So you want to be a social media strategist? Over the past few months, I’ve had dozens of informational interviews with aspiring social media managers who want to know what it takes to be successful. These are the three key qualities I emphasize.
Ability to influence without authority
Social media strategists often start off as an island. You’re likely half a person or a whole person (if you’re lucky) who manages a blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and 4 other social networks. According to your job description, you’re responsible for editorial strategy, community engagement, data analysis, etc. What you soon learn is that your real job is to educate social media novices internally about why it matters, why they should clue you in on important announcements, and most importantly why they’ll win if they work with you.
Passion for the brand
Being a social media strategist is more a lifestyle than a job. To be successful, you really have to love, live and breathe the brand you’re managing. If you truly believe in the mission of the brand you work for, you embrace your social media strategy as an extension of that mission. This sense of purpose makes the late night crisis calls much more tolerable.
Thirst for learning
The social media landscape is constantly evolving. You have to be flexible and adaptable to keep up with the latest and greatest. It doesn’t mean you have to use every new app that launches. But it does mean you should know what the hottest apps are on the market, think strategically about whether your audience will be active on that app to then determine whether your brand should have a presence there.
Do you agree? What do you think it takes to be a successful social media strategist?
Photo: saravdv/Flickr
Given your role and my being a student, it’s difficult to argue with your thoughts there. :)
I’d like to throw a question back to you: do you really think that passion for the brand is necessary? In today’s online marketing environment is it not about sourcing content from the right people within your organisation (through analysis of past work and observing the market – you can gauge who and what you should be talking about) and then optimising this raw output into the most suitable format for distribution via the different channels. (Without any extensive experience) I’d say it’s more about learning the market environment and tips and tricks – passion for it is just a bonus.
Two additions that might be worth a mention:
- boundless creativity (and not necessarily the kind with a paintbrush) – to constantly test new ways of appealing to your audience because the public face of any market leader shouldn’t be sheep-like
- intrapreneurial flair (I guess this partially falls under the ability to influence you mentioned) – to be constantly looking at opportunities to break the status-quo within the organisation, where SM can help make processes more efficient and at the end of the day, add to the bottom line.
So what’s that, chop 1 and add 2 – for the “4 Must-Haves…”
Hi, Connie,
I would add two things to the list: ‘Analytical Skills’ and ‘Understanding of the Business’. In marketing today, analytical skills are growing to be more important than advertising skills, and folks need to learn how to use data — especially in social, where it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the volume and diversity of data.
People need to be able to make and facilitate fact-based decisions, based on data, as in your first point.
Also, as social media become more important, more valuable, and more complex, strategists must understand how their business operates, in order to create value for the organization. That means understanding how your products are sold, how they are supported, etc. To be an effective strategist, simply understanding social media is no longer enough.
Thanks for the article.
Chris Boudreaux
@cboudreaux