There are many people these days that want to be social media consultants and why not! There is a lot of demand and a possibility to make a living. To find out more on how much a social media consultant can earn, check out this page. It isn’t impossible or rocket surgery, but you do need a few aspects.
- Creativity – Yes, we all have creativity I know, but how you use it is important. Some people have creativity hidden deep down a huge pile of clothes that hasn’t been lifted in a long time. For more on creativity, inspiration and motivation click here
- Willingness to learn – You have to want to learn. Social is new and ever-changing. You have to be on your top game like a news reporter. Here you are in a way a news reporter. Whether that is with your client or on your social media knowledge trying to learn the newest social media platform relevant to you and your client.
- You have to enjoy it – As with everything, you have to enjoy what you do. If you don’t enjoy what you do, you will burn yourself out! It is always worth a try, just make sure that you don’t have to force yourself to do it. You don’t have to go and work for free, but you also can’t dread the first second that you open your client’s twitter page and think, what is the point of this. Note: Just because you don’t like interacting offline doesn’t mean you won’t like interacting online. Give yourself a chance!
To maintain someone’s social media presence you need to:
- Understand social media: It is an interaction, a two way street being a great example. You have to talk and listen. You have to engage and get people to interact. Imagine a party where nobody is talking, dancing and by that enjoying themselves. Unless those people are placed in that room by force, they will leave instantly. Now imagine that, but you have even less time to keep those people in the room, again not by the use of force. It isn’t that easy, but you may get the hang of it.
- Understand who your client is: What do they do? What are they selling? What are they offering? How do they portray themselves? Imagine that company/business as a person. What kind of person would it be? Sometimes you can’t tell or it really isn’t an interesting person yet. What kind of person would it want to be? Make sure that person doesn’t become rude, obnoxious or anybody else that you wouldn’t want to be around.
To market someone’s social media presence you need to:
- Be on top of your game: You have to search, find, research, analyse, extract, write, rewrite and any other similar word you can find to those. You have to make sure you know the latest trends in social media. This takes time to do, just like a research project you have done in school, you have to search and find the best information online. It takes more time than just typing it into Google search. No, the I’m feeling Lucky button isn’t what I am talking about. What is happening in social media when it comes to social media platforms, trends, apps, helpful hints, newest changes (WordPress & Facebook).
- Understand your market: Who is your client? Where are they trying to be? Do you know their client base? You have to know how to manage them. What about the client base they are trying to acquire? Try not to place them by age, this isn’t available on all social media platforms. How does that market react? How do they engage? The most popular social media platform might not be the best one depending on the client base. Also, spreading yourself out to thin isn’t the solution by trying to sign the client up to all social media platforms. You can’t do it, you won’t do it and you will burn yourself out no matter what. Focus on 2 or 3 for now.
Stay updated: Follow this blog, like the facebook page or follow it on twitter to stay updated on posts from this blog and other helpful sites!
Socially Lost in Media – Social Media Marketing and Management
Dino… some good pointers. What I find many lack is A. It’s a One-Way street for them. Self-promotion and not engaging as often as they should. Auto DM’s after I follow someone on twitter telling me how awesome it is to connect to me.. Hell, they don’t know me most times. Be real about the auto DM’s.And yes, most definitely understand your client and market. Again, good info here…
Brilliant. You summed it up. If I have to open up that wound of mine, the DM’s after I follow someone can’t be more of a turn-off with the short links of all the pages they want me to visit, like, follow, support, etc. It is like fighting a battle for someone that you don’t respect. So many things we would do in life aren’t transferred onto social media and I wonder, where do people lose that connection?
Coming from an advertising background, I’d also say study marketing and advertising which will come in handy when social media consulting. Become an expert from the ground up!
Thanks for pointing that out. A good foundation is what’s needed when building a house. One thing to understand is that social media consulting is like every other form of consulting. What shocked me is when I read comments such as “Why would I hire someone to manage my social media when my 12 year old son is on Facebook all the time”