You won’t be a manager tomorrow, but you will enjoy and learn in the process. Here you’ll find a few ideas to get you started....
CAREER COUNSELLING
Starting a career in social media seems daunting to a lot of young people. But remember, your career is a journey and you have to tackle it step by step. You won’t be a manager tomorrow, but you will enjoy and learn in the process. Here you’ll find a few ideas to get you started.
Learn from different platforms
* Podcasts are a great way to learn about new developments, stay up to date with the latest social media trends, and hear from influential leaders in the field.
* Blogs are great sources of information and points of view on key social media trends - you can even get involved in the discussion over social media!
* Professional websites showcase exemplary work within the social media field and publish articles on best practice for the industry.
Build a Network
* Professional networking sites
Follow influencers and interest groups to help you research the industry, and connect with your past and present colleagues to build your network via pages like LinkedIn. You can also try to reach out to other social media professionals directly to find out about their career.
* Career Fairs or networking events
Most cities, schools and colleges host careers fairs, and there are many websites that can help you find events in your area. These are great opportunities to meet employers or recruiters, build up your network and learn more about the industry.
* Mentorship
Mentors can provide great, hands on advice and support to help guide you through choices in your career. You can find a mentor for example in your personal network, school, sports, or through mentorship programmes.
Build your skills
* Online training
Use online courses to teach yourself the skills required in your industry. There’s lots to learn, and lots of places to support you in doing so.
* Try out tools
As you learn more about social media, you will come across the programmes and platforms used to help social media professionals do their jobs. Being familiar with them and able to work with these tools is a great skill to prepare you for the career in social media.
* Start a project
As you gain more practical and theoretical knowledge, you could start a project: maybe a blog or vlog. This is a great way to showcase your skills and gain experience in social media - even without an employer!
Get experience
* Work experience
Search for work experience placements, internships or traineeships to gain experience. This will be invaluable in helping you develop skills and secure a permanent job in social sedia.
* Apprenticeships
Allowing you to learn on the job, apprenticeships grant you a nationally recognised qualification or even a degree whilst allowing you to work on real-life projects.
* University education
You can choose to study courses in social media or marketing and communications at university to get a strong theoretical understanding of the field.
Some popular tools for social media management
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is one of the most popular tools for finding influencers, partly because it’s so easy to use.
Just type a very generic search term, such as, ‘food’ and the tool shows a list of influencers (mostly food bloggers in this case) based on a number of key stats related to page authority, follower count, and engagement levels.
Followerwonk
Followerwonk is another nice tool for finding Twitter users related to your business.
Type in ‘food writer’ and it shows a list of relevant accounts you can target.
Social Pilot
Social Pilot is a simple and straightforward social media management solution for those just starting out with a management tool. In addition to publishing and scheduling, the tool features a curated content list based on categories and keywords and will share automatically to your feed.
SocialPilot offers in-depth analytics reports to guide better strategies. From content performance and audience insights, users will be able to understand what audiences are engaging with and analyze growth patterns to continue creating content.
Trello
Trello is a versatile tool that handles a vast range of marketing tasks. Simply add cards with your social media messages, attach links and media, give it a due date, and tag a team member. Create lists for different teams involved in social media management. Your content creation team drags and drops their completed cards into the design team’s list. Your designers add graphics and drop it into the list for the final review.
Canva
Canva is an all-in-one graphics tool. For example, take one stock image, crop it, add a filter, or change the background with a few clicks. Then use Canva’s magic resize feature to crop photos to fit each social channel. You can also use a graph maker to create custom diagrams and add motion to your visuals by using the animator.
Later
Later works across your devices and platforms. It is the preferred platform for Instagram users. The app helps you:
- Collect user-generated content from Instagram
- Save your media in a content repository
- Upload messages for Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter
Source: the information in the article was shared in the online course Digital Skills: Social Media by Accenture
