costs and price accordingly.

Another attractive reason is the low barriers to entry. With low start-up costs and plenty of online resources (like this one!) to rapidly decrease the learning cure, anyone can launch a freelance social management business within a short space of time.

I'll tell you my story shortly but first, let's explore the essential skills you'll need to become a great social media manager..

Fundamental Skills:

Marketing Knowledge

You should have a good grasp of the basic marketing principles. Some education in marketing would be beneficial, but otherwise you can find many quality resources online.

Experience

Your experience doesn't necessarily have to be limited to life experiences. Have you managed your own social media profiles for a while? Do you know how to effectively maintain your own social accounts and understand what clients expect?

Sociable

I touched on this at the beginning of the article. If you are not a sociable person - someone who doesn't like communicating much and isn't very outgoing, then becoming a social media manager just isn't for you. Sure, you can hide behind a keyword and monitor for a while, but clients will usually want to meet, speak on the phone, or have Skype sessions at some point.

Project Management

You don't have to have a Prince2 certificate, but you do need to be able to manage projects and your time well. It's typical for social media manager's to work with multiple clients at any one time. Keeping tabs on everything is important so that it doesn't get overwhelming.

Technological

Social media exists online. Therefore, you need to have a certain degree of computer literacy. Having good knowledge of social technology will enhance your services and ensure you are keeping up to date with the latest social trends and developments.

Interpersonal Skills:

Communication

It kind of goes without saying that if you're going to be representing a company and engaging with their customers, then you will need to have strong communication skills.

Personality

Companies tend not to want to hire people with no personality to act on behalf of their brand. It doesn't resonate well with them, or their audiences.

Responsiveness

I've touched on this a few times - social media is very fast-paced. Imagine if one of your social assignments was largely focused on customer service and you didn't respond to customer complaints or queries for weeks. People online want rapid responses. Being able to fulfil these needs can stand your client (and you!) in good stead.

Entrepreneurial

To become a social media manager in a freelance capacity, you have to be a self-starter. You should be willing to go the extra mile and take a few financial risks along the way. If you don't land a job that pays enough in one month, how will this affect you?

Multitasking

A great social media manager must be able to effectively carry out a wide range of tasks.

Organisation

You should always be very well organised when delivering social media management services. I use all kinds of traditional tools like calendars, white boards and task lists to keep myself organised. I also use many online organisational tools, such as: Thunderbird for accessing all my email accounts in one place, Dropbox to easily share documents with clients and bookmarks to keep track of all the websites I frequently visit.

Strategic Thinking

Being able to think campaigns through before they happen and sometimes thinking outside the box when needed, are great asset to have as a social media manager. Clients tend to want to know how you will do something before letting you do it, so being able to present a clear and concise strategy is essential.

Flexible (with travel)

Contrary to popular belief, a freelance social media manager has to leave his office sometimes! If this is a problem for you, then you should think about starting another profession. Nearly every sizeable project I undertake involves multiple meetings with the client. You should have reasonable pitching skills, as you may be required to sell your services face to face too, before being hired. You may even opt to take on in-house work.

Wider Skills:

Copywriting

Every good social media manager is a great writer. Writing forms the foundations of many aspects of online marketing, be it creating ads, writing blogs, engaging with customers, scripting sales copy or writing press releases.

Graphic Design

Pretty much all social media platforms provide the functionality to customise the interface and incorporate your own branding. If you are sharp with Photoshop (or similar design software), then you are in a good position to offer these services as part of your social media package. Similarly, creating content such as infographics, banners or images is standard practise for a social media manager.

Advertising

Every social media manager should have sound knowledge of advertising. Be it Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising or banner advertising, you should know the ins and outs of each discipline and understand how to optimise each format.

PR

Public relations is closely tied to social media marketing, in the sense that both involve managing the spread of information between a business and the public. You may start out not needing to have a deep knowledge of PR, as it is typically managed by larger brands who have an interest in persuading stakeholders, investors or the public to maintain a certain point of view.

Statistical

Everything in marketing should be measured. You should periodically measure and analyse your social marketing performance and produce reports to your clients to demonstrate your value.

SEO

Understanding how social media affects search engine optimisation will ultimately improve campaign performance. In 2012, there was an average of 5,134,000,000 searches on Google every day. If you think SEO doesn't matter to your social activities, think again.

Traditional Marketing

Even though you generally won't be involved in traditional marketing practises while undertaking a social media management role, you should understand how both forms of marketing affect each other and how each can be best leveraged to complement the other.

Video Editing

This will probably be the least used of your wider skills, but nevertheless it can assist you in your social marketing positions. I've had a few clients that required presentations or demonstration videos to be edited before being used within their social media campaigns. I'm for sure no expert, but having a reasonable level of knowledge in using Windows Movie Maker (or similar video editing software) can turn that video file straight from the camera into a beautiful, YouTube-ready video.

Even if you possess all the necessary skills to become a social media manager, there is still scope to improve your services by using different social tools and software. I'll quickly recap on two different pieces of software I use that may help you in becoming a great social media manager:

Hootsuite: I wrote an in-depth review of Hootsuite on my blog that also includes a video tutorial which should provide all the information you will need to know about Hootsuite.
BuzzBundle: This is my favourite and most valued piece of software I've ever used. I use it mainly to find keywords around my content subject from across a huge range of blogs, forums and social sites and stream all this information back to me in one interface. I can then see who is discussing my topic and jump straight into the conversations to add my two cents.
What You'll Be Expected To Do...

So, what does a social media manager actually do? As you can probably tell by now, the role of a social media manager is diverse. It's not a case of "Well, I post updates to Facebook." Here are a few general activities that social media managers will be expected to execute:

Strategy

You will be required to formulate campaign and platform specific strategies that meet the business objectives. You will create actions plans, content calendars, set metrics and KPIs, undertake various research activities and perform different types of analysis.

Content Creation

Content creates the foundations of any marketing campaign. How you decide to execute your campaigns will depend on the different forms of content you produce. As you would have no doubt already heard from someone, content is king. Believe them.

Community Management

Managing accounts also means managing communities. You should be the go-to person when representing brands in social domains and continually reach out and engage with your audiences. You will need to constantly strengthen social relationships in order to develop long-lasting followers.

Audience Building

Marketing to the same people over and over will not widen your scope and social reach. You should be increasing readership and your level of influence within your target audiences.

Customer Service

Many companies use social media as an instant channel for customer service. You will have to be responsive and helpful in your social activities, regularly being the first point of contact. You will be representing the brand and managing their customer perceptions.

Measurement

Every effort that consumes investment will need to be measured and analysed. I'vve previously written tutorials that demonstrate how you can set up your Google Analytics account on my blog.

Reporting

Once your efforts have been measured and analysed, your clients will want to understand how their investment has performed. This can take the form of visual aids for meetings or digital reports. Reporting is a key ingredient of any social media manager in order to prove your worth and demonstrate the value you have added to the business.

How I Became A Social Media Manager

I've been active in social media since July 2007. This was before the time of all the latest social marketing tools and software that nowadays are ingrained into all social marketers everyday life. Resources or tutorials weren't as widely available that could help speed up the learning curve.

I did find an online course that looked pretty good in teaching me how to turn my social skills that I had been practising on my own accounts into a fully fledged business. I invested £600 on this online course to learn the basics and now that some years have passed, I can look back and say the value wasn't all that great, but the ideas were there. It pushed me to think outside the box and motivated me to start my trajectory towards becoming a social media manager.

So before I had decided to turn my love for social media and networking into a freelance opportunity, I attended Brunel University where I completed my BSc and MSc in Business Management. It was at this time when I jumped on board with the poker boom and started playing online cash games and tournaments. Poker really helped me to develop my own time management, money management and analysis skills. I always knew I wanted to start my own business so this was a good platform to get my feet wet. Throughout my time playing poker, I was always engaged in online social discussions and even wrote a few guest posts for poker sites.

Before I knew it, I was a fully-fledged freelance social media manager...

So to kick-start my freelance social media work, I joined a bunch of freelance sites like Elance, oDesk and Freelancer. I still use some of them today.

After a few years of freelancing on small one-off projects and developing my social marketing acumen, I was hired by an online business services company to run their social media campaigns, as well as handle all their own clients social marketing campaigns. I still work with them today, which just shows the power of forging good working relationships.

I managed to attract clients in most months for the next few years and each project ended up being pretty diverse from the next. This allowed me to develop wider skills that I have since found almost a necessity in order to provide a well-rounded social media marketing service. I mentioned some of these wider skills required to become a great social media manager towards the middle of this article.

I also kept maintaining and building my own social media profiles. It's important to practise what you preach and showcase your expertise on your own domains. My social profiles have regularly attracted clients, which keeps work coming in and builds up my networking potential.

I have been writing on my blog for a few years, but only recently updated my site. My own social activities also serve to build traffic to my sites, where I generate passive income. I like to "listen" to the social environment and engage with people who are already looking for my content. This serves well in building and strengthening connections, as well as attracting targeted traffic.

I have also been a keen guest blogger. I believe that writing articles for other relevant blogs only serves to increase your scope and exposure. Once or twice, I have had my articles featured by online magazines and publications, which was always nice.

Keeping my ears to the ground and getting myself 'out there' was one of the things I promised myself I would do, even though I knew the vast majority of my time would be spent in my home office. I tried to regularly meet up with business connections and clients to make sure they could match an online persona to a real life face. The vast majority of the time, I even managed to remember my business cards!

A strategy I've always tried to employ while freelancing is to try and turn one client into three. What I mean by that is word of mouth is the most powerful advertising there is. People do act on solid recommendations that their friends make. I found that taking as basic an approach as asking clients at the end of projects if they knew anyone who could benefit from social media marketing, worked out surprisingly well.

As social media is such a dynamic environment with start-ups booming and busting every few months, I knew that it was essential to keep up to date with social developments. Every so often, a client would ask me to set up profiles or campaigns on sites that some social media managers would have never heard of. Keeping tuned in enabled me to have at least some knowledge and experience in using these platforms, which dramatically lowered my learning curve and ultimately lead to better performing campaigns.

Around a year and a half ago, I decided to broaden by service offerings and set up a web design company with my business partner. "Thinking Forwards" was born in the summer of 2012. Websites and social media go hand-in-hand, so this enabled me to up-sell my services both ways.

So that brings me loosely to where I am now. Just to be clear; I have never used paid advertising or SEO for my own benefit while being a social media manager. My progression came solely through content marketing and guerrilla marketing tactics.

To Summarise On How I Became A Social Media Manager:

• Joined freelance sites
• Practised what I preached and actively maintained my own social media profiles and blogs
• Kept consistently networking and building my contact lists
• Continually created my own content on my own sites
• Took my content straight to prospects
• Proactively kept asking if people needed my assistance
• Guest blogging and featured articles
• Attended networking events and met up with clients and business contacts
• Tried to turn one client into three
• Kept up to date with new social networks and developments
• Started other initiatives where social media services were complementary
• Never turned down any work or networking opportunities
• Worked long hours, sometimes for small rewards, to build reputation, authority and presence
• I thought I would leave you with some final advice from things I have learnt from my own experiences being a social media manager.

Remember that...

Sometimes you won't be right for a project, even if you think you are
It's OK to work for less than your desired amount, if the benefits warrant it
You won't win every contract, so don't beat yourself up if you get turned down
Things change really quickly in social media, so you will have to continually adapt
You never know as much as you think you do!
Starting a career in anything takes time and effort. If you think it's easy to become a great social media manager, then think again...

I wish you all the best in your future endeavours!

Social Media Jins - Use it Or Lose It

I have used social media to great success. New clients, building relationships on all levels for all areas, etc. I recently held an online contest and gave away 25 of my manuals filled with my company and affiliate product links. I am able to use the opt-n email addresses to send company info they can use in developing their business further. This has been a very important and productive strategy and is bringing in big business, win-win. The increased business is not only from the email marketing, but also from the links within the free manuals.

My success with social media has been booming since starting with it. My company blog is great for keeping clients and supporters informed about what is happening, and for helping people just finding us learn what we are all about.

Twitter is my tool for connection and interaction. I am doing a series of interviews with writers on the blog and have found several to interview via Twitter. It is conversational, and I like the equalizing factor - everyone, big-time or small-time, has the same 140 characters to work with and it's all on you to make those characters sing.

My advice is to stay focused but not narrow. Sometimes I have nothing to say about my business - so I have "Writer of the Week" interviews and social media tips which are user generated content for the blog. I look for new media-related news stories to link in my Twitter feed. I try (with varying success) to keep posts regular to avoid "out of site, out of mind" issues that stem from staying off newsfeeds for too long. And if you want feedback, ask for it. Social media is still evolving so you might as well push the boundaries and see what happens, because even if it only works for you it still works.

If you are out to attract prospective customers and develop your online presence and exposure, you owe it to yourself and the financial future of your business to learn everything you can about social media.