RM 405 OTEK BUSINESS CENTRE OTEK ST.

BAGUIO CITY

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WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

Social media is a collective term for websites and applications that focus on
communication, community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and
collaboration.

People use social media to stay in touch and interact with friends, family and various
communities. Businesses use social applications to market and promote their
products and track customer concerns.

Business-to-consumer websites include social components, such as comment fields

for users. Various tools help businesses track, measure and analyze the attention the
company gets from social media, including brand perception and customer insight.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA?

Social media provides several benefits, including the following:

USER VISIBILITY - Social platforms let people easily communicate and exchange ideas
or content.

BUSINESS AND PRODUCT MARKETING - These platforms enable businesses to

quickly publicize their products and services to a broad audience. Businesses can also
use social media to maintain a following and test new markets. In some cases, the
content created on social media is the product.

AUDIENCE BUILDING - Social media helps entrepreneurs and artists build an audience
for their work. In some cases, social media has eliminated the need for a distributor,
because anyone can upload their content and transact business online. For example,
an amateur musician can post a song on Facebook, get instant visibility among their
network of friends, who in turn share it on their networks.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SOCIAL MEDIA?

The four main categories of social platforms are these:

SOCIAL NETWORKS - People use these networks to connect with one another and
share information, thoughts and ideas. The focus of these networks is usually on the

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user. User profiles help participants identify other users with common interests or
concerns. Facebook and LinkedIn are good examples.

MEDIA-SHARING NETWORKS - These networks focus is on content. For example, on

YouTube, interaction is around videos that users create. Other media-sharing
networks are TikTok and Instagram. Streaming platforms like Twitch are considered a
subset of this category.

COMMUNITY-BASED NETWORKS - The focus of this type of social network is in-depth

discussion, much like a blog forum. Users leave prompts for discussion that spiral into
detailed comment threads. Communities often form around select topics. Reddit is
an example of a community-based network.

REVIEW BOARD NETWORKS - With these networks, the focus is on a review, usually
of a product or service. For example, on Yelp, users can write reviews on restaurants
and endorse each other's reviews to boost visibility.

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

WHAT IS A SOCIAL MEDIA VIRTUAL ASSISTANT?

Other names for this position are:

- Social Media Manager

- Social Media Strategist
- Social Media Director
- Social Media Coordinator
- Social Media Consultant
- Social Media Expert
- Social Media Assistant
- Social Media Virtual Assistant
- Digital Media Assistant

Typically, a Social Media Manager is the person in an organization who is trusted with
monitoring, executing, filtering, and measuring the social media presence of a
product, brand, corporation or even individual.

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WHAT DOES A SOCIAL MEDIA VA DO?

Social Media Managers create and maintain brand promotions, company information,
and marketing campaigns for their company across several social media networks.

They also know the best social media metrics to focus on and use free or paid tools
and respond to questions and comments according to the company’s voice and
guidelines. Social Media Managers work daily to produce new content, constantly
innovating to push new ideas and formats and measuring how well those ideas
perform.

Social Media Managers may report to a Social Media Director (in larger organizations)
or the Head of Content or brand. They work with other creative groups such as
marketing and public relations, as well as the sales department, to drive lead
generation campaigns that the sales team can convert into revenue. A Social Media
Manager is expected to keep up with new trends along with company and industry
news.

TASKS OF A SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

- CREATE CONTENT FOR MULTIPLE PLATFORMS – Tips used to expand your

reach on Facebook won’t necessarily work on Instagram. Look at what
content will work for each platform, e.g video, gif, inforgraphics, blog

- MONITOR SOCIAL ANALYTICS – You need to check what campaigns are

working (or not working) across channels so your time and money is going in
the right places to the right people.

- DEVISE A SOCIAL NETWORK STRATEGY – You may need to create a campaign

from scratch to promote a sale or new product.

- MEASURE AND PROVE ROI – Set measurable goals for a new campaign across
relevant channels and create a report to track performance. Use a social
media campaign calculator to meet your objectives at the right cost.
- SCHEDULE SOCIAL POSTS – Each platform has an “ideal” time to post
content. Scheduling ahead of time helps reduce workloads and ensure
content is posted when you’re asleep, but your audience aren’t.

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 - FIND RELEVANT CURATED CONTENT – Some of your social posts should
reflect world events or developments that matter to your audience. So, do
some research and share third-party content that will resonate.

- ENGAGE WITH YOUR AUDIENCE – The point of your social media is to build
engagement. So, respond to any comments and deal with customer queries.

- REVIEW AND POPULATE YOUR CONTENT CALENDAR – In such a fast-paced

world, you need to plan your content. Populate your social media calendar for
days or even weeks ahead to stay on top of things.

SKILLS YOU NEED TO BE A GREAT SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

Now that you know what the role of a Social Media Manager involves, here are some
of the skills you’ll need to do your best in this role:

- WRITING – Social media managers do a lot of writing, sometimes more than a

dozen posts each day. Plus, each social network requires a slightly different
style of writing. LinkedIn, for example, requires a more professional tone,
while Facebook is more light and fun. SEO copywriting knowledge is also very
helpful to know about.
You must be able to create messages that are quickly understood by your
brand’s audience and promote a positive sentiment. In essence, through
writing the Social Media Manager should enhance their brand and become
“the voice” of the company. Some important types of writing include:
 Short and effective headline writing
 Engaging introductions
 Video and image captions
 Structured text for easy reading (because consumers will skim
and scan subtitles, bullet points and numbering are key)

- RESEARCH – Social media managers must stay up-to-date with the ever-
changing world of social and digital media. This includes new
measurement/analytic tools, industry and world trends, and tracking what
your competitors are doing, even on daily basis.
Great Social Media Managers set up Google Alerts on popular topics and use
tools to keep up with trending content.

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- SEO KNOWLEDGE – Though SEO is often considered a separate department
within organizations, that way of thinking is disappearing as SEO has become
an integral part of content marketing and social media.
In fact, SEO can have a great impact on your social media content. A good
Social Media Manager knows this and strives to write SEO optimized copy on
social networks. When you embrace SEO as part of your strategy, you can
attract a larger audience with an interest in your products or services, leading
to more potential customers.
When thinking about combining SEO and social media, ask yourself the
following questions:
 Do you understand the connection between exposure on social
media and increased rankings in the SERPs?
 Do you understand long-tail and short-tail keywords for SEO
optimization?
 How will you promote your blog content on social media?
 Do you know what type of content lends itself to improving
SEO?
 Do you know how driving traffic to your company’s website
impacts revenue?

- SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERTISE – It may seem obvious, but a Social Media Manager
needs to have great social media skills! Although these can be learned over
time through research and experimentation, if you’re aiming for a job at a
large company, you’ll need a few years of experience under your belt.
The type of knowledge you’ll need to outshine your competitors includes:
 Knowing what type of content works best on what platform
 Understanding the different days and times and days that work
best on each platform
 Understanding how to optimize platform-specific content
 Knowledge of social media analytics and performance
 Ability to engage an audience through social posts using the
best free audience listening tools on the market

- CUSTOMER SERVICE – When 47% of customers prefer brands that offer strong
social media customer service, Social Media Managers need to make sure they
have the skills to match.
Customers often look to social media accounts for help with answering
questions about products and services, and if nobody is there to answer those

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 questions even on nights and weekends, their impressions of that brand will
likely sour. A successful Social Media Manager understands that your social
media presence is your brand’s face and voice online. So, everything they say
or do on social platforms is a representation of the brand.
While the role of Social Media Manager is often defined as 9-5, individuals
should be available to respond to comments and questions at any time. Most
Social Media Managers access their company accounts on their mobile devices
so they can respond when necessary.
If there’s no one to take over social medial while you’re on vacation or out
sick, you may still be on the hook – even when you schedule posts ahead of
time.

- VISUAL INTELLIGENCE – While a lot of the content you’ll put on social media
will be written, visual content is also crucial. The right video or photo can be
shared hundred or even thousands of times, and you need to understand how
to create platform specific social media content.
It’s valuable for Social Media Managers to have a knowledge of design to
create visually appealing graphics to complement your posts.
Video is also an essential component of your social media strategy, so if you
can gain skills in that area, it will be extremely helpful. A good Social Media
Manager will know great video when they see it, and most importantly have a
firm grasp of social video trends and how they fit into each major network.
With the meteoric rise of visual platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, the
quality of your videos is hugely important. Make sure you use social media for
storytelling to speak to your audience alongside a clear, concise message
about brand.

- BE ADAPTABLE – Flexibility is important in any marketing role, but even more

so in social media management. The social media landscape moves so quickly
that being adaptable is an absolute necessity.
It’s not enough to be able to schedule posts. You must be able to try out new
features and chance things up based on trends and the continual testing and
analytics that you should be running on your posts.
Once you have analytics in front of you, you also need the flexibility to try new
things to make your social media work best for you. A/B testing (writing posts
in multiple ways, with different images) can help you quickly determine which
types of images and copy work for your company – and which aren’t.

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SOME TOOLS THAT SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER USE:

1. Buffer

Price: Forever free plan. Paid plans start at $6 per month per channel with a 14-day free
trial.

Description: Buffer is an intuitive, streamlined social media management platform

trusted by small businesses and individual creators to help drive meaningful
engagement and results on social media.

This platform has features that support content creation efforts, from post
scheduling, engagement, analytics, simple landing pages, and team collaboration.

LINK: https://buffer.com/?ref=buffer.com

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2. Hootsuite

Price: Paid plans start at $99 per month, with a 30-day free trial.

Description: Hootsuite, probably the biggest social media management tool, is used
by over 18 million people and more than eight hundred Fortune 1000 companies. There’s
a good reason for their success: it’s an all-in-one platform that allows you to curate and
schedule content, measure your social metrics, run social media ads, and more.

Unique value: Being such a comprehensive platform, there are several things that
people love about Hootsuite: being able to monitor your social media presence across
multiple accounts and keywords, connect with over 35 social media networks, and bulk -
schedule social media posts.

LINK: https://www.hootsuite.com/

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3. Sprout Social

Price: Paid plans start at $89 per user per month with a 30-day trial

Description: Similar to Hootsuite, Sprout Social combines several social media tools into
one platform — from social media scheduling to social media monitoring to its analytics
tool for better reporting.

Sprout Social is one of the few social media management tools that provides customer
relationship management (CRM) features. Having a complete profile of your customers
help you serve them better and build stronger relationships with them.

Unique value: The most common praise I’ve heard about Sprout Social is its amazing
reports. Many social media managers found the reports so great and beautiful that they
would download and send them to their managers or clients without editing them.

LINK: https://sproutsocial.com/

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4. Agora Pulse

Price: Free. Paid plans start at $99 per month.

Description: Like the social media management platforms mentioned above, Agora
Pulse is also an all-in-one social media scheduling platform with scheduling, responding,
and reporting features.

Unique value: At an affordable price point, Agora Pulse has several unique features,
such as competitor analysis and social listening.

LINK: https://www.agorapulse.com/

5. Sendible

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Price: Plans start at $29 per month with a 14-day free trial

Description: Sendible is a social media management tool built specifically for agencies
with several clients. On top of most features that social media management tools
provide, Sendible allows users to create customizable dashboards according to your
branding to attract new clients.

Unique value: Sendible has some impressive integrations, such as the Canva graphics
editor, royalty-free image search, and YouTube search. It also provides some
automation for those who want to save time on repetitive tasks.

LINK: https://www.sendible.com/

6. eClincher

Price: Plans start at $59 per month with a 14-day free trial

Description: Like most social media management tools, eClincher allows you to
schedule and publish posts, respond to social messages through its social inbox, and
analyze your social media performance.

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Unique value: eClincher differs from other tools because it enables you to auto-post
with smart queues and RSS feeds, has a media library for your images, and lets you
search for social media influencers.

LINK: https://eclincher.com/

7. Social Pilot

Price: Plans start at $30 per month with a 14-day free trial

Description: I like how Social Pilot fit many of the social media management tools (such
as scheduling and analytics but not monitoring) into a simple dashboard and offer it at
very affordable prices. With its client management feature, I believe it’s great for
agencies with multiple team members and several clients.

Unique value: Social Pilot curates and suggests content from several industries (such as
tech, education, and health and fitness), which is great if you want to find relevant
content easily.

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Another valuable feature is its white label reports, which are especially handy for
agencies.

LINK: https://www.socialpilot.co/

8. CoSchedule

Price: Free plan, with paid plans starting at $39 per user per month (14-day free trial)

Description: CoSchedule makes a simple promise: it has the best marketing calendar.
This is reflected in its pricing which is free for basic access to the calendar – users who
want more features will have to speak to the Sales team. With CoSchedule, you can
manage and collaborate with your team to create your social media posts, content,
events, and tasks.

Unique value: CoSchedule is great for marketers who want to organize all their projects
(social media, content, events, emails, etc.) in one place. Their ReQueue feature helps
you automatically find optimal posting times and fill gaps in your social media schedule
with your best posts

LINK: https://coschedule.com/

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9. MavSocial

Price: Plans start at $19 per month with a 14-day free trial

Description: MavSocial is a social media management tool with a focus on visual

content. For the higher-priced plans, you can also manage your Facebook ads with
MavSocial.

Unique value: On top of the common features (such as scheduling, monitoring, and
reporting), MavSocial has a digital library where you can manage, use, and edit your
multimedia for your social media posts and a search engine where you can browse
through millions of stock photos.

If you wish, MavSocial can also help you repeat your social media posts for a spec ified
duration.

LINK: https://mavsocial.com/

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10. Crowdfire

Price: Free plan; paid plans start at $9.99 per month

Description: Crowdfire has been adding new features over the years. Besides scheduling
content, it also allows you to manage your Twitter account (follow and unfollow) and
suggests articles for sharing.

Unique value: Crowdfire stands out from most social media management tools in that it
lets you connect your blogs, YouTube channel, and online shops and will create social
media posts for every update you have on your sites.

LINK: https://www.crowdfireapp.com/

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