So, you have just joined a brand as a social media manager, and you are excited for the challenge ahead – but wonder where you are supposed to start.
Many new employees in this department do not ask where they can begin their task, because you understandably worry about making a bad impression on your first day or looking like you do not know what you are doing. The good news is that this worry is common, and the questions you have are good ones – and it is always better to ask first and do things correctly than make costly mistakes later.
Each company and brand you will work for will have different needs and audiences, so your first weeks will be mainly learning about your employer. These tips should help you on the job and achieve great results.
Check the existing social media company accounts
When you are learning about safety precaution techniques, the first thing you are told to check is where potential dangers are. Although social media does not have hazardous situations, you will still need to check your surroundings before doing anything else.
This will mostly involve social media audits, where you will attempt to find out:
- All the brand’s social media accounts and their performance
- People with access to these accounts, as well as centralizing permissions if you need to
- Knowing all social media tools and management platforms the brand uses
- Set processes where you can regulate social media activities
The auditing process will go a long way to helping you know what works, what you can eliminate, and the general social media strategies the brand should use.
Know who you will work with
This is particularly helpful if the company is a large one since you will work with different departments. Regardless of the specific brand, it is always good to know the people you will work with daily.
The teams you may work with include:
- Business video teams – they will help you if you plan to upload videos on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook. You will need to be on the same page with them if you want to create and implement successful strategies.
- Sales – these are the people that help you convert social media leads and refer them to the sales team.
- Events – these are very useful for building the company’s brand among their audiences and forming personal connections with them.
- Everyone – You will possibly work alongside everyone in the company as they seek your expertise in marketing, content promotion, content, and campaign management.
Know the social media trends
It is vital that you keep up with industry changes as a social media manager, as well as adapting to them – for instance, if your company plans to market themselves on TikTok, you can buy tiktok likes as a part of boosting reach to new audiences on the platform.
You must remember that trends move very quickly on social media. Always stay in the know and the methods you can use to apply them to your brand.
Listen to industry talk and followers
If the brand you work for already has a presence on social media, their followers are the best source for your inspiration and information – especially when you do not know where to start. An established following will talk about why they love the brand, so you can check their profiles and see what they are sharing with their friends and followers.
Check the people regularly engaging with the brand’s content and what they post. This will help you to know:
- What people think of your brand
- The issues they have or what they are looking for
- The ways you can solve these issues
Hashtags are also a great method of following the trends in your industry, as well as finding out about competitors and what makes them stand out.
Competitive analysis
Always know who you are competing with; therefore, examining your competitors and their social media accounts will give you an idea of what your industry’s social media landscape looks like.
Use various methods such as Google searches, who your prospective audience follows, and the top three to five competitors you are up against.
In conclusion, these are not the only strategies you should use within your first days of being a social media manager, but they are the basic building blocks that should provide a wealth of information to use in the future.
