Social Media manager

[Needachange78]

Hey everyone, I’ve been a SAHM for 10 years now and I feel the time to get in work mode.
I’m looking for social media manager course as I’m really interested in it and I’m handling an account (volunteer) so I have some experience.
there are so many out there that I’m hoping to get one Into a certified course that will be able to get me jobs in the future. I have seen the social shell, has Anyone tried it? Do you recommend it? What are the courses that have allowed you to get into SMM and get jobs after?
any help/advice is appreciated

thanks!

There's a lot of free resources out there, like on socialmediaexaminer.com for example. I wouldn't pay for a course at this stage as what works moves so quickly. I'd learn how to write a strategy, evaluate and track results.
The best thing to do would be to get a website up and running, use social media to promote yourself and get a couple of volunteer positions going to get testimonials.

Google garage do some good courses. I would look at the institute of Direct Marketing and Chartered Institute of Marketing for certificated qualifications to support your voluntary experience. Also think about copywriting courses too as writing compelling copy is important for blog content.

thank you for the tip. I’m still a novice and so setting up a website is very early now.
where do you recommend that I learn how to write a strategy, evaluate and track results?
where do I find volunteer positions?
thanks

GrimDamnFanjo

@GrimDamnFanjo sorry I’m sick I forgot to quote

@fiorentina have you tried these institutes? Any tips for copywriting? It’s not a Blog, I’m looking into handling SM accounts.. 🙏🏼

I have Chartered Institute of Marketing qualifications from a few years ago. And did a one day copywriting course. Writing compelling copy is still important whether it’s Facebook, insta, LinkedIn etc? There are books and online articles that give tips as well. I’d spend time looking at some of the larger accounts and learn from them. Tracking results is essential, understanding the metics available and how to interpret those is important so that a client or employer can measure ROI.

If I were you (and I was) I'd start reading Neil Patel's blog and implement what you learn. Most employers want experience not qualifications as there are far too many people in this sector with pieces of meaningless paper, unless you can swing an MBA or something from CIM you're better working on the account you manage and using screenshots of high performing posts as part of a portfolio to show what you can do. Having said that, I would also recommend doing Mailerlite's email marketing course, it's free and a lot of social media jobs also want you to be able to do NL marketing and a lot of what it covers can be applied elsewhere eg the topic on statistics. A lot of traditional marketing courses neglect digital marketing still!

When you say handling, what do you mean? Could be a couple of things, from posting pre written copy from the account at certain times (or using platforms to do this at intervals), managing all paid bidding and targeting (with pre written or you writing), doing the copy writing and accompanying creative and a blend of the above etc plus more.

A lot of social media management roles fall into two types, managing paid content and organic content. Managing paid ads is number heavy and requires experience in analysing data, good excel skills and ability to spot trends. Managing organic content is more about writing good copy and content, although you would still be expected to measure what’s working. Some in-house roles would probably cover both areas although in agency you would normally specialise in one, so it’s worth thinking about which you prefer.

It’s good if you already have experience through volunteering. The Google digital garage courses are good for a general overview on digital marketing. Meta/Facebook also have courses available. There is an absolute wealth of blog content online as well. But experience always wins over theory in these roles, good social media managers are in demand (especially from the paid side) so you would be best off implementing anything you learn and being able to show a real test/learn attitude, and be ready to showcase anywhere you have made improvements in the account you manage through volunteering. Having a good understanding of how to measure campaign performance is critical here and you can learn this through the digital garage or online content.

I am an online marketing manager, I sort of fell into the job by accident and have no formal qualifications. I also ran a local charity’s social media for a number of years.

However I would recommend (if you have capacity alongside formal training ) to get stuck into LinkedIn there is a wealth of free training that you can do, I am often on there making sure my knowledge is updated as best practice changes so quickly.

I’m a lecturer in marketing - I teach undergraduate level but I bet your local FE college does short courses which would start in September. A lot of my students go on to work in social media management. I teach modules which cover things like copywriting, brand management, developing a digital campaign, and PR, so they learn loads of different skills which feed into that. TikTok is really massive at the moment and being able to produce video based content is really valuable too.

I second what pp say about developing a portfolio. My students write strategies and run campaigns as part of their degree (including working with analytics) but also can do a practical industry placement if they choose in place of a double credit module. This means they graduate with a decent portfolio.

I do bits of work on the side myself but generally as a “trade” - eg I wrote a strategy for my hairdresser (who owns the salon) in exchange for free cuts - just to keep my hand in.

@Dontcallmeduckie i handled a political account. So information was pretty straightforward. But we have miscellaneous posts which I write (information) and did translations. So it was a blend.

also intuitively I would create stories the follow a certain theme.. for example fundraisers would be a few stories together.. wait a few hours then it’s a few environmental stories.. then wait a few hours and a few political events.

It was over 50k followers (organic), but politics esp in the Middle East is tough, and with political army the account has been deleted/suspended.

@FuzzyPenguin how? Where do I look?, I opened a LinkedIn lately for this purpose..

@Judystilldreamsofhorses
I’m not on TikTok, since I’m handling a political account so it’s not useful.

how can I find my FE college?

where do you teach? Anything you would recommend?

Sorry I’ve been MIA, but 3 kids, and bank holidays are a busy time

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