Today there are few people (among those who are friends with the Internet) who would not have heard of such a specialist as an SMM manager. However, only a few will be able to answer the question "who is this and what does he do?" And even among employers who post vacancies about the search for this "fashionable" professional, there is no clearly defined understanding of the tasks and responsibilities of an SMM specialist. However, this does not prevent them from conducting interviews and hiring people responsible for promotion in social networks, and from applicants to call themselves experts in this field and put forward requests that sometimes shock even generous "salaries". So who is he, this unpredictable and so much needed SMM manager in our time?
SMM and SMO - what's the difference?
Before talking about the profession itself and its representatives, let's first deal with this:what is SMM? how is it different from SMO? what role do these components play in promoting a website/product/company on the Internet?
If compared with SEO, then SMO is work directly "on" and "with" the site (internal optimization), and SMM is activity outside of it (external optimization) or marketing in social networks.
The essence of smm activity
Social Media Marketing is aimed at promoting goods and services posted on the site, in social networks, on forums and blogs in order to make them recognizable and thereby attract targeted visitors - consumers, customers, etc.
SMM is often confused with SMO. However, these are two completely different areas of work, designed to achieve the same goal - brand promotion. Unlike SMO, marketing in social networks does not involve any work directly with the company's website, its content, transformation and optimization. All work is carried out on the external site and consists in communicating with a potential audience, attracting new subscribers and future customers to the site, as well as smoothing out conflicts that arise around the company/brand/product through competent responses to negative reviews/comments.
Thus, we can say that SMM is an effective tool for creating a positive image of a company or product, allowing you to quickly convey information about it to the target audience through active work in social networks.
SMM specialist and the limits of his responsibility
Now with somethen understanding the essence of smm-activity, you can proceed to a discussion of the specialists who carry it out. What should be the ideal applicant for this position, what knowledge and skills to possess and, finally, what are the main responsibilities of an SMM manager in a company?
Let's start with the fact that the profession is relatively new and is not yet fully understood by both employers and job seekers in this field. That is why today there is a huge number of such different and often contradictory opinions and ideas regarding the scope and boundaries of responsibility of the SMM manager. So, for example, he should not be engaged in one-time advertising and PR campaigns (this is the responsibility of PR and Internet advertising specialists) or drafting proposals, maintaining a client (this is the immediate task of an account manager).
SMM manager is a specialist who is responsible for maintaining and promoting a brand/product in social networks. His duty is to achieve specific goals set for the commercial platform (groups, pages, blogs) by communicating with the target audience in the virtual space. At the same time, the tasks can be different: sales, increasing brand awareness and remembering the product, improving the company's image, etc.
Thus, there are two main areas of work for a social media manager:
- attracting and increasing the audience (subscribers);
- working with an engaged audience (communication, answering questions/comments/working with negative reviews).
What does an SMM manager do during the day?
Considering the above, it is interesting to know how the working day of an SMM specialist goes? In order for its work to be effective, it is important to properly organize it. So, during the day, the SMM needs:
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smm manager vacancies Monitor thematic resources, follow updates in this area. It is very important to keep abreast of the latest news that is relevant to your audience (and preferably before subscribers learn about the event).
- Fill the site with relevant and interesting content that will cause comments and discussions among subscribers. This contributes to the solution of the tasks set for the site, and therefore for the audience.
- Regularly work with comments from community members. This is one of the main tasks of an SMM manager. It is important not only to respond to messages and questions, but also to encourage further discussion of some topics between subscribers / community members.
- Grow your audience through advertising/targeting. The result of the work should be specific user actions: subscription, joining a group. At the same time, the audience should not be random, but targeted, otherwise the meaning of working with it will be reduced to zero.
- Analysis of the work done. It is important to analyze the work of the site itself, that is, the compliance of the audience with the tasks set for the site and the adequacy of the content of the attracted audience. In addition, it is necessary to monitor how SMM activities affect the achievement of the company's goals - an increase in the number of registered users on the site, growththe number of calls and the expansion of other activities from potential customers.
What kind of SMM specialist is he? Qualities required of a professional
Agree, the above tasks cannot be called easy and, of course, not everyone who calls himself "SMM-manager" will be able to do them. What professional and personal qualities should an applicant for this "proud title" have?
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duties of an smm manager The first and one of the most important is the ability to communicate. And not just, but virtually and specifically with a certain group of people (after all, each person requires his own, special approach). It is the presence of this quality that contributes to the growth of the target audience and the creation of a favorable atmosphere within the group / community.
- Understanding not only the objectives of the company, but also the interests of the community. Ideally, the SMM manager should become "their own" among subscribers - potential customers.
- The ability to always be aware of events. By receiving and broadcasting up-to-date information in time, the manager will keep the community in trend and use it to promote the brand/product.
- The ability to speak the same language with the audience, which includes the right choice of forms and content of comments, as well as an important component - a sense of humor (this trait is indispensable when working with social media content, because they should want to share!).
- The ability to mirror the emotions of the audience, spreading positive moods in the group, as well as the ability to properly work with negativereviews.
Besides, a good specialist should also be technically savvy, be proficient in social media tools. So, it will not be superfluous to understand analytics and SEO, programming, understand (at least at a basic level) the social network API.
Why should you "want" to become a SMM pro?
Today it is not so often to meet such a comprehensively developed SMM manager in his field. Vacancies, meanwhile, are increasingly appearing on popular job search sites. If you are someone who dreams of a career in the field of social Internet marketing, then re-read the article and evaluate the quality of your knowledge, skills and abilities. Weak points can always be developed, pumped up and increased, the main thing is to have a desire and not be lazy. However, the salary of an SMM manager is one of the incentives to become a real pro and get into a good company as this specialist. In some areas, the remuneration of SMM workers reaches the level of 100 thousand rubles or more. Therefore, if you feel the strength in yourself - go for it!
