I have been working in SMM for about 4 years now. I got into this industry when it was much less popular than it is today. I have been working in an IT company for six months and I must admit that SMM in IT is somewhat different from SMM in other professions. Today I will tell you how my path began, what differences are between SMM in IT and the typical SSM, what the responsibilities are of an SMM manager and where to gain more knowledge.
What Does an SMM Manager Do?
The concept of SMM stands for “social media marketing” meaning, the promotion of a product or service through social networks. It is wrong to confuse the simple maintenance of a page on, for example, Instagram with professional analytical promotion through social networks. It’s not enough to add hashtags, find a picture, write a text with several emojis – you need to dig deeper. If my relatives looked at what I am doing, they would say: “Do you get paid for being on Facebook and Instagram?”. In fact, everything is much more serious and requires strenuous preparation. Here are the networks that SMM managers often work with:
- TikTok
Responsibilities of the SMM Manager
First of all, understand why a particular brand or company is hiring you. In accordance with the goals of your customer, you will manage social networks. To do this, you need to communicate a lot with the client. For example, some clients are not against images from stock exchanges, but some, on the contrary, are against and use only the author’s images for posts. For example, if you are working on attracting potential employees to an IT company, then an integral part of your responsibilities will be:
- Competitor analysis
- Analyzing the activity on your page (what the audience responds best to)
- Creation of content plans with detailed planning, which includes
- Visual content (images, videos)
- Text content (posts, infographics, polls)
- Writing technical specifications for designers (or for yourself)
SMM Manager Soft Skills
Communication is everything! They will write comments to you, leave private messages, so you need to communicate politely, even if you encounter criticism.
First of all, this is the goal with which an IT company and just a business in general, apply to the SMM manager. Usually, SMM in IT has two goals: brand awareness (of the company) and attraction of potential employees (in rare cases, customer acquisition). In business, it usually comes down to sales and that’s where you need to consider the ways of selling the product on an individual basis. After all, something that might get you sales on a shoe store page will not work with a beauty salon page and vice versa.
Your responsibilities will be unchanged both in the IT-sphere and in other industries, but the specifics and way of achieving goals will be radically different.
The main thing that distinguishes SMM in IT is the specifics of the sphere. Imagine you need to think about a strategy to attract as many potential candidates as possible. Accordingly, you should understand what kind of people they are, how QA differs from a developer, what are these specialists interested in, what films and TV shows they watch, what music they listen to, what kind of rest they choose, and many more nuances. All this can be learned only through real experience.
Trust me, if you create a short video calling for a resume and run a Facebook ad with bad music or visuals, the chances of failure are very high. In order to understand how this industry is different in SMM, answer the question “What color do IT professionals love the most.” “Easy,” you say. – I will go to the pages in the social networks of these specialists. And here a small failure awaits you, since IT specialists do not really like an active life in social networks, of course, there are exceptions, but there are very few of them. “How, then, do you recognize the portrait? – you ask “. I’m telling you. First of all, find out and understand which professions in IT are generally (technical and non-technical), then look for forums, watch videos. If you are accepted into an IT company, do not hesitate to communicate with employees, they will give you a lot of insights. Use them in your work.
What Other Directions Can You Master Based on the SMM Profession?
For example, I studied SEO in parallel with SMM. And there are many more directions:
- Design (graphic design, video, motion design)
- Search Engine Optimization
- Setting up PPC ads
- Copywriting
- Content marketing
Demand for SMM Managers in the Market
The market is developing rapidly, which, correspondingly creates a demand for SMM managers is only growing. True, this is about the demand for good specialists who know how to analyze and take the SMM profession seriously. Therefore, if you really want to become a cool specialist, do not think of SMM as a temporary phenomenon in your life, but do it thoroughly. Group 107 welcomes marketers, so if you are looking for a new job then let’s go to the vacancy page.
