SMM specialist: main tasks, knowledge and skills

Social Media Marketing or SMM is an active social media promotion. Competent marketing will help to attract the attention of users, form a positive image of the company, create an increased demand for goods or services. An SMM specialist can handle this task perfectly. Who is this and what does he do? Having studied what is included in the list of duties of an advertising manager on Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram or other online platforms, it will be possible to evaluate all the pros / cons of this profession.

The work of an SMM specialist

The work of a social media manager requires maximum involvement - it is an ongoing process that does not include weekends or long breaks. Constant contact with the audience is necessary, therefore, the list of duties of a social media specialist includes the following tasks:

• Content development - writing texts, creating photos or videos, selecting thematic images.
• Maintaining publics and pages - daily publications at "peak" hours, keeping contact, developing and attracting subscribers.
• Interaction with the audience - communication with users, responses to comments, constant monitoring of actions.
• Setting up targeted advertising - drawing up a portrait of the target audience, time and content of advertising publications.
• Conducting activities - interesting contests, polls, opportunities to win a prize for subscribing or commenting.

The SMM manager constantly analyzes the market, monitors competitors' offers and promotion trends in social networks, and is engaged in reputation marketing. It is mandatory to keep records, which detail the actions taken, as well as the results achieved.

SMM specialist: professional skills

Work in social networks requires attentiveness, concentration, constant involvement in the process. It is not enough to publish one post with a short text - and the task for the day is completed. What does an SMM specialist do most often? It studies, analyzes, generates, and most importantly, instantly responds to any user actions. To succeed in this industry, you will need the following professional skills:

• Ability to work with text, understanding the features of writing publications for social networks.
• Competent oral and written speech (knowledge of languages ​​will be an advantage).
• Experience with the target and services that are used to automate the main processes.
• Understanding of web analytics (Google Analytics, Yandex.Metrica) to evaluate the results achieved.

An SMM manager must understand the specifics of promotion in each of the social networks: for example, Twitter and YouTube use different tools. Knowing the current rules and restrictions, as well as the key subtleties that are relevant for different online platforms, will help in the development of the page or community.

SMM specialist: useful knowledge

SMM requires flexibility and mobility. This job is ideal for those who are ready to develop, move forward, constantly changing and tracking trends, responding to any market changes. You need to subtly feel the mood of the audience so as not to lose contact with subscribers. This will help the following personal qualities:

• Non-standard approach to the task;
• self-discipline;
• Sociability;
• Ability to work with large volumes of information;
• Conciseness;
• Stress resistance.

A social media manager has to constantly learn. A good knowledge of English will help with this - foreign resources are rich in information and set trends in the online world. Good taste also plays an important role: the ability to correctly combine shades, as well as select fonts, will come in handy, creating a single, harmonious composition. The original visual of the page will help to attract the attention of users, initially forming a positive impression, and most importantly, increasing the level of trust in the posted information.

Pros and cons of working as an SMM specialist

To appreciate the main advantages and disadvantages of this profession, it is important to understand what an SMM specialist does on Instagram or on other online platforms. The requirements for a social media promotion manager are quite high: it is important to constantly be in touch, control all processes, monitor the actions of competitors, and keep the unflagging attention of subscribers. The benefits of this work include:

• The ability to work remotely, independently planning a schedule - a significant part of the information can be prepared in advance by creating a content plan for a long period of time, following it in a calm mode.
• A specialist is not limited solely to one project - you can develop several publics or pages at once, invariably maintaining a certain level of income.
• The relevance of the profession - you can find many available vacancies, as well as clients who are interested in promoting a business in popular social networks, so a good SMM manager will not be left without work and earnings.

Engaging in promotion in social networks will be interesting for creative people who want to fully reveal their talents. This area actively overlaps with other specialties, so in the future you can easily find yourself in another industry.

Disadvantages in the work of an SMM manager

Despite the attractiveness of this profession, it is not without certain disadvantages, among which it is worth highlighting:

• The need for constant reporting - for a creative person, constantly working with data, plotting graphs or monitoring indicators can cause some difficulties.
• Irregular working hours - working in the interval from 9 to 18 will not work, as well as counting on a long-term vacation.
• Feedback from users - you can often encounter unreasonable insults or hate, so the manager must be ready for this.

The disadvantages include possible downtime in work - freelancing does not provide for a monthly rate, therefore, if there are difficulties with current customers and the need to find new customers, the SMM manager temporarily loses a stable income.

Common myths about the work of an SMM specialist

It often seems that anyone can work in social networks - all you need is a smartphone, as well as a stable Internet connection. In fact, the constant generation of content, the selection of visual design and textual content, takes a lot of effort. In addition, the SMM manager is required to:

• Ability to develop a competent, effective strategy.
• Continuous analysis of results and evaluation of user engagement.
• Proper brand positioning.

Many companies often try to cope with this task on their own, rapidly losing subscribers and trying to keep users with all sorts of contests or activities, which leads to a rapid overspending of the advertising budget. It is cheaper and more reliable to initially entrust this task to professionals - by contacting the eMiS Internet marketing studio, the customer receives confidence in the result and the opportunity to achieve the goal without going beyond the established financial limit.