7 different types of social media managers and how they function
By Sharon Akinjeji
The continuous rise of social media and its importance to brands, organisations and individuals is no longer debatable. New job descriptions are sprouting left and right, but one of the most common is that of the social media manager.
A social media manager creates and manages the accounts of businesses and brands, in order to promote and maintain the integrity, impressions and efficacy of the brand, bearing in mind the culture and goals of the brand or organization.
According to Sprout Social, there are 7 different types of social media managers:
1.
The SEO-minded SM manager who sees social as a tool in optimizing his blog /website. He doesn’t care much about feedbacks or engagements but how to get link backs to his blog. This seems like a smart move, but, you will find out that not engaging or listening to your followers can harm your business, it’s like having a discussion in which you don’t allow the other person talk. After a while, they get tired, ignore you and move on.
2.
The advertising SM manager can be likened to those salesmen that won’t let you rest on the streets and are constantly trying to sell you one thing or another. All they do is campaign and pitch, so much so that even when they interact with followers, they do so in order to prod them towards patronising a particular brand or product.
3.
The social butterfly SM manager is the friendliest in the category. These are usually younger and have only used social media for fun before. Now bent on making money from their use of social media, they are constantly engaging followers. This seems like the model social media manager, until you find out that they have zero marketing skills and can’t deal with the pressures that comes with PR and cannot manage crisis properly.
4.
The PR SM managers are the ones that focus on making sure that their clients are well positioned in the minds of their users. They promote events and initiatives, and generally make their clients look good on social media.
5.
The content wizard SM manager is the very good writer that is very information driven, always working towards constantly positioning themselves as experts. They do this by providing the right content that they think would be either entertaining, informative or utilitarian to their target audience.
6.
The scientific SM manager is the data and metric driven manager, who constantly monitors reports, trends and patterns and bases this on improvement of his accounts.
7.
The purebred social media manager is the type that has been specially trained for the position. She knows what the followers want and how to give it to them, she engages and listens to what the people are saying about the brand and how to tackle or improve on them.
This article, as rewritten from Sprout Social, first appeared on IDAfrica.ng.
