Working in PR and social media teaches you a lot of extremely valuable skills for the workplace. Being a social media professional, you encompass a plethora of title: copywriter, designer, analyst, customer service representative, to mention a few.
It’s a fun role to have and as the world moves digitally at rapid pace, it has become more important than ever. Clementine Com is expanding its social media division to match this demand, offering bespoke packages to help clients get the best out of their social media and grow their business.
Whether you’re a graduate with no experience or a seasoned professional, mastering the key skills laid out below will help you achieve the best results in a social media role. In short, it takes tenacity, determination but most of all, as social media as a domain is continually developing and expanding, a willingness to learn.
Organisation
Organisation is key, as they say. And that’s no different when approaching a job in social media. Perhaps, it’s the most important part of our work. Managing multiple different clients, ensuring posts are going out at the right time (you can use software to help with this) working with design teams, the list goes on…
Making sure you have the skills to spin multiple plates at a time doesn’t necessarily come from a past career in hospitality, but breaking down tasks to their smaller components, placing an importance on internal deadlines and working consciously (adhering to other people’s time restraints) all help to build your organisational skills. We don’t want any dropped crockery to clear up.
Market understanding
For a social media professional, whether you find yourself working agency or in-house, you have to have a thorough understanding of the market that you operate in.
Who are your competitors?
Are there any key calendar dates coming up?
Where are the peaks and troughs in the wider marketing plan for the year?
By understanding this, you’re able to best place your social media strategy and campaigns. How do you do this, you say? Easy. Read, read, read. Read about your industry, read about your client’s industry, follow the competition and ask – how can I make this better? As a brand, what can we offer that will make an impact?
Connect, connect, connect
Much like traditional PR and media relations – influencer relations is a hugely important aspect to consider. At the crux of the matter, social media is about building connections. In order to do this, we as social media professionals need to build real-life connections with the people behind our favourite accounts and blogs. Influencers aren’t robots, well, not yet anyway. So, spend time nurturing those relationships.
Quick thinking
Part of the fun of social media is that it’s real-time, real-fast, real-impact. We need to be able to react to the latest news, comment on trends, and generally be on the pulse. With everything. It might sound a lot, but with the right habits built up (see above), it becomes second nature.
As mentioned previously, with the digitisation of the world, social media is often the first brand touchpoint for many people. As well as a curated feed, you have to have the necessary information readily available too.
There it is, four tips to working in social media. Go forth and like, comment, share and save. Get in touch with socialmedia@clementinecom.com if you’d like to have a chat about how we can transform your business through social media marketing.
