Today every company is striving to make its presence strongly felt on Social Media. Even local companies of Udaipur are having there presence on digital platforms like Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram etc.

The quality and level of activity of a company’s social media is managed by a Social Media Manager.

This manager can be a professional Digital Marketing Agency or an in-house person who has the knowledge and expertise of handling social media.

With my experience of last few years in the digital marketing space,I have summarized few qualities of a good “Social Media Manager”. Hope they will be of some help to the new upcoming Social Media Managers and also to the companies who are looking to hire one.

1.Passion : ​He should have the Passion for Getting the people attracted towards the brand in many different ways. He has to constantly keep thinking on increasing the engagement, likes, followers for his client.

2.Communication : ​He should be attentive, engaging and friendly towards the audiences. He should have the patience and expertise to handle negative comments positively and appreciate the audience for positive feedbacks and comments.

 3.Campaigns : ​He should constantly think of new campaigns and ideas to increase more and more engagement with the audience and increasing the Likes, Followers and visits to client websites etc. Campaigns and strategies are different from posting regular client updates and 1 time interesting creatives like festival greetings.

4. Add More Ideas : ​He should know that Social Media has the power to do much more than the classical mediums of TV, Print etc. The creative campaigns etc. should also have a unique way of talking to the audience and not just posting of print ads and TV Commercials of the client. He should be a good story teller. He should make the page interesting by connecting the client’s products and services to real life situations for its audience.​

5.​Content Writing : ​Creative Content Writing Skill is a must for any Social Media Manager. You cannot take a client’s brand to the next level without the skill on writing about it in creative, understandable, interesting and engaging ways. You should be able to attach excellent writing with each of your creative posts too to support them.

6.Timing : ​Think and Act ahead of time. If your content or creatives are not posted in time then they are sure to miss its targeted audience. Moreover it will show you as a unplanned campaign. Eg. If you are posting Christmas greetings on the night of 25th Dec. then surely you have lost a lot of responses.

7.Be available 24 x 7: With the age of smart phones its easy to manage a lot of online activities even from out of office. A good Social Media Manager will use this facility and make sure to keep things in control as much possible on the client social media pages. This becomes every more important when your client has an international audience to connect.

​Well he has the right to sleep…. its all about planning and scheduling content.​

8.Knowledge of Platforms : ​He should have sound expertise of all the available and popular Social Media Platforms.

​He​ should understand which platform will be more suited to which type of client. Eg. You cannot just keep on promoting a Hotel on Facebook and Twitter and not update its details on Google Maps,​ Trip Advisor or local directories etc. Also if there is a new platform available to be used online and you don’t know about it, then that raises a question mark on your expertise as well.

9. Data Mining & Analysis : ​He should be good Data Analyst.

He​ should have the knowledge of Data Mining and targeting the correct audience for the client. ​He​ should know how to get the data of correct audience so that they can best satisfy the clients needs. ​ The tools like analytics should be used effectively to understand the audience response.​

10.Constant Learner : ​He​ should have the ability to constantly learn new things. Social Media platforms will be evolving everyday, so you should be able to evolve along with them too. Keep your self updated with the latest trends. The easiest way is to subscribe some of the best websites / blogs / pages of Digital Marketing world.

11.Understand the Purpose : ​A Social Media Manager should understand the purpose of the Client very clearly. The purpose can be Branding or Sales or just to create awareness or the promotion of client’s website​. You should take a big picture view. Also, no matter how much online activities you do, if your client has the budget and you too feel the need, plan some offline Print or TV promotion too for your clients.

​12. Organic V/s Inorganic : Try to be as much organic as you can. 10 new people added organically are better than 100 people added by inorganic payed ads. You must have heard about things going viral. This happens when your post or campaign is so interesting that people share it from there own to there friends and a chain reaction happens. You should strive for it always. But at the same time​, when the purpose of the client is just sales, then PPC ads, Adverts and re-targeting your website visitors it the best option too. This is a balance between Organic & Inorganic activities that the Social Media Manager has to keep so that the client gets the response that he expects.

If you think I have missed some important points or you have any questions on Digital Marketing to me, kindly post them in the comments below. I will be happy to help.​

​Author Karan Garg is a digital marketer and social media strategist, he can be reached at karan@ifwworld.com.