Market Update: Social Media Marketer demand and salaries in Australia 2022

What are the top skills a Social Media Marketer needs?

A successful Social Media Marketer needs a wide range of capabilities, including a mix of hard and soft skills. 

What are the top 5 hard Social Media Marketing skills? 

Strategy 

Being able to plan and execute a content strategy might be the most important skill a Social Media Marketer can have at their disposal. Having a big-picture strategy will ensure your social media marketing efforts are properly aligned with your business’s broader objectives. 

Formulating a social media strategy includes determining your goals, the tactics you will use to reach them and the metrics you will track to measure your progress. It’s wise to then work backwards to create content which reinforces your goals. Another vital component of a social media strategy is selecting which platforms you’ll use, based on the nature of your business and the habits of your target audience.
 

Content creation

In the world of Social Media Marketing, content really is king. The right content can play a pivotal role in helping a business reach its marketing goals, from brand recognition and thought leadership, to audience engagement and lead generation. 

Creating content involves identifying post ideas that will appeal to your target audience and then creating content that addresses their wants and needs. There are a range of creative skills that go into crafting original, attention-grabbing content, including copywriting, graphic design and videography.
 

Calendar management

Social Media Marketers rely on calendar management to proactively plan and schedule their content, coordinating what they will post and when. This will enable you to track deadlines, sync content with seasonal events and manage campaigns that consist of multiple posts.

A Social Media Marketer’s content calendar is the hub of their marketing strategy and it’s vital that you maintain it on a daily basis. Content calendars will normally take the form of spreadsheets, Google calendars or, for those who use social media management tools, interactive dashboards.  
 

Community management 

Community management allows a business to nurture personal relationships, build brand trust and create a larger pool of potential customers. 

In practical terms, social media marketers must constantly monitor posts on their business’s profiles. As well as replying to all the positive feedback, it’s vital that you respond to negative posts quickly, since unanswered complaints can damage a business’s reputation and strengthen the voice of unsatisfied customers. 

Effective community management calls for creativity, a sense of humour and the ability to adopt a brand’s voice. Additionally, you’ll need the analytics skills to sift through social data to identify opportunities and community insights.  
 

Analytics

Social Media Marketers will begin by defining what success looks like for a campaign and then determine a set of metrics that will help them measure its progress. 

Social media platforms offer a wealth of data, shedding light on how users engage with, view, or share content. As a result, social media marketers have to be able to analyse data and use data insights to make adjustments to their content strategies.

Social media marketers also rely on data analysis skills when pinpointing their audience, using data to target people who are likely to have an interest in their product, service or brand. 

What soft skills does a Social Media Marketer need?

While many marketers focus on learning technical skills, there are a range of soft skills that are needed to advance as a Social Media Marketer. Some of the soft skills anyone entering the industry should have include:

• Creativity – Social media followers will unfollow a brand when its content becomes boring or repetitive. This means Social Media Marketers need to consistently come up with new and creative campaign ideas that help brands stand out from the crowd.
• Communication – If you want to engage your audience, it’s vital that you have strong communication skills. Social Media Marketers also have to share their strategy ideas with teammates and stakeholders, which means you’ll need public speaking and presentation skills. 
• Collaboration – An end-to-end social media campaign will often be the result of a collaborative effort, relying on the different ideas and skills that your teammates offer. This means that it’s vital that you’re able to work effectively with your marketing team, or even cross-functionally with other departments.  
• Flexibility – Social media is constantly evolving and the best Social Media Marketers can quickly adapt to emerging platforms. To ensure their content stays relevant, they’ll also stay up-to-date with the hottest conversations and latest social trends.