What does a Social Media Marketer do?

To be successful in business you need to get in front of as many potential customers as possible. That means having an effective online presence which includes social media. Getting social media marketing right takes some effort and skill that you might not have the resources to do in-house and that’s where social media marketers come in.

Why Social Media Marketing Matters

Before we get into what a social media marketer does, let’s look at why social media marketing matters. Social media can be a cost-effective way to market your business. It’s free to join the major platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) but you can also purchase ads,  starting small and increasing your investment over time. A strong social media presence builds trust and loyalty in your business by letting you share information, create a community, and show that you care about your customers and not just revenue. Here’s how it works.

• Awareness - Having a social media presence not only puts your brand out there for people to see, but creates the chance for followers to share your content. Sharing leads to more likes, follows, comments, and best of all, visitors to your site.
• Audience - To use social media effectively, you have to be social. Social media gives you a chance to connect with your audience and also creates a space for your audience to share with you. A human connection to the people who actually use your product or service can give you insights into what is and isn’t working and allow you to improve and grow.
• Analytics - Analytics help your business develop insights using raw data. The insights, in turn, help you make educated decisions and optimize your marketing campaigns that will lead to more business opportunities.
• Ads - Ads are a great way to reach a broader audience. Social media allows for targeted and retargeted ads. Targeted ads depend on who the viewer is and what they might be interested in. Retargeted ads rely on what people do online and are directed at them based on what sites they’ve been visiting. 

What Social Media Marketers Do

All that sounds great but maybe you don’t have the resources to handle it for yourself. Luckily you can hire professional social media marketers. Here’s what they do.

• Choose Networks - Different social networks have different strengths. Facebook is good for community building, Twitter is good for promoting content, Instagram is good for visual content, etc. A good social media marketer will know these differences and use the one that works best for what you need. For example, they might use coupon codes on Facebook, promotional images on Twitter, or photos on Instagram. A social media marketer relies on extensive background knowledge to make those decisions. 
• Target Marketing - To be effective, a social media marketer needs an audience. They need to find people whose interests are similar to your business. A social media marketer needs to find the people who are likely to purchase your product or service on a social network. They do this by looking at certain groups, hashtags, or even your competition to find market information and promote content more effectively. 
• Get/Engage Followers - A social media marketer has to show that your brand identifies with your demographic to get followers. To make sure people know your company exists, they have to promote the right content at the right time to show up on users’ feeds. A social media manager is also a public relations expert who interacts with outside sources to help get more recognition for your brand. For example, they might talk to key people in your industry to get retweets or mentions to build awareness of your brand. The next step is to engage followers by talking to them, answering their questions, and (hopefully not too often) fielding their complaints. Social media marketers are the first line of defense between your company and the public. They have to promote and reassure happy customers and contain and diffuse unhappy customers. A social media marketer manages complaints so that they don’t explode into something bigger and defuses situations whenever possible. An experienced social media marketer effectively balances all these responsibilities.
• Website Traffic - Social media followers are great but the goal is to get them to your website. To do that, social media marketers will use clever posts and promotional materials that incentivize your followers. On a regular basis, they’ll post blogs, photos, videos, promotions, discounts, deals, or other interesting content that’ll get people to click through. Once people are on your site, your content can convert them into customers.
• Results Tracking - Tracking is essential for any social media marketing strategy. Throughout the process, a good social media marketer will track results to make sure everything is working well. If it isn’t, the data will point to what needs changing.
• Strategy Evolution - A social media marketer does this so that the next strategy they carry out will give your company better results, such as more traffic and customer conversions. To do this, they use data to make changes for future strategies. For example, they might try using different social networks, or reidentify your target market, to get more followers, engage them, and increase traffic to your website.

Whether you want to know more about social media marketing or you’re ready to hire professionals, just let us know how Ellipsis can help!

Tags: social media marketing, social media marketer