I’m sure you have heard the term “social media professional”. Maybe you’ve even been pressured into hiring one for your business. But what the heck is a social media professional? Doesn’t everyone know how to use Facebook and Twitter? Why shouldn’t you just have someone in-house take on the social media responsibilities of your business?
In short, there is no single answer to these questions. A social media professional is thought to be someone with a wide range of skills across relevant social media platforms that displays mastery of marketing strategies, customer service, and online hospitality in their digital footprint. However, there are people who believe that there is no such thing as a social media professional. According to Peter Shankman , the term is meaningless and he’d never hire one. He argues that success in social media is derived from the same skill sets and talents that are possessed by professionals in marketing and customer service regardless of the new technologies brought about by this new digitally-dominated generation. Shankman posits that social media mastery is displayed by using transparency/honesty, the relevance of your products or services, brevity in your advertising, and knowing about your customer–all of which fall under the larger umbrella of marketing.
While I agree with Shankman that it is almost ridiculous to call someone a social media professional, I also agree with another school of thought proposed by Gary Vaynerchuk that it’s more important for a person to display compelling social media skills on their digital footprint rather than a perfect, traditional PDF resume listing off their degrees, jobs, and life achievements. To Vaynerchuk, it doesn’t matter if you graduated Harvard University with a masters in Communication or Marketing and he won’t even read your resume. Instead, it matters that he can search someone on Google to see if they display natural talent through how many relevant social media platforms they’ve mastered and how they interact online through their various social media profiles.
With the direction society is heading, I don’t think that a social media professional will be a real job title. I think that this field will meld back into the disciplines of Marketing and Communication, since social media is becoming a requirement for all businesses and public figures to use both corporately and personally to share ideas and connect with others all over the globe.
Whether a person is educated at Harvard, a local community college, or a high school dropout, all social media professionals seem to share some key skills in common. According to Bailey Seybolt, there isn’t one secret recipe to becoming amazing at social media management, but the most important skills tend to include writing/editing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), customer service, design and photo editing, analytics/reporting, video creation, paid social basics, and research/planning. The best part of all this is that you can be entirely self-taught and still achieve success as an influencer online.
Whether we want to call someone a social media professional or a marketing expert, there is no question that social media has vast benefits for all organizations to the point that it is almost a requirement for success in business now. Social media builds brands and brand-building is one of the most powerful marketing tools that a business can have. This past week, I finally made my logo for my Twitch stream and have been putting it all over my social media. I have gotten a lot of great feedback and it feels great to finally have my very own brand, but some people have noted my logo’s resemblance to Warner Bros because it is the most famous two-letter logo within a shield symbol. What made me feel better was when one friend pointed out that, despite its slight similarity, my logo draws upon the famous iconography of the Warner Bros symbol yet is still unique enough to lend something special to me.
In a brand-driven world, it can be immensely beneficial for us to create our own brands and learn how to promote them through relevant social media platforms. I believe that it is important that we all establish our brands as a thought leaders, since people want to follow the people and organizations who change the way whole industries think and share ideas that open our minds to new possibilities in every facet of our lives. However, it’s not all about these traditional marketing skills. If we aren’t also savvy on the most relevant social media platforms and are simply good writers, communicators, or marketers, then we are missing some really big opportunities for growth.
In conclusion, I don’t think that there is a specific set of skills for a social media manager because there has never been only one right way to treat marketing or customer service. Every organization has its individual needs, so it is important that people strive to apply talent, hard-work, research, creativity, and open-mindedness to every endeavor whether it be a simple Tweet on Twitter, a daily Facebook post, or a live-stream on Twitch. Arguing over the legitimacy of a title called “social media professional” seems as trivial as the age-old “tomato tomato, potato potato” pronunciation debate. Whether we call it marketing or social media, it’s all relevant and it’s all worthy of our awareness. My best advice is to stay open to possibilities and learn new platforms/technologies, but always remember that there are many roads we can take to achieve success through our social media. Everyone is different and the possibilities are limitless!
VITAMINPEE 