The hardest marketing job in the world – do YOU have what it takes?
The skills required by an expert social media marketer add up to an exceptionally skilled, highly relevant marketer who is able to deliver results for any brand through multi-channel and multi-platform tactics and accelerate its presence and position on- and offline.
And while you might think “I can just get my niece to do our social media”, with all the behind-the-scenes skills, depth of brand understanding, empathy and activity required (and it’s a lot) to create even one highly successful post, I can assure you she probably can’t (and if she can, she’s a genius – please send her our way).
So here’s what we consider to be the 4 most important innate traits and skills needed to transform an ordinary marketer into an extraordinary social media marketer.
1. Be naturally curious
A social media marketer must have a veracious thirst for learning. They need to be curious about the intricacies of social media marketing and be prepared to up-skill weekly and even daily. Social media does not sit still, and they can’t either.
Social media is the billboard you hold in your hands, so as well as your social media marketer needing a solid foundation in marketing 101- creating TVCs, billboards, Adshels, banner ads, print ads, fliers, posters and more – they also have to have the skills, timing and talent to then translate all that into exceptional social media marketing campaigns every time.
And the way to do this and be the best, is to research and learn every single day. They must want to see what others are doing, to discover what’s happening globally, watch, listen, learn, emulate and recreate the best ideas and campaigns to be even better!
2. Be an exceptional communicator
A social media marketer needs to not just get campaigns across the line, but they then have to bring an entire community with them and prove the online activity worked. How they do this is with carefully curated words and imagery; they are multi-media content creators and communicators.
Social media copywriting is an advanced and often profound skill. A social media marketer must be able to condense big ideas and messages in just a few words using their own raw talent. They have an eye for finding or creating the best photos, graphics, video and copy that communicates the right messages at the right time and generates a call to action that benefits the brand.
And when content is live, they have to continue to engage and drive communications the whole way through. Social media not set and forget.
3. Be really, REALLY brave
Social media marketers are hugely tenacious. Every new campaign is an opportunity to be even more bold, ambitious and audacious than before. A social media marketer’s work is being judged and acted upon by thousands of people every day. Every campaign and interaction needs to WOW, or at the very least be excellent.
And the social media marketer is in the driver’s seat.
In social media, “good” is not good enough. It’s a fast-swipe world we live in online, and a social media marketer needs to grab people’s attention in 2 seconds or less. To do that they have to draw on a well of ideas that challenge the status quo. They have to break the mould, try new things, be completely crazy, and lead not follow.
Then they have to prove that their social media marketing campaign produced phenomenal results with not only reach, views, engagement, shares, but generated a useable database, retargeted and converted sales. Timidity or even doing what’s done before is not enough is social media.
4. Be unafraid of failure or being wrong
There’s no right way in social media – that is its gift and curse. A a great social media marketer will be ready to accept failure and understand that mistakes happen, as well as be agile and be open-minded to new ideas.
They need to accept that sometimes their approach wasn’t or won’t be the best one. They can’t be wedded to one idea. They need to be prepared to change a campaign when it’s already started. If it’s not working, they have to be ready to pull the plug and start again. And this takes resilience.
This makes the job of being a social media marketer hugely challenging, ever-changing, thrilling. The hardest and best marketing job in the world.
This describes our team. Does it describe yours?
