This role is essential to manage the presence of a brand on social media platforms. Discover what it takes to become a Social Media Manager.
A social media manager oversees an organisation’s presence on various platforms, including popular ones like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and more local platforms like VK in Russia and QQ, WeChat, Sina Weibo, Tencent Video, Xiao Hong Su in China.
The social media manager responsibilities include developing and implementing social media strategies, curating contents from creative ideas to development, engaging with the audience, monitoring and managing feedback, analysing metrics, and staying updated with social media marketing trends, influencer scouting and selection for specific projects.
Within these daily activities the role could be supported by several internal or external partners,such as Graphic Designers, Community Managers or Specialists in order to guarantee a succesful social media animation.
He/She collaborates with marketing, PR and customer service teams to ensure consistent brand messaging and effective communication. A social media manager is crucial in building and maintaining the organisation’s online reputation by crafting the social media voice and ensuring alignment with brand values and objectives. He/She creates compelling content, such as text, images, videos, and multimedia, to capture the target audience’s attention and encourage interaction and sharing. Overall, a social media manager plays a vital role in managing online presence, strategy implementation, content creation, audience engagement, metric analysis, collaboration, maintaining brand reputation, enhancing worldwide brand awareness and supporting organic leads generation.
A social media manager comes from different academic backgrounds. He/she usually has a degree in marketing and communication, journalism, visual communication, or public relations. Additional courses or certifications in digital marketing and social media management are an added benefit.
A social media manager is passionate about communication with a particular interest in digital marketing and, of course, social media platforms. He/she is talented in areas such as social media strategy, content creation, community management, analytics, customer service, trend awareness, advertising, collaboration, brand awareness, crisis management and adaptability. These skills empower him/her to develop successful strategies, produce captivating content, interact with the audience, analyse data, offer customer support, keep up with the latest trends, manage advertising campaigns, work collaboratively with teams, maintain brand coherence, and adapt to the ever-changing social media landscape.
During a crisis, a social media manager acts quickly by monitoring and gathering accurate information. He/she provides updates and reassurance to customer concerns, He/she develops a crisis communication plan collaborating with the internal team, in order to ensure consistent messaging on social media platforms. The social media manager actively listens to the audience, he/she feels empathic and engaged with their feedbacks. Maintaining a calm and professional tone, is essential to be able to solve the crisis at best.
A social media manager supervises and enhances a brand’s social media presence by creating content, engaging with the audience, analysing metrics, and addressing customer inquiries. Social media marketing through the social media platforms promotes brands, products and services, targeting specific audiences in order to increase the brand awareness and create engagement, and sometimes also direct sales from online shops.
Social media manager uses different tools and platforms to streamline their management tasks: scheduling tools to automate posts, analytics tools to track performance, content creation tools for visually appealing contents and social listening tools to monitor conversations. They also leverage influencer marketing platforms, social media advertising platforms and social media listening tools to reinforce brand presence and gain valuable insights.
Social media managers can work in different settings such as marketing agencies, PR firms, digital marketing departments, social media management companies or work as in-house or freelance professionals for organisations across different industries.
The Master in Fashion Styling & Visual Merchandising at Domus Academy, the international design school in Milan, equips aspiring social media managers in the fashion industry with essential skills and knowledge. The programme delves into fashion aesthetics, trends, and consumer behavior, crucial for creating visually captivating and on-brand social media content. It also covers storytelling, brand positioning, and visual communication, key elements for effective social media strategies. Moreover, students gain insights into the retail environment and consumer experience, enabling them to craft engaging and immersive social media campaigns. The knowledge of Visual Merchandising techniques and retail spaces further enhances the creation of visually impactful content and strengthens the brand’s online presence. While not specifically focused on social media management, the programme’s combination of fashion styling, visual merchandising, and in-depth knowledge of the fashion industry provides a unique perspective and valuable skill set for those aspiring to be social media managers in the fashion field.
In addition, other Masters at Domus Academy equip students with social media managing skills. The Master in Luxury Brand Management includes a Digital Communication workshop, which provides a knowledge about the creation of social media communication campaigns. While, the Master in Visual Brand Design prepares students about the promotion of a brand through both traditional and digital communication, allowing graduates to design social media communication campaigns.
The Domus Academy’s Master’s in Fashion Styling & Visual Merchandising includes both theoretical courses and practical activities like Professional Accelerator Activities and workshops in collaboration with leading companies. The Master focuses on subjects from Integrated Communication Strategy to Fashion Marketing & Management and Fashion Culture. For the workshops, students can choose among Fashion Buying, Entrepreneurship through Design and Identity Design.