Have you just recently been dubbed the new social media manager at your company and have no idea what the heck that means or what to do next? Then chances are you found this article because you are looking for some serious social media manager training quickly.

Social media marketing is a tricky dynamic.  On the one hand, with Facebook nearing 1 billion users, G+ already at 100 million users and climbing, and YouTube getting 1 trillion uploads a year, you would think that getting your message out on social media is pretty simple.  But with a great amount of eyeballs comes a great deal of competition, and a good social media manager will only be as good as his or her social media manager training.  What should you look for in social media manager training?

Social Media Manager Training | Strategy

The first question you should ask yourself is what is the best media to connect with people?  Social media is much more than just posting on social networking sites and asking people to buy your products.  Rather, social media has to do with engaging people, listening to their responses, and communicating in the best possible manner.  What tools will cause interactions? Photos? Contests? Videos?  All of the above?

I work with Realtors, sport teams, restaurants, etc.. that get miles out of using photographs.  One Realtor will take a photo of the couple in front of their new home with the Realtor’s sign in front and the house in the back.  This Realtor then asks the couple to put the photo on their Facebook Timeline.  The average Facebook users has 130 fans. How great of a recommendation plus advertising combination is that?  I also know a small local sports team that has people go into the stands to take photos of fans at the game and then posts them to Facebook.  The fans will ‘Like’ the page, tag themselves and share the photos.  Every home game gets their Page anywhere from 50-200 ‘Likes’ as well as pages of comments and interaction.  The buzz is tremendous and leads to increased ticket sales.  Finally, I know a restaurant that goes out of its way to take photos from its customers and place them on their Facebook Page.  Like the sports team, they encourage them to go to the fan page, tag themselves, and share the photo.  These examples are just of Facebook, and don’t include what is possible with other sites, like Pinterest.  What type of picture contest can you come up with that will increase engagement on your social media site.

Perhaps the fastest growing aspect of social media that requires social media manager training because it is so overlooked is video marketing.  Video marketing is an incredible way to get your message across.  People prefer to watch how to videos as opposed to having to read instructions.  It’s also a great way to interact with customers.  The sports team mentioned above is running a promotion where they’re asking their fans to create a video explaining why the are the teams biggest fan.  The top 5 videos win a prize.  But they had 3 dozen people send in videos professing their love for the team!  Imagine doing something like this for one of your products?!

Here is a nice video discussing what you can do with video marketing:

Social Media Manager Training | Tools

What is the biggest tool required for a social media manager?  Education and training.  The biggest reason that social media manager training is needed is that most people just don’t know what they don’t know.  There are endless possibilities with social media marketing, but too few people know what can really be done.  This is why social media manager training should be required from anyone who is thinking about using it for their small business or overseeing it at their place of work.   Here are some valuable social media management tools required:

  • Education– you will need to take some sort of social media course.  I recommend that you take a social media course that has video training.  The reason is that video how to training is far more effective because it’s more visual.  Also, it is easily updated.  With text, the print information can be outdated by the time the ink is dry.  Videos can be recreated quickly and easily and will normally contain the most accurate information.
  • Engagement tool– you will need to have a quick, simple, and efficient manner in which to engage with your followers.  If you are active in Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc… and join groups as well, then you may have to log into multiple sites and multiple pages multiple times a day. This becomes tedious.  Plus, your social media marketing is running your company.  Instead, look at a social media management tool that will allow you to run all of your social media postings and engagements from one simple platform.  This one tool will save you hours of time and greatly improve your engagements.

 

Social Media Manager Training | Conclusion

In summary, many thrusted into the position of social media manager underestimate how much strategy and education should go into social media manager training.  They assume that social media management is something that any 14 year old could do from their phone.  But there is much more.  In order to give yourself a fighting chance, you will want to put yourself through some social media manager training so you understand all the possibilities available and then find an all in one social media platform that allows you to quickly and efficiently engage with others.