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| Social Media Management is the hottest opportunity on the Internet right now. It can be a stand-alone business, or can be an additional profit center for a Webmaster Service. |
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One of the advantages of the social media manager field is that it does not require a college degree, cerification or years of experience. The world of social media is too new, and is evolving very rapidly. If anyone tells you they are an expert in social media, I'd say to run the other way. The best social media managers will share a number of traits: Curiosity Online Savvy Client Management Skills. Remember, your primary functions are two-fold: 1. To be the client's presence in the social media world 2. To manage your client relationship This requires both online knowledge and business sense. You'll need to integrate your online and offline skills. |
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Advantages: You can do from anywhere you have Internet access. You can do most of your work at anytime, day or night. Always changing social media landscape will keep you on your toes. High income potential Low entrance threshhold - no degree required, etc Can be done by one individual with no staff Can be done on a part-time basis. Many tasks can be automated. Disadvantages: Always changing social media landscape, you'll never learn it all. Requires quite a bit of computer time. |
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Anyone in business nowadays knows that they should have a website, and increasingly need to have a social media presence, including: Facebook page for their business Google Plus page for their business Blog Tweeting customers Linked-In and other networking Monitering of their online reputation A business owner has only limited time available, and most business owners have very little knowledge or experience using social media. Yet, increasingly their customers may be spending time in the social media world, and making buying decisions based on what they see there. Smart business owners know that they should be outsourcing what they cannot do or don't have time to do themselves. The majority of small businesses say that they need help with social media marketing, more than any other type of marketing assistance! http://news.constantcontact.com/sites/constantcontact.newshq.businesswire.com/files/research/file/SMBPulseReport3-26-13.pdf |
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6 Jobs the Best Social Media Managers Actually Do by Ellie Mirman Published on Hubspot June 5, 2014 at 4:00 PM
Years after the first "Can we measure the ROI of social media?" blog post, the role of the social media manager has not evolved much in the ways of goal-oriented, metrics-driven marketing. It's possible that this is because many companies haven't figured out the right way to measure the ROI of their efforts -- so they don't know to hire someone that can help them drive real business results. It becomes a vicious cycle -- with little focus on the bottom line efforts from social media, companies relegate the social media role to people without much experience proving bottom-line results, and then once hired, those social media managers don't have experience proving those bottom line efforts. It's a chicken-and-the-egg problem, but someone's got to break out of the cycle. Whether you're a social media job seeker looking for your next gig or a manager trying to hire your next social media marketer, keep on reading. I'll walk you through what other skills a social media manager should have besides "drive engagement." Here are the six roles that the best social media managers play. 1) Content Creator Content is a key component in any marketing function, and social media is no exception. Even if you have dedicated bloggers and ebook writers, that content still needs to be adapted to each social network. A good portion of a social media manager's role is creating and adapting content for the specific networks. This includes positioning content in under 140 characters, creating images to accompany posts, creating variations of posts for each piece of content (since the lifespan of a social media post is so short), and even creating content from scratch specifically for growing a following on social media. Skills Necessary Copywriting, design, positioning, creativity How This Drives Results Adapting content specifically for each social network yields more clicks and leads. For example, in an A/B test, we found that tweets a link and an image optimized for the platform yielded 55% more leads than tweets with just a link. Adapting and creating content for each specific network is critical to driving results. 2) Marketing Analyst As all marketing roles become more and more data-driven, a social media manager needs to be able to dig into the data, analyze that data, and draw actionable insights. That includes macro data -- like overall reach, leads generated, leads nurtured, customer cases supported -- all the way down to micro data, like individual experiments around content positioning. A successful social media manager will be able to look at data constantly to make smart decisions. Plus, they should be constantly testing new strategies, new content, and new campaigns -- running tests and analyzing the results every day to constantly iterate and improve their marketing efforts. Skills Necessary Data analysis, curiosity, ability run scientific experiments and draw insights from data, data presentation How This Drives Results Constantly testing and analyzing results helps you build new standards in your routine that are more effective. For example, that test we spoke about before was run by our previous social media manager -- she designed the test, implemented it, and measured it all on her own. And thank goodness she did -- it's having a serious impact on our social media efforts. 3) News Junkie Being on social media is like being in a crowded room at a networking event where everyone is talking and things are happening all the time. A social media manager needs to be in the thick of it. They need to know what people are saying, what's changing on social networks and in the industry, and be able to react and respond accordingly. Furthermore, the social media manager can act as an extension of the PR team, connecting your team directly with journalists and reporters, which can result in broad coverage for the company beyond their existing reach. A successful social media manager will be able to find new opportunities for the company by keeping a pulse on the industry. Skills Necessary Content curation, hungry for information, professional on-the-spot communication skills How This Drives Results Staying on top of trends as they're rising allows your social media manager to newsjack, which can bring spikes in traffic to your website, and connect with journalists when they're looking for story fodder, instead of relying on outbound pitching (in other words, doing PR the inbound way). 4) Customer Service Rep When someone runs social media, they are the voice of the company to many audiences, including customers, potential customers, journalists, and fans. They will constantly get questions and comments about their company's products, services, and content -- which may not always be positive. You need to be able to communicate with people of different buying stages (for example, customers and non-customers) and different dispositions. Skills Necessary Strong communication skills, adaptability, calm, desire to solve others' problems How This Drives Results Doing customer service on social media allows you to respond to customer problems in the way they want to communicate with you, and it can be a low-cost way of responding to customer issues compared to a phone call, which will typically require more time for the same response. Also, because social media is a public forum, your social media manager can use these opportunities to showcase your customer service as a company differentiator and amplify happy customer messages as a form of marketing. 5) Community Facilitator Part of building a following on social media is helping that following connect with each other. True communities don't simply engage with the company or moderator -- they engage with each other, which actually scales your role much better too. But facilitating a community takes work, including asking questions to seed discussions and kicking out people who spam or otherwise detract from the community. Skills Necessary Resourcefulness, ability to connect people and stimulate discussion How This Drives Results There is immense value to your followers in not just interacting with your company, but also others like them. According to an MSI study, increased engagement on community sites can result in up to 25% increase in revenue. In order to grow your company's following so that you can do all the other things you care about, your social media manager needs to help your community get value from each other. Here are a few tips for the community managers out there. 6) Funnel Marketing Manager Social media is a powerful tool to expand the reach of your content, attract visitors to your website, generate leads, and nurture them to become customers. That means a social media manager needs to be able to pick and share content in a way that will accomplish each of those goals. They need to share content that generate leads, and run new campaigns to find the best ways to do lead generation via social media. A social media manager also needs to engage one-on-one with potential customers who are considering your product or service, or simply need your help. Social media is particularly effective as a lead nurturing tool because prospects use multiple media (not just email) to consume information and social channels allow you to engage in a more timely manner. In order to do all of this effectively, social media managers need to have a strong understand of the sales and marketing funnel, and which leads to monitor and nurture, and what content to use in getting those leads to the next stage in the process. Skills Necessary Funnel understanding, knowledge of content for each funnel stage, basic sales skills How This Drives Results Sharing conversion-oriented content on social media can attract more visitors to your site and convert them into leads for your sales team. More than 50% of businesses report they have acquired a customer from Facebook, more than 40% have acquired a customer from LinkedIn, and more than 35% have acquired a customer from Twitter. With the right person at the helm of your company's social media accounts, you could be one of them. With this diverse and highly visible role, it's hard to believe that the social media manager position still has the reputation as an entry-level role anyone can just pick up. These seven roles are certainly in the back of my mind as I interview to fill this position. I believe that if we can change the perception of the social media manager role and attract and hire for these functions and skills, we will have a good chance of mastering the ability to measure and value the ROI of social media. |
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Social Media Manager Job Description: A Complete Guide June 23, 2014 by Kathi Kruse Many businesses have recognized the awesome value and benefit in Social Media marketing. Perhaps you’re one of those. You’ve seen how Social marketing drives leads and sales and boosts your online reputation. However, as a business owner, you aren’t spending time on Social networks personally and it’s quite a challenge to figure out who the best person is to handle your business’ online presence or what that person’s job duties should be. While Social marketing and social advertising are an integral part of your strategy, at its heart, Social Media is about people, conversations and capturing leads and sales from those relationships. In a previous post here I wrote about the questions to ask a potential hire. Once you’ve hired your savvy candidate, you’ll need a Social Media manager job description to track progress, hold them accountable and know exactly where your budget is going for Social Media marketing and advertising. Here’s a comprehensive guide to help determine where your Social Media manager is succeeding and where you need to place more attention: Social Media Manager Job Description The Social Media Manager will implement the company’s Social Media marketing. Administration includes content strategy, develop brand awareness, generate inbound traffic and cultivate leads and sales. The Social Media manager is a highly motivated individual with experience and a passion for designing and implementing the Company’s content strategy, creating relevant content, blogging, community participation and leadership. This position is full time salaried with benefits, including attendance at Social Media, blogging and industry-specific conferences. The following seven Social Media marketing components are the roadmap to success and are the responsibilities of the Social Media manager. Your Social Media manager must master them to execute Social campaigns effectively: 1. Clear Objectives Set realistic goals. It isn’t enough to say you “see” results, they must tie back to your objectives. You’ll never know Social Media ROI without first setting objectives. For example, at Kruse Control, we use five objectives for Facebook marketing: Growth of Likes Reach Engagement Leads Sales 2. Great Design Visual content has a lasting effect on us humans. Whether it’s your status updates, your landing pages or your Facebook ads, what the audience sees is what they’ll remember. Make sure it’s consistent, compelling and gets your point across. 3. Solid Content Strategy What you post on your Social channels is the foundation for all your other Social Media marketing. The Social Media manager must perform a “Brand Discovery”, which outlines what it is about your business that makes it unique. This includes your core values and beliefs, and the reasons people want to buy from YOU. The answers should be in-depth and detailed. The second part of your “Brand Discovery” describes your ideal customers. What are their interests, what problems can you solve, where do they spend their time, and how can you help them? Quality information that’s relevant to your ideal customers attracts them and sets your Social marketing up for the next steps. 4. Promotion Strategy You need to continually grow your fan base. Social advertising is a very valuable tool to get your message heard. However, Social ads don’t look like the ads you’re used to seeing. They differ in content, placement and targeting. The best way to grow your Facebook page is to utilize Facebook Ads. A small budget with carefully selected photos and ad copy (with a clear call-to-action) will increase likes and foster engagement. 5. Engagement Strategy Your Social Media manager should listen, respond, ask questions and engage with your audience. There should be careful consideration on how he/she responds to organic (non-paid) leads. People will ask questions and the Social Media manager should have knowledge and/or experience of the sales process to respond correctly. If a lead asks a question, answer it and follow it with a question back to them. 6. Conversion Strategy With growth and engagement strategies in place, the Social Media manager’s job is to convert fans/followers into customers. The more advanced form of Facebook marketing utilizes Facebook ads and optimized landing pages to capture leads and convert them into sales. I’ve found most dealerships and other businesses need advice and support with conversion strategy. Find the right person to advise you so you get where you want to go faster, more cost-effectively and achieve the best results. 7. Measure & Analyze to establish ROI Measure results on a weekly basis. As mentioned earlier, your results must tie back to your objectives. Factor in your time, effort and budget to determine if your efforts succeeded. Manage Social Media marketing campaigns and day-to-day activities including: Curate relevant content to reach the company’s ideal customers. Create, curate, and manage all published content (images, video and written). Monitor, listen and respond to users in a “Social” way while cultivating leads and sales. Conduct online advocacy and open stream for cross-promotions. Develop and expand community and/or blogger outreach efforts. Oversee design (ie: Facebook Timeline cover, profile pic, thumbnails, ads, landing pages, Twitter profile, and blog). Design, create and manage promotions and Social ad campaigns. Compile report for management showing results (ROI). Become an advocate for the Company in Social Media spaces, engaging in dialogues and answering questions where appropriate. Demonstrate ability to map out marketing strategy and then drive that strategy proven by testing and metrics. Develop a strategy and implement a proactive process for capturing customer online reviews. Monitor online ratings and respond accordingly. Monitor trends in Social Media tools, applications, channels, design and strategy. Identify threats and opportunities in user generated content surrounding the business. Report notable threats to appropriate management. Analyze campaigns and translate anecdotal or qualitative data into recommendations and plans for revising the Social Media campaigns. Monitor effective benchmarks (best practices) for measuring the impact of Social Media campaigns. Analyze, review, and report on effectiveness of campaigns in an effort to maximize results. Possesses knowledge and experience in the tenets of traditional marketing. Marketing degree is welcomed but not required with relevant work experience. Demonstrates creativity and documented immersion in Social Media. (Give links to profiles as examples). Proficient in content marketing theory and application. Experience sourcing and managing content development and publishing. Exhibits the ability to jump from the creative side of marketing to analytical side, able to demonstrate why their ideas are analytically sound. Displays in-depth knowledge and understanding of Social Media platforms, their respective participants (Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Google+Local, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest etc.) and how each platform can be deployed in different scenarios. Maintains excellent writing and language skills. Enjoys a working knowledge of the blogging ecosystem relevant to the Company’s field. Displays ability to effectively communicate information and ideas in written and video format. Exceeds at building and maintaining sales relationships, online and off. Is a Team player with the confidence to take the lead and guide other employees when necessary. (ie: content development, creation and editing of content, and online reputation management). Makes evident good technical understanding and can pick up new tools quickly. Maintains a working knowledge of principles of SEO including keyword research. Highly knowledgeable in the principles of “Search and Social”. Possesses functional knowledge and/or personal experience with WordPress. Demonstrates winning Social Customer Service techniques. Possesses great ability to identify potential negative or crisis situation and apply conflict resolution principles to mitigate issues. It’s important to mention that qualified, savvy Social Media managers do not grow on trees. They’re the voice of your company and should be included in all matters which are customer-facing. With most every business needing to develop their online presence in order to participate in the consumer buying process, it’s in your best interests to hire the best and track their progress. Your online reputation and future sales depend on it! Editor’s note: This post was originally published May 28, 2013 and has been completely revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
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The social media world is always changing and seems to be in a constant growth path. Some social media networks rise, others fall. As as social media manager, it will be important for you to try to be at least casually familiar with the more important changes. You want to appear to be knowledgable to your clients, after all. Don't worry - it is not humanly possible to keep up with it all. Just browse mashable.com from time to time, read some of the articles on hubspot.com and sitepoint.com from time to time, and maybe spend an evening a month doing Google searches on social media. |
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The exact order of the ranking of the top social media sites is arguable. For example, Twitter has a huge number of registered users, however about 40% are inactive, and about 5% are fake. If you consider active users, Twitter would probably rank below Google Plus. http://mat1.gtimg.com/www/images/qq2012/qqlogo_1x.png QQ is a huge (829 million active users) social media network, but it is limited pretty much to China.
3 - eBizMBA Rank | 900,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 3 - Compete Rank | 3 - Quantcast Rank | 2 - Alexa Rank | October 1, 2014.
12 - eBizMBA Rank | 310,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 21 - Compete Rank | 8 - Quantcast Rank | 8 - Alexa Rank | October 1, 2014.
18 - eBizMBA Rank | 255,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 25 - Compete Rank | 19 - Quantcast Rank | 9 - Alexa Rank | October 1, 2014.
22 - eBizMBA Rank | 250,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 27 - Compete Rank | 13 - Quantcast Rank | 26 - Alexa Rank | October 1, 2014.
30 - eBizMBA Rank | 120,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *32* - Compete Rank | *28* - Quantcast Rank | NA - Alexa Rank | October 1, 2014.
34 - eBizMBA Rank | 110,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 55 - Compete Rank | *13* - Quantcast Rank | 34 - Alexa Rank | October 1, 2014.
77 - eBizMBA Rank | 100,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 49 - Compete Rank | 145 - Quantcast Rank | 36 - Alexa Rank | October 1, 2014.
97 - eBizMBA Rank | 80,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *150* - Compete Rank | *120* - Quantcast Rank | 21 - Alexa Rank | October 1, 2014.
123 - eBizMBA Rank | 65,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 138 - Compete Rank | 139 - Quantcast Rank | 91 - Alexa Rank | October 1, 2014.
581 - eBizMBA Rank | 42,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 237 - Compete Rank | 335 - Quantcast Rank | 1,172 - Alexa Rank | October 1, 2014.
596 - eBizMBA Rank | 40,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 791 - Compete Rank | 701 - Quantcast Rank | 296 - Alexa Rank | October 1, 2014.
702 - eBizMBA Rank | 38,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 1,082 - Compete Rank | 615 - Quantcast Rank | 408 - Alexa Rank | October 1, 2014.
779 - eBizMBA Rank | 37,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 2,046 - Compete Rank | 113 - Quantcast Rank | 179 - Alexa Rank | October 1, 2014.
1,457 - eBizMBA Rank | 15,500,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 1,407 - Compete Rank | 635 - Quantcast Rank | 2,328 - Alexa Rank | October 1, 2014.
1,487 - eBizMBA Rank | 15,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 153 - Compete Rank | *285* - Quantcast Rank | 4,022 - Alexa Rank | October 1, 2014.
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| You will find on the CD a pdf showing the latest statistics on social media. |
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Most people are unaware that it is actually easy to create your own social network, complete with forums, uploading, blogs, and more. Why would you want to do this? Think of a niche market - a special interest where people feel strongly about something. It could be Dachsund dogs, chess, or Studebaker cars. By creating your own social network for this niche, you have the possiblity of capturing an entire niche, and positioning yourself to sell them all manner of products and services - or just become a leader. You could set up a social network for the employees of your company, for the members of your home owners association, or your church. There are several major platforms set up to allow you to do just that: Ning.com Spruz.com SocialGO.com Yammer.com Wall.fm Yooco.org Yuku.com Smallcommunities.net |
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When you go out to talk to prospective clients, you are likely going to be asked one or more variations on the question: What will social media do for my business? Obviously, you want to be able to convincingly explain that businesses and organizations need a social media presence, and that they should outsource that to you. There are 5 major practical uses for social media, - it is more than just staying in touch with your grandkids. |
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Perhaps the most immediate concern is how social media will affect the website ranking in Google and Yahoo/Bing. Google is now increasingly using social 'signals' as a part of their ranking algorythm. While the exact formula used is a secret, we know that the following are very important: Inbound Links - Social media postings can include links to the website. Google considers these as votes. Expert Content - The more articles and information on a site relevant to what a searcher is looking for, the more Google considers that site an expert resource to send them to. Social media makes it very easy to keep adding new content to the site, in the form of blogs, pages, comments, videos and more. Updating - Google likes sites that are frequently updated. Social media make it easy to update your site. |
| The opportunity to spread 'word of mouth' marketing messages has never been greater. Get people talking about your company (good or bad) and the word can spread very quickly from person to person. This can drive sales or ruin reputations. You need to be aware of what is being said about you online - and you won't know unless you have an active social media presence. |
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The consumer is constantly bombarded with advertising messages, and it is difficult with most advertising to prove that a sale was a result of one particular message. The old saying is 'half of all advertising dollars are wasted, and you can't tell which half'. With social media though, we can use different coding and different offers to pinpoint exactly which are working for our client. Unlike print advertising, we can change our message whenever we like. The Internet is like a giant test laboratory, and we can do experiments to establish exactly where customers come from, and which are more profitable. 3 Simple Ways to Measure Your Social Media Results By Rick Mulready Published May 20, 2013 on socialmediaexaminer.com Are you looking for better ways to measure your social media activities? Do you know if your social media efforts are worthwhile? Social media measurement is one of the most frustrating challenges business face. In this article I’ll show you three simple measurement strategies that can fit into one of your future campaigns. Why Measure? In order to measure the effectiveness of your social campaigns, it’s critical that you know your objective. Ask yourself why you are considering including social media in your overall marketing campaign in the first place. How will your efforts impact your revenue and grow your business? You’ll want to put a measurable outcome in place along with a timeframe in which to achieve the goal. Always setup goals so that you can measure social media. Now you can determine which social media platform aligns with your objectives. For example, if you’re trying to reach a female audience and your business lends well to pictures and images, you might want to consider Pinterest. If you’re a business-to-business brand marketing an upcoming conference, you’ll want to consider LinkedIn. #1: Quantify Your Social Media Listening “What you’re doing [on social media] needs to have impact. It needs to actually have revenue. And often times we try to make it fuzzy about that.” – Frank Eliason, Citi’s Director, Global Social Media (@FrankEliason) Listening is one of the most often overlooked uses of social media, yet it’s probably the most important. If you’re not listening to your customers, you’re missing the point of social media. But how do you measure listening and how does it impact your revenue? In this example, we’re going to look at using Twitter to answer that question. In Twitter’s search field, enter your business name. You can then select whether you want to view Twitter’s “top” tweets about your business, “all” tweets containing your business name or tweets that contain your business name from only those people you follow. As you filter the tweets, look through them and decide whom you’d like to follow. These are likely either potential customers or your current customers. Monitor their tweets on a daily basis. Engage with them, answering their questions, adding value and helping them whenever possible. Twitter’s Advanced Search is powerful too, especially if you’re a local business. You can use it to search specific terms related to your business that people who are near your location are talking about. Twitter is an amazing tool for providing real-time customer service. You can learn things like: Exactly how many people you’re helping If you’re growing that number of people The issues customers are experiencing with your business What’s broken in your business At the end of the measurement period, prioritize the problems you identify and use that intelligence to implement fixes and improvements within your business. You can measure the direct impact on your business by looking at the additional revenue or cost savings that these new fixes give you. #2: Create a Rating System for Your Social Engagement “Put a [tiered point system] in place rather than looking at how many likes you have.” – Scott Monty, Ford’s global head of social media (@scottmonty) This is a simple yet effective strategy to use when you’re trying to generate awareness and buzz. It’s a smart way to measure the response to your efforts on Facebook, Twitter or any other social channel you’re using. Here’s how it works. Say you’re launching a product or service and want to build buzz about it on Facebook. You post an update to your Page about your launch and you get a bunch of likes on it. The next day, you post a different type of update. You get some likes on it, but you also see that people are engaging more with the second update by sharing the post and commenting on it. Likes show support and comments indicate a deeper interest but shares are most valuable because they move the update beyond your page. At the beginning of the campaign, translate your objective to a numeric goal. Then, use a tiered point system to weight different types of engagement according to which is most valuable to you. Here’s an example of a tiered point system for Facebook: Likes: 1 point each Comments: 5 points each Shares: 10 points each During the campaign, a quick sum of values will help you determine if your efforts on Facebook are moving you closer towards your goal or not. Assign a point system to likes, shares and comments. You can create similar point systems on any of the social channels you use. For example, on Twitter, 5 points for a reply and 10 points for a retweet. #3: Add Tons of Value, Then Sell and Measure “Jab, jab, jab, right hook.” – Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) This strategy is the concept behind Gary V.’s upcoming book and it’s based on providing great content that adds tons of value for your customers before asking for the sale. The Corcoran Group, a NYC real estate firm, adds value via their social media outlets. For example, say your restaurant is rolling out a new healthy menu. Your goal is to get 300 customers into your restaurant to try the new menu over an upcoming weekend. Since your food is visually appealing, you develop a Facebook or Instagram strategy. You post pictures of your food, create content around the importance of healthy eating and curate information on your Facebook Page about farmers’ markets in your area. Offer this valuable content to build trust with people. Then offer a coupon for your restaurant on your Facebook Page. The number of people who claim and redeem your coupon is a result you can quantify. Here’s how to measure your efforts when using this strategy: Use the tiered point system described in strategy #2 to determine if your content is moving you closer to your goal. Use coupons that are specific to your social media campaign, thus making the return on your investment easy to track and measure. Create unique landing pages for each of your campaigns where your customers can download or purchase what you are promoting. Since the landing page is used for one specific campaign, this will allow you to clearly see how successful your campaign is. I hope this article gives you some ideas for how you can simply measure your social campaigns and shows you that you don’t need expensive measurement tools. |
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In the old days, businesses would have a 'Customer Comment Card' near their cash register, hoping that they would get feedback. Unfortunately, few consumers bother to fill those out - usually it is those who are very angry or very delighted with you. In today's world, we can gather feedback from our customers much more easily. We can do this through email, through engagement on social media platforms, tweets, discussion forums and more. We can ask consumers what they like or dislike about what we do, and what they wish we offered. Most business owners can see the value of this, but to do it effectively would take more time than the owner has - this is one of the prime reasons to use a professional social media manager. |
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Social media is ideal for spreading the word very quickly. It can be used to announce sales on short notice, limited time offers, new product launches, and coupons much more effectively than any other way. For example, a food truck can tweet their customer base letting them know they will be in a particular parking lot for lunch. A small business can send out an announcement of a closure due to family emergency and avoid alienating customers who show up to a 'closed' sign. Customers can get a coupon on their smartphone which will bring them into a store when they otherwise would not have gone. |
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There are some essentials to get taken care of when launching your social media manager business. You'll want to come up with a business name (many social media managers just use their personal name). You should come up with a logo. You'll need business cards and marketing materials. |
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Check with your local city or county clerk (or online) and find out if a license is required in your jurisdiction. If you are using a name other than just your personal name, you will probably need to file a 'dba' or fictitious business name application. |
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Before you go filling out any government forms though, you need to get a few things done: 1. Get a private mailbox or USPS mailbox. I prefer the private option - an example is the UPS store. - You get to use the street address of the store as your business address, instead of a PO box. Some Post Offices now allow you do that as well. The advantage is that it looks more legitimate - some people are suspicious of PO box businesses. - Most government forms do not allow you to use a PO Box, they want a street address. - It avoids zoning issues, as now you have a commercially zoned address. - It gives you a permament address if you decide to move your business. - There are people to receive your mail and packages, so you don't have to be waiting around for a delivery. - It gives you security, probably not a good idea to have your home address on everything. 2. Get a phone number for your business. I recommend Google Voice. (http://voice.google.com) - it is free, and you can have the number ring on another cell or landline phone of your choice. It also includes free voicemail. 3. Get credit card processing set up. I recommend you get an account set up on both Paypal and Square.com - that gives you options. Paypal now offers a cellphone card reader like Square does, so you could just stick with Paypal if you prefer. |
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Of course, if you are going to play in the online marketing world - you need an online marketing presence yourself. 1. Get a website set up. If somebody hears about you, the first thing they are going to do is Google you. They expect to find your website. 2. Get profiles set up on the major social media platforms, and begin using them. The more social media presence you have, the more you will know about how to use social media effectively. |
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Obviously making money is a goal of a social media manager - though some do it for nonprofits or charities for free. In fact, I recomend that you do your first client, or maybe your first few, on a 'pro bono' basis (that means free). Do it for your church, or a charity you support, or a friend's business. You'll learn a lot, and since you are doing it for free you probably won't get complaints that it takes longer than it should. Each time you do something for the first time, there is a learning curve and it takes much longer. The more you do it, the more efficient and quick it becomes. Besides experience, you are also looking for testimonials that you can use in your marketing. Nothing convinces people more than testimonials. |
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What to Charge for Social Media Work (as a Freelancer or Consultant) September 27, 2012 · An article by Alexis Grant http://alexisgrant.com Looking to make money from your social media skills? Check out my popular guides: How to Build a Part-Time Social Media Business and How to Create a Freakin’ Fabulous Social Media Strategy. With more companies and organizations looking to hire social media help, and more social-media-savvy young professionals recognizing that opportunity, the same question keeps landing in my inbox again and again: How much should you charge for social media consulting? Social media consultants charge rates across the board using a variety of fee structures – from $15/hour to thousands per project. How do you know where you fit in? Here are a few tips for helping you figure out how to charge and what to charge next time an opportunity comes your way: What to Charge Per Hour Social media consultants charge anywhere from $15-$250+ an hour. That’s a HUGE spectrum, just like all business services consulting. Take these factors into consideration when figuring out how much YOU should charge per hour: Work Experience. For most of us (who aren’t famous in the digital world), the biggest factor in how much you can charge is your work experience. If you’re new to the working world, you might want to stick with $15-$40/hour. If you have five years of professional experience under your belt, transition into the $45-$75 range, and if you have more than five years experience, you can usually get away with charging $80-$100 or more. As with all consulting work, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to the per-hour question, partly because it also depends on the type of client, the type of work and the project scope. But if you stay within these guidelines, you’ll likely be considered fair. This also applies to whether you’ve worked specifically in the social media field. Maybe you’ve been working in an unrelated field for five or 10 years, and now you’re looking to make some money on the side as a social media strategist. Your going rate will likely be higher than the just-out-of-college crowd, but still lower than experienced strategists. Type of client. You’ll also want to consider the type of client and what they can afford. Because remember, you don’t have to charge the same amount for each client. Charge corporate clients more than non-profits, and thriving companies more than struggling individuals! This might sound shady, but it’s smart business. Plus, social media consultants often tailor packages and offerings according to the needs of each client, so it’s highly unlikely you’ll wind up offering the exact same service (with the same content, frequency and effort) to two clients. Location. This might affect how much you’d like to make (so you can cover living expenses), but it probably won’t affect your actual prices. Why? Because an increasing number of social media consultants work remotely. You’ll likely live in a different city or even country than your clients anyhow. Charging hourly is the easiest way to go, the status quo. You track the hours it takes to work on each project, then bill the client accordingly. The more hours you work, the more money you’ll make. But what if you instead charged per project or a monthly retainer or a combination of the two? Lots of business experts say that’s smarter than charging an hourly rate. Why? Because if you don’t tie your fees to your (limited) hours, you have the potential to bring in far more income. And if you land recurring work (and put systems into place), you’ll become faster over time, and you can use your extra hours to bring in more income. Once you get to the point where you hire people to help you, you can leverage that, too. So how should you go about charging on a project basis? That’s what we’ll talk about next. What to Charge Per Project Charging per project – which works well if the project is, for example, creating a social media strategy – takes some effort up front; you’ll want to figure out how much time and effort you’ll spend on the project and how much you need to earn to make it worth it. Here are some tips for doing that: Know what you want to make. Even though you’re not charging per hour, having some idea of how much you’d like to earn for each hour of your time will help you determine your fee. Initially, it might be difficult to figure how many hours you’ll spend, but this will become easier to estimate with each passing project. (Make sure to account for the time and effort it takes you to prepare for each project, especially if it’s a one-time training gig or seminar.) Don’t forget your knowledge is just as valuable as your effort. If you’re able to complete a project quickly because you’ve done similar projects so many times before, base your fee on how much your work is worth – how valuable your knowledge is to the client – not how many hours you’ll spend on it. Otherwise you might end up undervaluing your work. Try a monthly retainer for recurring work. This works well when you’re growing an online community for a client. (Think that’s bogus? Check out this post on why it sometimes makes sense to outsource social media.) For new clients, I usually charge a one-time set-up fee that covers strategizing and creating social media profiles, then a monthly retainer to maintain the networks and grow quality followings. Check out what other consultants charge. Want some examples of how much other consultants charge for various social media projects? Mark Collier offers a great post that shows rates for a variety of projects – from creating a social media strategy to updating a blog – based on a survey of consultants who work either independently or as part of an agency. The “Most Charge” category is most helpful, as it shows what most of the people he surveyed charge for each project. For example, most consultants he surveyed charge $1,000-$2,000/month for managing a Facebook page, and $1,000-$3,000/month for writing or editing about two posts/week for a blog. Remember, you could “build a Twitter following” by simply tweeting once in a while, or you could put quality time and effort into building one strategically, connecting with specific targets and really growing a kick-ass community. Make sure the client knows specifically how you’ll do the latter, so they understand why they’re paying you well. If you’re clueless about how much the client might be willing to pay, try offering tiered packages. The first basic package costs, say, $1,000 a month, the second costs $2,000 and the third comes in at $3,000. Make sure the cheapest option isn’t less than you’ll work for though, because plenty of clients will choose Door Number One. And it’s in your best interest to also offer a package that’s higher than what you think the client will pay, because it makes the other options look more appealing. Remember: You’re worth what you say you’re worth This might sound simple, but it’s the best piece of consulting advice out there. Especially in a crowded field like social media, where rates fall across the board, you could choose a whole spectrum of rates and still be considered reasonable. No matter how much you decide to charge, some people will think you’re charging too much and others will think you’re charging too little. The challenge, then, is figuring out how much you need to earn to make it worth your while, and finding clients who will pay what you decide you’re worth. So pick a price, and own it. Be confident about how much you’re worth, do an amazing job, and you might be surprised by how much clients are willing to pay for your abilities. |
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Most clients will hate hourly rates. If you quote an hourly rate, I'm going to be wondering if you will do everything as efficiently as possible, or will be trying to milk as many billable hours as possible. If your rate is $50 per hour, will this cost me $500 or $5000? You need to be thinking of an hourly rate in your mind though, in order to figure out your pricing. If you think something will take 5 hours, what is that time worth? A rough rule of thumb is to take whatever your income goal is in thousands of dollars per year and use that as your hourly rate. So $50 per hour should net around $50,000 per year. |
| Client Based Pricing is simple charging clients what they are willing to pay. In this model, you don't display prices on your site or elsewhere. Instead you try to gauge the client's willingness to pay a certain fee. Easiest way is to ask them what their budget is. You may be surprised to hear that some are willing to pay much more than you would have dared to charge. |
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The most common way of pricing is to establish a table of services offered at different price points. You might have a bronze level, a silver level, a gold level and a platinum level, for example. Each level has a set number of services provided. Bronze might include one Facebook post per week, while Silver might be 3, Gold might be 5, and Platinum might be 7. Each level would have a price associated with it. In this way, clients can choose the level they can afford. |
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In most cases, you want to charge your clients in advance each month. Easiest way to do this is to set up a recurring charge to a credit card. If you are going to be keeping a card number on file, it is your responsibility to safeguard that data. I recommend separating the data into several places, then you bring those pieces together to charge the card each month. For example: The first and third 4 digits of the credit card go into a database on your website. The second and fourth 4-digit blocks can be written down and stored in your safe in your office. You can do similar with the expiration datezipcode, and the 'secret' code on the back. Your processor may offer recurring payments as an option, which means you don't have to store the credit card information. An example would be https://www.paypal.com/pdn-recurring |
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Most SMM will charge an account set-up fee, which covers much of the initial activity that must be done on a new account. Not only do you have to set up the new account in your own computer and filing system, but there is quite a bit of time involved in creating or updating profiles for the client on the different social media sites. The account setup fee could cover as little as one hour of work, but probably you should count on a few hours at least. |
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Marketing is crucial to your business, and will make the difference between playing in the social media world and making a living at it. It should be the primary focus of your business at least for the first few years. |
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One of the great things about the social media manager business is that you can have clients located anywhere in the world. You'll be dealing with their online presence - so it makes little difference if you are physically on opposite sides of the world. 'll You will probably not turn down a business from another country or even another continent that wants to use your service. However, marketing is much easier to your local market, and there are plenty of businesses within a few miles of where you are that could use your services. 1. Do a Google search for your city and zip/postal code. What will come up is a list of companies nearby that have websites (and by extension, those that don't). You can go through that list and identify a number that you'd like to gain as customers. 2. Make your target list. I recommend 100 companies is plenty. Mom and Pop local businesses will be easier to approach - big names often have to clear things through corporate. Franchises are independently owned and operated though, and many franchisees want a more active online presence. 3. Select a variety of businesses, rather than concentrate on one industry. By having only one of each type, you can do a good job promoting each and not have to worry about how to promote two competitors. 4. Take your prospects, and spend some time researching them on the social networks. You'll then be able to tell those that WANT to be there but have not kept up their presence. These are your ideal prospects - the number one reason they let their efforts slip is lack of time. 5. Put together a presentation on how valuable social media is for business and how you can help, then send it to each prospect. There is a host of material and statistics available online on this that you can use to bolster your message. |
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You absolutely need a website. This will be a small expense for you. While there are places where you can design your own site for free, it is smart to have a professional design it. Knowing what Google wants in a design can make a huge difference in your ranking, and you want someone that also understands usability. To have a professional design your site should run between 250 and 1000 dollars, but that is a one time expense and tax deductible. You'll then pay a hosting fee of between 10 and 30 dollars per month. The good thing about having a well designed website is that you have total control of the message. This is not true on the social media sites, where they can change the rules at any time. The site should be the destination that most of your social media presence sends people to. If you know how to do web design, this is another profit center for your social media manager business. About 1/3 of businesses do not yet have a website, though almost all know they should have one. If you don't know web design, you can outsource this and mark up the price to your customers. Bizshop offers a reseller program for this, among others. |
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Interacting with your prospects on the social media sites is a great way of letting them know you are knowledgable and competent. Participate in discussions online - there are many who are asking questions about marketing and social media. These are ideal places for you to be seen as an expert. A few suggestions: groups.google.com, yahoogroups.com, linkedin.com are all collections of discussions. |
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Marketing really boils down to 2 questions: 1. Who are my customers? 2. How can I best reach them? If your market is primarily local business owners, where are you going to find local business owners gathered in one place? Chamber of Commerce networking events, business conferences, business association meetings and the like are ideal opportunities to introduce yourself and your social media management services. |
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Get in front of a group and give a talk, and you are automatically seen as an expert if you are even half-way competent in your speech. There are many groups that are looking for a luncheon meeting speaker, or a break-out session speaker. Don't make the speech a sales presentation. Instead, make it about one aspect of social media that might be of interest. An example could be a talk on "Free Google Tools For Your Business". In the back of the room you can have all your marketing materials, and you can follow up your talk with a question and answer session. If you are not comfortable giving a talk, find a Toastmasters Club. They'll get you used to public speaking and they are usually fun. You can locate a Toastmasters group through the Chamber of Commerce or www.toastmasters.org |
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One of the primary duties might be participating in discussions online on behalf of your client. There are many places these discussions might take place - forums, bulletin boards, newsgroups, and on social media sites like Linked-In. You will be taking part in the discussions AS your client typically, in order to answer questions, build your client's reputation, and bring them business. How can you participate in a discussion when you know very little about the client's business. You might have clients as varied as a shoe store, a Chinese restaurant, a nail salon, an auto repair shop and a doctor. One person cannot possibly know all there is to know about each of those businesses. Instead, when you get a client you need to spend some time thinking of every possible question someone might ask about that business, their policies, and their subject area of expertise. Write out these questions in a word processing document. Then, spend a couple hours with your client going over the questions and writing out answers. I find it easiest to just to record what they say, and then write it down later. If you just give the client the list of questions and ask them to write a reply, you are giving them work. You are supposed to be in the business of making their life easier! There will be some standard questions for any business, such as hours, experience, etc. Others will be very specific to the business. Then when you participate in discussions, it will be a simple matter of copy and paste from that Master Q&A File. If someone asks a question not in that file, you can email or call the client, get an answer, post it and then copy and paste the question and answer onto your Master Q&A file. This file will be useful not only for participating in discussions, but also in creating content for your client to use in their blog or on sites. |
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Social media is probably the most powerful tool ever for creating - or destroying - a reputation. Negative comments about a restaurant on a review site for example can drive customers away to the point that the restaurant fails and goes bankrupt. The restaurant owner might not even know why they stopped attracting customers. How do you know what people are saying about your client? You can try Googling their business name, but why do the work manually when it can be automated? You can sign up for Google Alerts, and put in your client name, their competitors' names, their specailty, etc. Then Google will send you a message whenver they are mentioned online. If there is a negative mention, you can try to counter it. Most review sites allow a counter statement from the business owner to anything negative. Most will also remove the negative comment if both the commentor and the business agree. You might get the client to offer the complainer a great deal, or a free meal, or whatever it takes to 'make it right' with that customer and get them to agree to removal. You can also find people that like the company (the client should have some names and contact info of happy customers) and get them to post positive reviews or comment on the negative review. As a SMM you will also be in position to affect the rating of your client. Reviews from frequent reviewers generally count towards ratings, whereas one-offs usually do not. You should be posting frequent reviews to build up your reviewer status on sites like Yelp. Remember, be nice - some of the places you eat may be prospective clients! |
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Content is King on the web. It is the text that Google indexes. It is the basis for which sites get to the top of Google. It is what customers are usually searching for - and it is your job as SMM to make it! The main part of the Social Media Manager job may very well be creating content. This content could be posted to the client's blog, or on their website. It could be a FB posting or a tweet or ??? How do you come up with content? That Master Q&A File should give you plenty of fodder for creating content. |
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Blogs can be either on the website or a blogging platform (or both). The beauty of a blog is two-fold: 1. It makes it easy to add new content, updating the site = good for Google and users 2. It can provide links to the site = good for Google and users Every client should have at least one blog. If they only have one, it should probably be the "News" page on their website. Better is for them to have several, some on their site and others on other platforms with links back. In essence, you can googlebomb your clients. |
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Remember back to writing or English class in school? To create an essay, you had to come up with a proposition, develop it logically and end up at a conclusion. Throw that idea out the window. Nobody really reads articles like that, outside of academia. Easiest form of content to create is usually what we call 'bullet writing'. It could also be called 'list' writing. A typical article might be '10 ways to save money on your food bill' - all you have to do is think of 10 ways, add a paragraph to each, and bingo you have an article. They don't even have to flow logically, each on stands on its own. People like this format because people generally do not read anymore, they skim. They are looking for one take-away point from your list. It also works well because we can break it up. We can do 10 Ways, installment 1 on Monday, installment 2 on Wednesday and the final installment on Friday. That way we can create several days worth of updates at once, and schedule those in advance. |
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Another very common type of content creation is curation. What is that? Think of a museum curator. They gather items into a collection and then present it to the public. That is similar to content curation. You find an interesting article somewhere, and then you summarize it and present it on your client's site or blog. Note that you are not stealing the content, or violating copyright. You are summarizing and rewording it. As an example: I just read an interesting article on Unmarketing.com titled "The Five Words That Kill Your Blog". Those words are "Your comment is awaiting moderation." I had always thought having a moderated discussion was the better way to go. Now I find I was wrong. The reason to moderate is usually so spammers cannot hijack the discussion to spread their spam. The point is made though that the moderation effort also kills active discussion, and deters posters from spreading the word about the discussion. "You’re hurting the voice of the very people that can be your biggest evangelists.". Instead, two suggested tools - Askimet and Disqus - can be used to prevent almost all spam without the death sentence of moderation. You can read the full article at http://www.unmarketing.com/2010/12/07/the-five-words-that-kill-your-blog/ It is courteous to give a link back to the original site, and any site owner who understands SEO will love you for the link. What the curation means though is that your client's visitor does not need to go to several different sites to find the good info, it is all on your client's site. |
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It may be very appropriate for your client to review products or services on their site. You can request products for review from the manufacturer, often at no cost. Then just do an honest short review. Similar would be short technical articles - such as 'how an xray works' for a Dentist office. You don't need any real creative writing ability, most of the information will be strictly factual, told in a straightforward fashion. |
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Better than having that content you just wrote appear on your client's site is having it appear on many different online places, each with a link back to your client's site. There are 3 main ways to do this: 1.OPR - Online Press Releases 2. Tailoring 3. RSS |
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Online press releases work much the same as 'real-world' press releases do. Real-world press releases have long been a way of getting people's attention. Celebrities and politicians employ publicists, whose main job is getting publicity and whose main weapon is the press release. They submit a press release to the media, hoping that the media will either a) run the article as is, or b) assign a reporter to do a story based on the press release. An Online Press Release just means sending your article to other blogs, email newsletters and websites, giving them permission to use the article in whole or in part. The only thing you ask in return is a link back to your client's site. The biggest problem many bloggers and site owners have is coming up with content, you are solving the problem for them in exchange for them keeping your 'contact box' with the article. When you get a client, you should start gathering a list of places that might be candidates for OPR. |
| You can also rewrite the content slightly to fit different places it might appear. For example, your Doctor client might have their own website, but they might also have a blog about healthy living. You may be able to rewrite an article so that it appears perfectly suited to each place. |
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RSS is a technology for automatically distributing articles to places that want the content. There are feed directories where you can submit your RSS feed: http://feedzilla.com http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/rss-directory.htm http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Syndication_and_Feeds/RSS/Directories/ |
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The benefits of social media include creating greater brand awareness. The more places people see your client, the more likely they are to buy from them. This can be done in a variety of ways: |
| Affinity sites and blogs are places that serve the same demographic, but are not direct competitors. Offer a swap-out of ad space, mention in each other's newsletters, etc for mutual benefit. If you both serve the same type customer, consider that you each might have your own similar size group that you've identified - by crossmarketing you can reach almost twice as many at little to no extra cost. |
| As the SMM for a site, you can earn a commission from ad placements by your client. Google Adwords and Facebook Ads are networks that offer pay-per-click advertising buys. |
| You can also seek out places where your client can place an add and negotiate ad placement directly. Unlike PPC, this is strictly space rental on someone elses's website. The typical commission is 15% of the ad cost. |
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If you want to really earn your money in an exhausting but very lucrative short period of time, offer Crisis Management as an option. Perfect example of the power of social media in crisis management (regardless of your politics): The Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy issued this statement to the Baptist Press ”We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.” Well, this got the homosexual advocacy world in an uproar, and they announced a nationwide boycott of the restaurant chain. There were probably false accusations made about Chick-fil-A setting up fake Facebook accounts to try to post positive remarks, and accusations that Chick-fil-A dropped using Jim Henson toys after Henson stopped support for the chain. (which to me would be a perfectly reasonable business decision - if a supplier decides to abandon me, I see no reason to keep carrying their products) This in turn stirred outrage on the part of those who support Biblical values, and counter-movement and counter-protest spread rapidly via social media. For weeks after the incident, you could not get a seat inside a Chick-fil-A, it was standing room only as customers packed in to show support. In this case, the social media response was not handled by the company well, but others took it on themselves to 'virally' rescue the chain. To do crisis management, you are going to have to devote every moment over the next several days - and potentially longer, to containing and reversing the damage that social media can do. You'll need to charge enough to make all your work worthwhile. Most crisis management offerings are available as a retainer (monthly fee whether or not their is a crisis that month) of hundreds of dollars per month, or a response fee of thousands per day. Agnesday.com has a lot of resources available to crisis management from books to full services. They provide a free flow chart:
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There is never enough time in the day, and managing social media takes time. Sometimes a LOT of time, especially when you are learning how to do something for the first time. Fortunately, there are quite a few tools that will help you automate, and allow you to have a life outside of social media ;-) |
| Newsassist.org has a Firefox and Chrome extension that makes content curation for your blog a breeze, and allows pushing to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn |
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If you are looking for blog ideas or content to be curated, you'll find something on these sites. Most are updated constantly. a personal project of Andy Baio |
| Boost your social media productivity -- it doesn't have to be a manual time-consuming process! Twitter, Facebook (profiles, pages, and groups), LinkedIn (profiles, groups, and company pages), RSS feeds, blogs, Plurk, and App.net. Easily schedule updates, find quality people to follow, and monitor social media activity, |
| Most popular dashboard, allows scheduling and management of multiple profiles from one place. |
| Allows you to do content curation in seconds using a Firefox extension. Free version and paid versions. Easily add great articles, pictures and videos to your Buffer and we automagically share them for you through the day! |
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Internet automation tool, many recipes available to automate simple tasks |
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| Attached is a sample social media contract. You can also find it online at http://www.slideshare.net/pmbain/social-media-consulting-service-contract |
| /home/bizshop/cd/SitePromo/socialmediamanager_manual.html | 2014-10-28 | vym 2.3.20 |
1 | Facebook
2 | Twitter
3 | LinkedIn
4 | Pinterest
5 | Google Plus+![](</span><span style=" font-size:12pt;">mages/logos/tumblr.gif)
6 | Tumblr
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14 | MeetMe
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