Social Media Expert
An expert in any field is someone who is a specialist in that area, not necessarily an authority but someone who has a thorough knowledge and skills in that particular area. Social Media Expert is someone who is a specialist in social media marketing. Who knows the ins and the outs of it. Who is well aware of the basics of marketing through social media channels, understands different social media tools and analytics. A social media expert is well aware of how to achieve marketing goals through social media channels and how to write a great message which can convince customers on social media.
Social media is a very important part of Digital Marketing because to create brand awareness, it is the best medium to do so in the Digital space. Facebook itself is about to cross 2 billion users on its platform (almost 1/3rd of the world). Then there are other important platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on. And all these platforms are growing. This means that social media is increasingly becoming important for brands to reach out to their target customers. And as the need to harness this medium grows, the number of social media marketing experts required to do that job is also increasing.
Let us discuss how to become a social media marketing expert:
How To Become A Social Media Expert
In a nutshell, there is one most basic thing which will help, how to become a social media expert. And that is Practical Experience. Of course, theoretical knowledge is also essential but practical is must to gain the knack as well as the techniques to master social media marketing. Apart from that, digital marketing certifications can also help a lot in the initial stages of getting the job, but once you are in the job, all that matters is your practical experience and performance.
Let us discuss these three areas one-by-one:
i.) Theoretical Knowledge
To develop theoretical knowledge about social media marketing, one of the best ways is to read lots of posts and how-to guides on reputed blogs like Agora Pulse, Buffer Social, HubSpot, Social Media Examiner, Top Dog Social Media and Digital Vidya. In fact, Digital Vidya has more than 1,000 posts related to social media marketing alone on its blog with both an Indian and International flavour!
Apart from these third-party blogs, another very useful resource to learn how to become a social media marketing expert is to follow the blogs owned by social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others. Here are the details regarding the same:
1.) Facebook Blogs
Facebook Marketing Resources
- Facebook Marketing Resources: Learn about Facebook tools to help brands market their business, from useful information to personalized support.
- Facebook Marketing: Learn about different business goals which can be achieved through Facebook, how to create and promote Facebook pages, how to create Facebook ads and how to measure results using Facebook Insights.
- Facebook for Industries: Learn how to meet business goals with Facebook solutions tailored specifically for a particular Industry like Financial Services, Retail and e-commerce, Gaming, Entertainment and media, Telecommunications, Restaurants, Consumer packaged goods etc.)
- Facebook Inspiration: Take inspiration by reading real-life success stories of brands on Facebook.
- Facebook Business News: Read this to know about the latest features and other technological developments made by Facebook. A social media expert needs to keep himself abreast of the latest developments. He should be on the top of it.
2.) Twitter Blogs
- Twitter Marketing Resources: Learn about marketing using Twitter. There are four main sections on this blog: Product news, Best practices, Research and Events.
- Twitter Insights: There are three sections on this blog: Twitter Insights, Success Stories and Solutions. Learn about some useful Twitter marketing tips, real-life case studies, and ways to create and measure results on Twitter.
3.) Other Blogs
As I mentioned, all the social media channels have their own native blogs where they share marketing tips related to their platform. Here is the list:
- Snapchat
All these are great resources for, how to become a social media marketer.
ii.) Practical Experience
Practical experience in social media marketing can be gained in the following ways:
1.) Professional Training
There are lots of companies running instructor-led training courses in digital marketing. The benefit of getting trained from a professional training institute is that one gets the learning in a quick time and in an organized way. One also gets practical experience of different social media marketing exercises like identifying the target audience, creating the campaigns, creating the social media ads, measuring the results etc. And in addition to the learning, one also gets the certificate.
I worked for Digital Vidya back in the year 2011 and used to generate leads using social media for their public social media workshops. Although they are not running public workshops these days, but their online courses in digital marketing, including the one in social media marketing, are excellent with full of learning and industry oriented. I would recommend you to take this course if you are looking for quality training and certification. This will definitely help, how to be a social media expert.
2.) Online Courses
Another way of getting a practical experience is to undergo the certification programs available by Facebook and Google. Although Google AdWords certifications do not fall under the social media per se but nevertheless going for them definitely increases the chances of a candidate to get a job.
All the different courses and certifications offered by Facebook can be accessed on Facebook blueprint page as shown in the below screenshot.
3.) Industry Experience
Nothing beats the actual experience of running social media marketing campaigns for some brand. You can get social media jobs in some digital marketing agency or with some brand. Almost each and every company these days is investing largely in digital marketing and specifically in social media marketing. It has become a must for the brand awareness aspect of the companies. And that is why they hire a social media expert or a digital marketing expert to do that job. If you want to know how to be a social media expert, then this is the answer, that successfully running campaigns and achieving the results and goals desired by the brand using social media is the best way!
Bonus Tip
So once you get the desired job, put your full energy into creating the social media plans and executing the same. Experiment as much as you can within the framework of your employer so that you learn new and better techniques. Also, keep on learning by reading and keeping yourself abreast of the latest developments in the social media space. Most importantly, measure results. Always keep track of what you are doing, why you are doing, and what results from you are getting from the same? Are you improving as a professional? Are you helping your brand/client to grow?
Conclusion
I am sure the tips in this post will help you to learn how to become a social media marketing expert. Companies do hire a social media expert, and these tips will help you get hired. If you have learned how to become a social media marketer & have are social media certified, do share your thoughts about the ideas in this post in the comment box below.
very nice info about social media