whether you're fresh out of college you're looking to change careers or you're even wondering how to get started as a social media manager in 2024 this is for you with consumer Behavior changing every day more and more Brands and businesses are relying on social media marketing to reach the ideal audience with relevant content to drive conversions to drive interactions and ultimately engagement my name is Tomy S I have been working in marketing for a decade I have been a social media manager for eight and I have been running a profitable Agency for the past few

years I've also coached and worked with numerous social media Managers from starters to Freelancers and even agency owners and today I'll be guiding you through the first things you want to do if you want to get into social media in 2024 before we get into it what exactly does a social media manager do in a nsh show a social media manager is responsible for creating curating and managing content across various social media platforms to build and maintain a Brand's online presence I think there is so much misconception about what a social media manager does and

half the time people believe to L to May posting you know it's effortless anybody can do it I mean isn't it just post content right anybody grandar can get that done this is where I insert my iro even though anybody can be a social media manager not everyone is a social media manager it is a skill that can be learned and honestly I believe that growing a single pay to a certain number of followers does not make you a qualified professional it is more than a single viral moment but it's rather consistent sustained effort over

time a good social media manager starts from zero um we all do right but it's tried tested and true over time you're a good social media manager if you consistently deliver results rather than being it one hit wonder okay Back to Basics I didn't mean to go off but I'm very passionate about that so anyway if I was starting over in 2024 as a social media manager here are a few things I would do number one I would get necessary skills the first skill I would pay attention to is copyrighting skills as a social media

manager you need to learn to craft and write social captions that resonate with your audience I mean AI is great but you can't always rely on AI as your first option it should only help refine if necessary one of the best ways you can learn effective copyrighting is taking like different free online courses studying successful Brands you know the words they use how do they do this and take learnings from them another skill that I always always hammer on is understanding social media algorithms and I know that in recent times this has been a lot

thank you adami but a social media manager is agile enough to adapt and pivot as needed moving on you need basic graphic design and editing skills sadly over the years the role of a social media manager has evolved to graphics and video because most of these platforms have these features but you know I always suggest that you explore C templates be deliberate about making them y so you don't blend in with the crowd and I have some free camera templates I'll link them in the description regarding cap cut that's a good place to start with

video editing and there a ton of videos on YouTube to help you skill number four you need to be able to understand analytics that's the only way you can know what's working what's not and subsequently in the video I'll be sharing places you can learn analytics and other skills for free so number two we've gotten the necessary skills right what's the next thing I want to do and the next thing I want to do is to build my portfolio honestly to succeed as a social media manager you need practical experience because that is exactly what

goes into your portfolio theory is great but you know it's bigger than that when you're starting off you might not have the clients to practice on what I always recommend and what I did is um you offer your services for free to proon organizations like churches NOS musk you know to kick that for your portfolio for me I volunteered at a Mental Health Organization to enhance my portfolio when I just started many many years ago and it was not just good for my portfolio right it was also a rewarding experience another thing you can can

do is establish a value exchange with friends and family to manage their Pages for free for a specified period of time with this you have to be specific about the time frame just to avoid you know drama or everybody not being on the same page this allows you to practice all these skills content writing analytics content calendar creation and then actually know the nuances of being a social media and decide if this is something you really really want to do um another way to build your portfolio is to create a passion project what are you

passionate about makeup air cats whatever and treat that page like you're being paid to manage it document your growth take learnings document your process and this eventually shows up as tangible evidence of the work that you can do now that my portfolio is looking good it's time to start pitching when you're just getting started you can't always expect clients and businesses to come to you it can happen but it's highly unlikely that being said if you want to you have to be classy and professional in your appro you don't want to be the kind of

person poaching someone else's clients or pitching businesses in their comments that's just not tasteful so you want to Target small business owners in your local community shops restaurants Freelancers and even entrepreneurs they always need social media help but they have limited budget so they can't afford agencies and you know that's where you're coming what I always recommend is create a well structured pitch document that you can't say no to like simple bullet points on how you can help them don't give away too much information and always make sure you include your portfolio Okay moving on

after I have started pitching the clients are coming in I'm delivering quality results the next thing I will do is be deliberate about building my personal brand I will keep it real this is highly optional I have seen thriving agencies thriving business owners that are not necessarily backed by a personal brand or a Founder that's out there but I've learned that from my experience it brings much more opportunities for you as a person and then for the agency as well what I have noticed in recent times though is that a lot of new social media

managers do this first instead of doing this last in the hopes of attracting clients and learning on the job and honestly ladies and gentlemen that's why our industry has a bad reputation and that's why clients are skeptical about hiring social media managers I have heard too many horror stories so you want to set yourself apart as a result driven professional the last thing I would do is I would be committed and given to learning ly I still am because there is no way to stay relevant on social except you're constantly improving on yourself the field

is so Dynamic things are always changing we have to be adaptable when you're just starting out I always recommend you exhaust the free options first before you start paying for like mentorships and coaching and places you can learn for free is like a meta blueprint hop spots Google Digital Garage Hood suits and so much more in the next video I will be sharing uh more tips on how to make the most of these free resources and how to find other ways to learn about social media management for free thank you for hanging with me don't

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