How 2021 Will Change the role of a Social Media Manager
With technology expanding on a daily basis and new social media platforms rapidly being created, it is easy to say that for social media managers, the world has changed drastically. From websites such as Myspace and Facebook, to newer apps such as TikTok and Snapchat, there have been new developments and roles created that have changed the world as we know it.
To fully understand how, it is important to discuss the life of a social media manager and what roles they may take on.
The life of a Social Media Manager
With social media become increasingly relevant within our daily lives, it can be automatically assumed that social media management may only involve posting content. However, this is far from the truth!
According to the What Does a Social Media Manager Do? article by Media Bistro, social media marketers have plenty of tasks. One of the main tasks that social media marketers do is handle all social media platforms. This can include but not be limited to: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Google Plus. While they work for a particular company, they are usually the ones who are in charge of answering any questions, responding to different comments, and creating different forms of content for each platform.
For every post, social media managers review and analyze how well the post did, brainstorm for potential media campaigns and then plan them out accordingly. They will often compare what posts did not do well versus what did, which can help the brand better achieve their goals moving forward.
There are also very different kinds of social media managers,who have different tasks. All of these roles may range, depending on the company’s size and communications team. The 8 Types of Social Media Community Managers article by Lindsay Kolowich explains the different types of titles that social media managers have. The following jobs include: Copywriter, Social Media Producer, Social Media Metrics Analyst, News Curator, Community Manager, etc. Some of these jobs have different focuses (for example: producing videos or focusing on stats) but all are considered to be equally important.
Now that we have briefly discussed what the life of a social media manager may look like, let’s look over what skills they must have, shall we?
Skills a Social Media Manager Needs
In order to be an amazing social media manager, there are many skills that one must have in order to complete the job effectively. According to the 10 Important Skills and Traits Your Social Media Manager Will Need article by Alfred Lua, there are a variety of both traits and skills that must be considered.
The article highlights many skills such as: copywriting, design, public speaking, customer service, behavioral psychology, analytics, and budgeting. It explains that all top social media managers share these skills. It talks about traits that a top social media manager must have, such as: curiosity, adaptability and business savvy. However, the way that the daily life of a social media manager plays out, may be different due to new advances in technology, and new social media platforms being made.
The Good
There are new social media developments that will potentially change the way that every social media manager will work, beginning next year. New trends, features, and ideas behind different apps will be represented and social media managers will have to adapt. According to 25 Predictions for Social Media Marketing in 2021 by Andrew Hutchinson, many surprises will be in store.
As stated in the article, new features will be presented, one of which is ecommerce. Ecommerce will become more popular over time, and will give different businesses the opportunity to manage their storefront digitally. This will help social media managers provide easier access to their company’s products, and they will be able to analyze what products are doing well versus what aren’t. This will be more available to users on apps such as Facebook,Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok, etc.
Hutchinson states that the rise of virtual reality will also become active within the second half of the year, which will give viewers the opportunity to see different environments. Facebook plans on including this sometime soon, and will give users the opportunity to connect in a different manner. The use of virtual reality will allow for social media managers to promote particular products in a different light, and will grasp the attention of viewers because it is new to the world.
On top of all of the current changes, there will also be similar things to some apps that have not been developed on other ones. For example, Instagram will create a feature similar to TikTok, that will give users the ability to post similar videos. TikTok will also develop new features itself, and create more ties with the music industry, ecommerce opportunities, etc.
The Bad
Although there are a lot of new opportunities for social media managers to explore, it may be difficult to adapt to all of the new changes in the industry. 10 Social Media Challenges Your Business Must Overcome by Jennifer Beese, highlights some potential challenges companies might face.
One main challenge is that with new innovations coming into place, it might be difficult for companies to know what they should focus on. One feature on a social media platform may make it more popular than another, and the different changes may be hard for social media managers to adapt to.
Another main challenge may be developing new strategies. As different innovations come about, it may be challenging to develop a strategy for an innovation that is new. There are no previous stats on it, and the features could also be difficult to work with. Additionally, there are many other challenges such as: creating new relationships with your audiences, pushing your content to the next level, increasing your reach, and more.
It is fair to say that the life of a social media manager can be very interesting, and will definitely face challenges while moving forward in 2021! It will be interesting to see what comes next, and how social media managers will adapt.
