What does a community manager do? Can your company’s social media survive without one? What skills does a social media manager need to succeed?

Social media for small businesses is hard work. It’s important work. Every piece of content posted on behalf of your business online represents your business. Whether it’s a graphic, a text-based update or response to questions and comments on your feed, your brand reputation is on the line. Every. Single. Time.

Spelling mistakes matter here, as do emotionally charged responses or, even worse, no response.

You need the right people in place to make it all work – from the frontliners to the ad creators to the person or team managing it all, mapping out the strategy and pivoting quickly as fires erupt.

Who’s managing social media for your business?

Social media isn’t the same as print or radio or TV, some business owners say. Facebook and Instagram and Tik Tok are free so why should I pay someone to manage it for me? I can get a sales rep or my niece to do it for me, right? Just post something about the store and respond to questions and we’re golden. And for a few weeks or months, the postings are random, no interaction, no community growth. And then a complaint erupts into a tsunami of complaints. See, the owner says, we told you this wasn’t going to work.

All advertising costs money. While social media is free, developing (and managing) a strong, sustainable social media strategy is far from free. And make no mistake, everything you do on social media is advertising, from community management to boosting posts to buying ads.

Community manager – nice to have or must have?

A social media manager can be a strategist, copywriter, graphic designer, ad buyer and analyst and customer service rep – often in the same day. It’s challenging work, fun work, sometimes exhausting work – and the learning never stops. Not only is social media constantly evolving, no two customer interactions are ever the same, especially online. Social media can create amazing opportunities for small businesses but it can also feel like a dark and deadly obstacle course with risks around every corner.

When social media is an afterthought, pushed off to whoever’s available, the voice of the brand isn’t developed. It’s an afterthought as well. Postings to the page are random and ad buying is done on a whim, not a plan that can be built on or tweaked as ads are responded to – or not.

Do you need a social media manager for your business? While you may not need one person solely dedicated to social media – it can be a part-time task – you do need someone with their finger on the pulse of it daily, someone who understands your brand and business goals and how to translate social media interactions into lead generation opportunities.

Who is that person in your organization? Someone already there or someone new?

A social media manager’s DNA

In a perfect world, marketing and advertising and, yes, social media, is the halo around your business, the glow that shares your light with the world. Your social media manager sits at the center, acquainted with every nuance and facet of your business. Whether it’s a current employee or a freelancer, they’ll be the voice of your brand. And, just a reminder, their skills will often be needed outside of normal office hours. A customer who posts a complaint on Friday at 6 pm isn’t going to feel attended to if they’re not responded to until Monday morning, which can make a bad situation much worse.

Your community manager is a brand evangelist, customer service lead, sales and marketing and technical support in the eyes of the consumer.

So what skills does your social media community manger need to succeed?

1. Creative communicator. At its heart, social media is a communication tool. Your ideal candidate should be able succinctly convey an idea or story using all the tools available to them, whether it’s emojis, gifs, stickers, pictures, videos or simply text. And while customer engagement is first and foremost, being able to share – with other employees and internal stakeholders – how their work on social moves the business forward is just as important.

2. Crafty writer. The best social media managers are not only skilled at wielding their digital assets to tell a great story, they’re also exceptional digital conversationalists. Their witty updates are as engaging as their clever comebacks and they understand how to tailor all that glittering banter to different audiences and platforms, eliciting emotion in a 150 characters or less. Easy, right?

3. Wildly creative. When it comes to developing social media content, creativity is the fuel that elevates and differentiates your business. But ingenuity and originality – not to mention a sense of humor – also power the mundane tasks, such as the subtle, aesthetic appeal of formatting copy and links.

4. Highly organized AND efficient. It can be a challenge to pair wildly creative with highly organized in one person but in social media, these two skills go hand in hand. Can your social median manager channel all their creative juices into an efficient, executable plan? Are they learning from the data and customer interactions – and reporting on performance with an eye on how to do it all better? Hint, we have a social media calendar to help with the planning phase.

5. Good business acumen. Great social media managers live and breathe their trade but they should also understand your larger business goals too – and other types of advertising that can help achieve those goals. While social media might be your focus, live events, email campaigns, direct mail, radio, TV and print can all help bring more attention to your business. And your social media manager needs to understand how they work together to create a sustainable, compelling brand in the marketplace.

6. Customer champion. Being able to turn everyday interactions on social media into special moments is an important skill. More and more customers use social media to complain and compliment and deciphering the “why” behind those customer exchanges can reveal opportunities for product development, sales and marketing and even future customer connection points. If your customer service representative is a different person than your social media manager, they need to be working hand in hand on a daily basis.

7. Agile thinker. We all know how dynamic – and ever-changing – social media is and being able to pivot on the fly is as important as any of the skills mentioned above. If a campaign is underperforming or a post goes viral, does your social media manager have the authority and flexibility to make decisions and act quickly?

Hiring a social media manager – money well spent

It can be hard to dedicate resources to an initiative that hasn’t proven itself within your company. But in our post-COVID world, there are plenty of examples of companies that can map their success over the last two years directly to their social media activity. And equally as many that can map their demise to their lack of it.

Rather than looking at the cost of social media, maybe it’s time to start asking ourselves what we’re missing if we don’t do it?

If you’re struggling with social media in your company or considering dipping your toes in the online social waters, get professional advice from someone you trust. The money you spend on social media will allow you to ride the wave of social instead of waving from the shore.

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