Whether you've taken our Social Media Pro online courses and you are ready to start working as a new social media manager, or you are learning how to be a social media manager as an intern, you will need some fundamental knowledge to get started.
When you are just starting out, as a new social media manager it is important you prioritize the things you need to know versus the things that would be handy to know or learn.
In this article, we discuss five things every new social media manager should know about, and preferably how to do, when starting their own business as a social media manager or agency.
1) Writing a Proposal for Services Offered
As soon as you announce your new business venture in-person or online, you are guaranteed to get inquiries about your fees and services offered, most often from warm leads to start, also your friends and family.
You will need to know how to create a personalized proposal for potential clients.
To do this properly, you will need to have a discovery meeting with this potential client. We suggest you do this via phone or video call and keep it to about 30 minutes.
In this meeting, your goals should include
- getting a sense of their marketing budget
- learning about their social media accounts
- finding out about all their current social media marketing efforts
- discovering their social media goals
Only once you have the answers to these few questions can you write a proposal for these potential clients.
Some new social media manager experiment with their proposal templates.
You could present your proposal as a
- PowerPoint with graphics
- Written Document
- Image-Rich PDF
Whichever way to create your proposal, we recommend you personalize the proposal, and deliver it via email within 72 hours of your discovery meeting with a clear plan to follow up within another 72 hours.
Want to know more about pricing before submitting a proposal? Read our take on pricing.
2) Creating a Social Media Strategy for Clients
Another important step in providing the right services to a client as a new social media manager is to understand how social media marketing relates to traditional marketing techniques and to be able to create an overall social media strategy.
This does not mean just ‘guessing' as to what social channels would work for their industry, but doing a deep dive into what is working for their direct competition and others in their industry.
Ideally, every new social media manager should create a written social media strategic plan for every new client they take on, and charge for it.
When creating a full social media strategy for your new client is not feasible, we recommend any new social media manager perform a quick social media audit, look at current social media trends, and then meet with whoever was in charge of the social media accounts prior you taking over as to get a feel for the voice and current audience.
NOTE: Any brand new to social media needs a written strategic plan. You should insist on it! If you need help with developing this service and selling it as part of your packages, take our Social Strategist Pro course. You'll have immediate access to templates for first contact, discovery call, planning, and follow-up as well as 13 modules of training.
3) Setting Up Both Facebook Business Manager and Ad Manager
As a new social media manager, you will encounter all sorts of clients. Some clients will have no social media presence to speak of and might be new to all things digital marketing and you will need to take the lead on setting things up for them, right for the start.
Brands who do not have their online presence set up properly, or at all, need some extra care up front. For you to even get started with their social media marketing and manage social media, you might need to set up
- Social media platforms
- Google Analytics
- Facebook Business Manager
- Facebook Ad Manager
- Chatbot for Customer Service
Of the above-mentioned services, setting up Facebook Business Manager and Facebook Ads Manager should be prioritized.
Learn how to do this correctly will save you many hours of frustration, if not money in lost business due to loss of ad accounts down the road!
4) Developing a Social Media Content Calendar
One part of a social media manager's job is to develop a social media content calendar. This is usually done on a weekly or monthly basis. Communication between you, the social media manager and your client is important before, during and after this process.
A social media content calendar can be created by using a Google Doc, or with the help of tools like
- Coschedule
- Trello
- Loomly
- Airtable
The client's content calendar should host a variety of content to be scheduled for all social media platforms. Some but not all clients want final say and approval of the content calendar. Be sure to communicate clearly whether your clients want that control over any and all content.
5) Measuring Social Media ROI
The only way that you, the new social media manager can measure ROI is to start with a plan and a social media audit.
If you don't know where you are at the starting point and have no clear goals in mind, you don't know when you are at the finish line.
Almost everything you do as a social media manager can be measured if the proper care is taken to start off right. Having access to Google Analytics will make your job easier; setting up a Facebook pixel and having full access to any and all social media profiles is a must.
We recommend you provide monthly reports to each client.
Gaining Social Media Management Knowledge
If you are looking at becoming a social media specialist, you need to start by gaining as much knowledge as possible about each platform through training.
Learn from those who've gone before you!
Take online classes with social media experts who have tested, tried and succeeded in the social media industry.
How Does a New Social Media Manager Learn More Skills?
Setting up your own accounts and engaging on social media as a social media expert is a great way to try and test new features and to learn new skills needed in your new career.
Looking to run Facebook ads? Why not run some ads for your own business to test your knowledge once you've completed a class or online course?
Have a potential client who needs a video editor? Take an online course, learn and then go out and create some videos for your own business.
In our industry, doing is learning and learning is doing!
Last but not least, connect with your peers; there are many of us in the trenches and we should support each other and share knowledge.
We invite you to join our Social Media Managers group today! We are 31,000 strong and growing.
I am a Certified Social Media Manager, Strategist, International Keynote Speaker, Organic Specialist and Agile marketer! Blogging is my creative outlet. Running, hiking and skiing are how I recharge. You'll recognize me on stage and online by my always present orange glasses, a nod to my Dutch heritage.
