List of social media marketing skills you need as a manager.

A decade ago, the term “social media manager” wasn’t even a part of the lexicon. Facebook was still new and only used by people to connect with friends. No businesses, no marketing. 

Fast forward a decade, and every organization is involved in social media. It has become a channel for businesses to connect with their customers, leading to more sales. This impact on growth has increased the demand for social media managers. 

Building a robust social media presence requires social media managers to wear multiple hats because of the diverse nature of different platforms. 

The algorithms of every platform work differently. What works on Twitter might not always work for the Instagram audience. Therefore, it’s essential for social media managers to have a comprehensive set of skills (including technical, analytical, creative, and management). 

In this blog, we’re going to look at some of the most important social media marketing skills that managers must have in 2023. 

Let’s jump right in! 

13 Most Important Social Media Marketing Skills You Cannot Ignore

Social media managers have no specific education path or work background. They can come from various fields due to the diverse skills and traits required for the role. 

Here are 13 social media marketing skills and traits that your manager must have in 2023 and beyond: 

Creativity 

In 2021, almost 92% of marketers working for companies with more than 100 employees were expected to use social media channels for marketing. This indicates how crowded this space is. But you’ll see great success when you cut through the crowd and noise. 

Your social media manager will be responsible for creating standout campaigns that bring attention to your brands. This is why “creativity” has to be the most prominent part of their portfolio. 

It’ll help them find ordinary trends and turn them into extraordinary campaigns. Here’s how Oreo creatively seized the opportunity when there was a power out during Super Bowl in 2013: 

Writing and Editing 

No matter how much social media evolves — from text to images and now to videos — captions will always be there. This makes writing a non-negotiable skill for social media managers. 

When social media managers are good at writing, they send a clear brand message to the audience. And with social media, word count is often a limitation. For example, Twitter only gives you 280 characters, making it challenging to be snappy while sharing the brand message and CTA. 

Moreover, typos can hurt a brand’s online reputation (unless done intentionally). Therefore, social media managers should also have editing skills that’ll help them catch all the typos and errors before they hit the “Post” button. 

Understanding Design 

Image and video content generate more engagement compared to posts with just text. Given that visuals are such an integral part of social media platforms (especially Instagram), your social media manager must be able to differentiate between a good and bad design. 

They don’t necessarily have to design the post themselves. You have graphic designers for that. But having a good understanding of design makes their collaboration easier with the designers and enables them to provide constructive feedback. 

Awareness of Pop Culture and Current Events 

Pop culture and current events are the base for every social media trend and meme. It is especially true for Instagram and TikTok, where content is targeted to the younger audience. 

Your social media manager will have to consistently identify ongoing trends and events around the world. And it’s not just to bring engagement by participating at the right time; it also lets you know when you should pause your social media game due to major global events. 

Your social media manager needs to have a good awareness of global events so that you don’t hurt the sentiments of your audience. 

You can use Radarr’s social listening feature to identify trending topics and also keep track of what your audience is saying about you. 

Public Speaking 

Public speaking skills are built upon your ability to communicate to large audiences articulately and with confidence. 

Facebook and Instagram introduced the live stream feature, which has further evolved the social media marketing scene. More than 80% of customers prefer engaging with a brand on their live streams over their social posts, and this makes it essential for your social media manager to have great public speaking skills. 

If you want to be a social media authority in your industry, then how well your social media manager communicates with the audience matters a lot. They have to have the ability and confidence to conduct live sessions, live interviews, QnAs, etc. 

Customer Service 

Social media is one of the first channels where people contact a brand when they have a query. But only 21% of businesses use social media to provide customer service. It’s a good statistic for your competitors if you’re not a part of this 21 percent. 

Social media managers are the face of your company on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. They are the ones who’ll be responding to at least some of the messages that come from your existing customers or target audience. 

Therefore, it is important for them to have good conversational skills and empathy to help the customers out. 

And irrespective of which platform you’re providing support on, you can use the social listening feature to get real-time data from social media platforms. This data tells you what your audience is saying about you. If you find someone complaining, you can reach out to them and solve their issue. 

Community Engagement 

Community engagement, in the context of social media, means retaining the attention and interest of existing customers while also acquiring new customers. Nothing drives conversion better than an engaged community. 

And being the forefront of your social campaign, your social media manager will have to foster digital relationships. They must have the ability to actively listen to what the audience is saying and maintain transparency with them. 

The good news is that with tools like Radarr, social listening and social media responses are only going to get easier. Learn how here. 

Efficient Organization 

Businesses generally post every day. It’s the duty of the social media manager to maintain a calendar for each platform where the business is present. 

But what’s challenging with calendars is a lot of things are subject to change. The designer might get late in submitting the visuals. There might be a global event stopping you from posting. Or even the social media platform can face glitches. 

And to tackle all these issues and ensure a timely delivery, your social media managers need to be highly organized. 

Understanding Behavioral Psychology 

By analyzing data, you can find out the type of posts that work best on social media platforms. But behavioral psychology, on the other hand, allows you to identify the “why” of successful posts. It tells you why some posts perform better than others. 

So, by knowing “what” type of post works the best, you’ll be able to repeat past success. But when you know the “why,” you can understand why something goes trending and can also try to make your own trends. 

Your social media managers don’t need to have a degree in behavioral psychology. But some understanding will take your social media game to the next level. 

Learn how to use psychology in marketing here. 

Curiosity and Adaptability 

When your social media manager is curious about their profession, they’ll dive the deepest into social media. They’ll know all about the latest developments and will not fear experimenting with strategies. 

They’ll also spot the trends quickly. And if they can adapt and make changes to the strategies at the right time, then the engagement rate will also pump up. 

So, combine curiosity with adaptability, and you’ll go miles ahead of your competitors. 

Good Business Sense and Objective-Oriented 

Social media managers don’t need a business degree. But if they have no sense of business, they’d not be able to relate how your conversion rate changes with changes in strategies. 

Now, being able to generate likes and shares is one thing, but creating social media strategies while keeping business goals in mind is what true success looks like. 

Your social managers should see the bigger picture and understand how social media can contribute to growth. They should push the relevant metrics higher to maximize output. 

With Radarr Command Center, your social media managers can monitor KPIs that determine how social media is helping your brand. 

Social Media Data Analytics 

Apart from being creative and curious, it’s essential for social media managers not to fear numbers. Social media platforms generate a truckload of data, and it can be overwhelming for managers if they are afraid of it. 

One of the must-have skills for your social media manager is to be able to wade through this truckload of data and find the relevant metrics and points that lead to meaningful insights. 

You can use a social media analytics tool like Radarr to understand your audience, identify their sentiments about your brand, keep up with the trends, monitor campaigns, and do much more. 

Moreover, if you want to give social analytics training to your hires or want to learn it yourself, you can check out Radarr’s job-ready social analytics course. 

Budgeting 

Social media managers are given a fixed budget to work with. They have to fit their social strategies within this budget and optimize their expenditure in a way that ensures maximum return on investment. 

Marketers claim that 26% of their budget goes to waste because of ineffective strategies. Therefore, having strong budgeting skills is a must for social media managers. They need to estimate their expenses and have some contingency plans ready. 

On a Concluding Note 

Want your social media channels to be a success? You need a social media manager who has these skills. Or at least someone who’s willing to learn all of them. 

You can take Radarr’s 360-degree course on social media analytics to know everything you’ll need to make successful strategies. 

We update Radarr Academy courses frequently with the latest industry benchmarks so that what you learn remains actionable and relevant. 

Explore Radarr Academy Courses today! 

PS. As the new year rolls in, we may add more to this list of social media skills that you need for adapting to different technologies and platforms. Don’t forget to bookmark or save this page.