How to Become a Social Media Manager: 10 Pro Tips for Students - Social Media Explorer
How to Become a Social Media Manager: 10 Pro Tips for Students
How to Become a Social Media Manager: 10 Pro Tips for Students
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Struggling with finances while in college? Do you want to start building a career while you’re still studying?

Why not learn how to become a social media manager. Most people spend hours on social media anyway, including major businesses and brands. You could learn how to manage their accounts to help them engage with their customers and boost sales. 

Don’t know where to start? Look no further because we’ve got the most crucial steps laid out here for you. Read on and discover what it takes to become a social media manager:

1. The Right Degree

You should start by enrolling in the right college course. A degree in communication, marketing, or business administration. These courses can guarantee you get the training and knowledge to fully understand how social media managing works. 

Of course, you don’t have to get into any of these if you don’t want to. That said, it’s a big advantage if you do. 

2. Get Familiar With Different Social Media Platforms

You can’t be a social media manager unless you know the ins and outs of the major platforms. You need to get familiar with Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, SnapChat, and Twitter. Understand how each one works, the types of audiences using each platform, and their monetization options.

Is there a new platform on the rise? Get on it early and learn what makes it tick before anyone else. You could become a pioneer manager for that platform before others grasp its marketing potential.

3. Get the Right Tools

No social media manager works by hand. You need powerful tools to run all the analytics and audits. You need tools to automate and schedule.

Some of the most important ones to invest in include Agora Pulse, HootSuite, and Buffer. These tools allow you to prepare posts ahead of time, schedule when they’ll post and go live, and analyze engagement.

4. Build Your Brand

Many clients might not give you a chance simply because you’re a student. It’s a hurdle but it’s not impossible to overcome. You can rebuttal by building your brand.

After all, why would they hire you to manage their social media accounts if you can’t manage yours?

Get on social media platforms and get to work. You should have a few thousand followers, active contests and other forms of audience engagement, and dozens of published content before you approach your first client. They should see that people already know you as a social media icon.

5. Follow Brands You Admire

Don’t forget to follow the brands you like! Look at their social media strategies and how they executed different plans.

Did one brand gain more sales by launching competitions on Pinterest? Did one use Facebook as a means to increase click-through-rates and conversion rates on their retail site and how did they achieve this? 

6. Volunteer for School or Non-Profit

Got a small following on a few platforms? That’s a good start but now you need to prove you can manage someone else’s social media account. You won’t get hired by big companies yet so start honing your skills through volunteer work.

You can volunteer for your school, church, or non-profit organization. They’ll likely give you the opportunity since they might not have the funds to hire a professional yet. You’ll be in charge of their social media accounts from that point on, managing all posts and interactions with their audiences.

The best part about volunteering is that it still counts. You can add these to your portfolio. The more volunteer work you do, the more experience you can add to your resume. This will look impressive when you finally apply to a commercial company.

7. Learn Analytics and SEO

Becoming a social media manager requires more than skills on Facebook and Instagram. You need to learn how to read analytics and the basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). 

Remember: you’re not posting personal pictures anymore. You’re posting content for a company as a means to engage with their audiences. With SEO and analytics, you can study the type of audience engaging with that brand, what time they’re often online, and what kind of content they prefer. 

8. Study the Competition

It’s okay if you feel a little lost and uncertain where to begin. You can prepare yourself by studying the competition. Look at established social media managers and study how they get their job done.

Which tools do they use? What kind of clients do they approach and work for? Do they follow a certain formula or a series of steps?

You can use their work as a template. If you saw one manager start by auditing the client’s social media accounts and running analytics, you might want to follow suit. 

9. Start Small

Build your portfolio but start small. Try to handle small, local businesses first. If you want to expand a bit, try an Internet marketing service portal that caters to student workers. These services help connect clients and student workers.

There are also avenues for small-time freelancers, like Upwork, Fiverr, and Guru. Platforms like these are great for beginners and you can easily build a strong portfolio here. Don’t expect high pay but you can demand more once your portfolio grows.

10. Start Early

Don’t feel intimidated because you’re a student. Start your career as a social media manager as early as you can. It can take months to build your brand and a strong portfolio so why waste time?

If you can, start right now. Make a dedicated Facebook Page, a new Instagram or YouTube account, and download the free versions of important management tools. By the time you finish the semester, you might already have a decent portfolio and could already volunteer for your school or work for clients looking for freelancers.

Learn How to Become a Social Media Manager!

It’s never too early to learn how to become a social media manager. Even as a student, you can build your portfolio, volunteer, and try it out with free tools. It might become a lucrative career for you.

Of course, it doesn’t end here. There are similar avenues you can venture into. If you want to learn more, read our other articles today!

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About the Author

Adam
Adam is an owner at Nanohydr8. He really loves comedy and satire, and the written word in general.

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