Do you know how much of an impact a good social marketing strategy could have on your business? Without a professional social media marketer, you’ll always have to play catch-up.

Every small and medium-sized business needs a social media marketing strategy. The internet offers global reach, and social media is an important part of most customers’ lives.

However, many small business owners trudge along with an average marketer.

The average marketer may understand the ideas behind building a strategy. They’ll also be able to handle the traditional marketing techniques that worked in the past. However, without social media marketing training, they can’t help you compete in the modern landscape.

You need a digital marketer. But what does the role of social media marketing entail?

What Does a Social Media Marketer Do?

Professional social media marketers help your business take advantage of the online space. They consider every marketing technique available to them to create a social marketing strategy. This may include, but isn’t limited to, a mixture of the following:

  • Facebook & Instagram advertising
  • Creative direction – professional imagery & videos to promote
  • Content marketing – blogs, articles and posts
  • Building connections with online influencers
  • Social media strategy – organic & paid
  • Social media page management
  • Sales funnels to plug into your social media ad campaigns

Most importantly, social media marketers understand how to weave these techniques together. They create cohesive strategies using a combination of the best ones.

Beyond that, social media marketers are analysts. They constantly examine the data to see what works, and what doesn’t. This allows them to tweak strategies until they find the right blend. This could involve delivering content in certain ways, or updating websites. Sometimes, you may have to focus on certain techniques more than others.

A professional social media marketer can use the tools, whereas the average marketer just has an idea of how they work. The best can even combine social media marketing with traditional marketing. This allows your business to create a strong strategy that reaches as many people as possible.

What Skills Must Social Media Marketers Have?

Social media & digital marketers have a set of profession-specific skills that set them apart. Importantly, they understand that the digital world changes constantly. As a result, they keep track of evolutions in digital strategy to help your business achieve more sales.

The following are some of the skills a social media marketer will employ in your social media & digital marketing strategy.

Skill #1 – Facebook Advertising

There are dozens of ways to market on Social Media. But some methods will be a lot more profitable than others. If you haven’t heard of Facebook and the power it has to grow a business with little investment (compared to traditional mediums) then you must have been living under a rock.

As of June 30, 2017 there were 2 BILLION monthly active users on Facebook and over 1 BILLION daily active users.

Although some marketers will assume the growth of users will eventually plateau, It’s most likely that Facebook will continue to scale until they simply run out of new users to sign up (only a couple more billion to go!)

To put these numbers into context, here are the number of monthly active users on other top social media platforms, according to statistics from TechCrunch:

 

  • Youtube has 1.5 billion monthly active users
  • WeChat has 889 million monthly active users
  • Instagram has 700 million monthly active users
  • Twitter has 328 million monthly active users
  • Snapchat has an estimated 255 million monthly active users

Using the right strategy for your business can mean the difference between hundreds of leads and none. In fact, some of our clients have generated hundreds of extra leads and increased their sales by millions of dollars simply by tweaking their Facebook marketing strategy using tried and tested formulas.

It’s something you don’t want to get wrong, otherwise you’re literally leaving money on the table!

Skill #2 – Digital Networking

You may not think networking has a huge place in your digital marketing strategy. However, you’re wrong. The rise of social media, review websites, and digital influencers make networking as important as ever.

However, digital networking doesn’t work the same way as traditional networking.

Let’s take digital influencers as an example. A digital influencer is somebody who creates content and has a following. They may create video reviews for a certain niche, making their opinions valued for that sector.

Networking with such influencers requires subtlety. You can’t always set up traditional partnerships with them. If their audience detects a hint of bias, they lose credibility. However, you can offer them products and services to talk about. This connects your brand to that influencer. If what you have to offer is good enough, you enjoy the benefits of a good business partnership.

Digital marketers may build working with influencers into your digital marketing strategy. They understand how the online audience reacts to information. Also, they know how influencers maintain their audiences. This allows them to approach such tasks with the subtlety that the average marketer may lack.

That’s just one example of networking in the digital landscape. Social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, also offer you the chance to network. But let’s cover that in the next section…

Skill #3 – Social Media Management

Every big consumer brand maintains a huge social media presence.

There are many reasons for this. Social media offers your business the chance to connect directly with your customers. Through such platforms, you can launch campaigns and receive instant feedback.

You can also use social media to network, as alluded to above, and build your brand’s reputation. For example, your digital marketing strategy may include using the content you share to build yourself up as an authority in your sector. This involves choosing the best content format for the platform it’s shared on. You also have to make sure it gets in front of the right people so that it’s shared as much as possible.

Social media also carries a risk. One misstep in your social media campaign could lead to a decline in consumer trust. Simply put, people expect you to be on social media. They also expect you to act a certain way while using it.

With a digital marketer, you’ll have somebody who can build a good social media strategy from scratch. They understand what users of each platform expect. Furthermore, they understand how to analyse the information each platform provides. This provides them with the information needed to tweak their strategies.

You don’t get that with the average marketer who only uses social media for personal reasons.

Skill #4 – Content Marketing

Gone are the days when you could blast loads of content out to get a response. Rehashes of the same information don’t cut it anymore. In fact, poor content marketing has consequences. You could damage your reputation in the eyes of your audience. Plus, some search engines punish websites that have poor content.

Content marketing also stretches beyond your website. Every 140-word tweet is a piece of content. So is that picture you shared on Instagram. Videos, guest articles, and emails all fall under the content marketing banner too.

The average marketer doesn’t know how content marketing differs between platforms. For example, Facebook isn’t the place to post a 3000-word article. However, your blog’s visitors expect more than a few lines.

That’s all before thinking about how each piece of content must have a theme. Or, how your brand’s marketing guidelines ensure cohesiveness. You also have to think about how it fits into the rest of your digital marketing strategy.

Digital marketers understand that internet content has changed. They know that pumping as much as possible out won’t get results. They can not only create great content, but they know how to use it to full effect. After all, great work means nothing if it doesn’t reach the right audience.

 

man holding smartphone

Skill #5 – Understand Mobile

While the average marketer still struggles with the concept of digital marketing, mobile has changed the game. Smartphones and tablets provide more ways to access digital content. However, they also provide more ways for people to judge your online presence.

According to Google, almost two-thirds of people use mobile to search the web. They expect the results they find to look good. Furthermore, they want content that’s catered to mobile users.

Old website designs don’t do the trick. Something that looks great on a desktop may distort on a mobile device. Digital marketers can introduce you to the concept of responsive design. This ensures your website displays well on every device.

Mobile apps are also an issue. When used well, they can build your brand and create more sales. However, app stores contain many apps that never got anywhere. It’s not enough to build it. The app also needs a solid digital marketing strategy behind it. As a result, it blends into the overall strategy that a digital marketer creates.

The digital marketer’s ability to evolve with technology comes into play here. An average marketer may still struggle with the basics of marketing online. Digital marketers understand how to use all online technologies to your advantage.

The Final Word

Social media marketers know all about the benefits of using digital marketing. They can create a digital marketing strategy that stretches beyond the skills of the average marketer. With their help, your business no longer has to play catch-up. It can embrace digital marketing to generate more leads.

But what if you want to do it yourself? That’s where Growth Marketing can help. Our social media marketing specialists can teach you the tricks needed to succeed online. Sign up to our Free Social Media Growth Strategy Session to get started.

Keywords: benefits of using digital marketing, social media marketing, facebook advertising, digital marketing strategy, lead generation techniques, role of digital marketing, digital marketing training

 

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