A decade ago, the role of a social media specialist may not have existed. Nearly every organization today is involved with social networks in some way. After all, 53% of the global population use social media with an average daily usage of over 2 hours.

The industry is evolving fast, and brands need to ensure they have the strategy and staff to keep up. This has led to an increase of opportunities for professionals who are adaptable to the changes. You heard that right—there’s a demand for social media marketing professionals right now.

If you are interested in working in social, understand that you might have to serve as a customer service representative, designer, strategist, marketer, analyst, and writer at the same time. To manage these diverse responsibilities, you must develop the necessary skills.

What social media specialist skills must you possess?

Visual aesthetic

Visual appeal is a must-have for defining a presence on social media. Storytelling is a combination of words and presentation. Thus, you need a good eye for design and the ability to devise concepts. You don’t have to be a master at photo editing but it’s nice to be familiar with it.

Trend awareness

With the industry always evolving, it’s important to stay updated on social media best practices, applications, tools, and news. Choose the right channels for finding relevant conversations online, such as forums and discussion boards. Follow the real world outside of social networks for inspiration too.

KPI evaluation

Part of your social media specialist job is to show clients how to use platforms to meet business objectives. To determine their success in achieving their goals, figure out their key performance indicators (KPIs). Evaluate their aims and strategies and make adjustments where necessary.

Search engine optimization

One of the best ways to boost conversion is by integrating social media with SEO. For instance, adding external inbound links helps boost rankings in search engine results. Each piece of content has to be optimized towards the target audience beyond keywords while considering intent.

Time management

Expect busy days at work as a social media specialist in the Philippines. To stay organized, it pays to have daily and weekly to-do lists along with a social media calendar. Get familiar with social media marketing tools such as Hootsuite and Buffer so tasks are easier to perform and posts are scheduled.

Storytelling

Content marketing goes hand-in-hand with social media to establish a brand image. As a social media specialist, you serve as the main voice behind a company so you have to educate people about the brand. Strong writing and editing skills are crucial for representing the company with the right tone.

Community management

Lots of organisations use social media to engage with their community better. It makes customers and readers feel like they are interacting with humans and that they aren’t just bombarded with news and offers. Discover how their audience communicates to cater to their needs more effectively.

Channel diversity

A good social media specialist has in-depth knowledge of each social media platform available. Through this, you know which channel is most suitable for your clients. Each medium offers different target markets so you have to recognise a company’s audience across platforms to determine what content to release.

Analytics

Plenty of tools provide the data to measure social performances, but you need to understand what the charts mean. Have KPIs in mind and how they impact the bottom line. A social media specialist uses the information to determine which tactics and type of content to invest in.

Behavioral psychology

Data and analytics might tell you what posts perform well but it’s behavioural psychology that tells you why people are attracted to these posts. Knowing the motivations behind people’s activity online is helpful for spotting trends or making new ones.

Paid advertisements

More people are likely to hire you when you have experience with paid advertising, especially with scaling organic marketing. You have to know which channel is ideal for running ads in alignment with the user demographics. It’s also good to know what type of adverts work best according to campaign objectives and budget.

Agility

You might know what the latest trends are but there’s no point when you’re unable to react to them properly. Being flexible makes it easier for you to adapt when the client wants to make changes to the strategy or try something new. It’s also enables you to respond to their customers in more personalised ways.

Budgeting

In some cases, you may be allocated a budget to work with, and not just for paid advertising. It might be that you have to pay for images, designs, tools, or even courses. Having some basic knowledge with budgeting is useful in these instances to maximise the money provided.

Collaboration

Working as a social media specialist means you have to communicate with more than just customers. You also have to communicate with your employers, collaborators, and colleagues. Learn to speak to people about your plans and ideas well so campaigns proceed more smoothly.

Work as a social media specialist in the Philippines

After you’ve upgraded your skill-set to include the social media specialist skills above, go ahead and apply for a social media role. There is no shortage of opportunities out there, though it pays to be vigilant about the companies you work with campaigns you work on all the same.

Make applying for a social media specialist job easier with our help at Remote Workmate. We are a staffing agency who connect professionals like you to clients from around the world. We update our job listings regularly and provide guidance throughout the application process.