By 
If there is one thing I’ve learnt about the social media profession its that it is one that needs constant attention and up skilling. If you are already working in this space, you will know that it demands a knowledge base of technology and software all, of course, underpinned by a unique set of soft skills. The technology and software elements alone are growing and evolving at an alarming rate. In short – your social media knowledge needs a regular MOT (in England that means a regular check-up).
Essentially, in reality, the training you do today in this field – will need updating in 3 months (if you are lucky). Planning for up-skilling needs to be a very important feature within your training calendar.
Want an example?
Well, with the physical social media platforms themselves there are many features that alter, shift and change that affect things like:
- how it performs on devices,
- what size of images are better for which display format
- which types of content perform better on which platforms and/or devices
The reason it is important keep on top of these kinds of factors is because they impact your reach.
See what I mean?
Every social media manager will have a heightened awareness of how their content is performing with their audiences. Part of this, is understanding clearly the different nuances between organic and paid reach.
If you keep your day-to-day working knowledge of the maths behind social media up to date – you have less of a chance of wasting your budget and more of a chance of improving your natural organic reach, and achieving your goals.
The factors to keep up-to-date on are:
1. The “Maths”
We may all like to avoid it – but, you simply can’t. Your success on Facebook, for example, demands a deeper understanding on the very mature advertising platform that it has become.
There are algorithms that determine how you fare on most platforms – so you should make sure you are subscribed to the blogs and video training from the specialists so you know when things change. On Facebook for example there are more than 200 algorithms; 5 (that I know of) on Pinterest; 20+ on LinkedIn and approximately 10 on Instagram.
Why do you need to be a social media mathematician? Because when algorithms are at play they affect how good you will be in maximising your great content in order to reach more customers.
Good people to follow for sourcing this kind of information from are:
- Jon Loomer (Advanced Facebook Marketing Metrics)
- Mari Smith (on general Facebook platform updates)
- Jenny Brennan (for Facebook Advertising)
2. Importance of conversation
This is something I have to repeat quite often – social media isn’t a one way broadcast medium – it’s a two way dialogue with the ultimate goal of spurring conversation and engagement. Eventually over time, once you have given enough value and proven worthy of your audience’s loyalty – you may convert that into pounds and dollars.
Learn about what is important to the audience you are serving. And this may change often as well. If you are in charge of responding to people on any of your social media accounts – this is a very important role.
It is key to learn how to cross pollinate how you are conversing with the customer – making sure that when you are talking to them on the phone, through Facebook, or Twitter — it is a very consistent and smooth journey. Everything from the customer’s perspective must feel like there is a unwavering message and voice from the business.
Great resources to follow in the social conversation space are:
3. Social design
I call it social design because this skill does not only mean you need to be design led – but you also have to know exactly how visual messaging works on social media – to know how to design images and video for the space. There are variances on design across all the platforms, plus its good to know which tools and plugins to use for your blog and scheduling that will enhance the content experience for your audience. For example you could use the Yoast plug-in for WordPress so that you can upload images in the backend of your post that will be optimised for Facebook and Twitter – so you do not have to individually load different images each time you schedule your content.
Inspirational people to follow in the visual space are:
4. New fandango platforms or tools
Its important to watch the new start-ups as social media evolves over time. So, for example live streaming is the hot thing (at the time of writing), so its important to work out how the new tools and channels work – are they getting a big take-up? Will your audience be keen to get on board? Are they applicable to your business? Are your competitors using them? Don’t go for every new thing – wait a few months, see what sticks and then make sure you do your homework and get on board when it looks like its here to stay.
Some great blogs to follow to stay on top of these:
5. Peer-to-peer inspiration
This is a tricky space to work in – especially when a lot of the work is experimental and you learn by trial and error. It’s very helpful to identify some peer-to-peer groups that you can belong to where you can share knowledge and experiences. It will also help to keep you motivated. If you are the boss – make sure you look for the right fit for your social media manager – it doesn’t have to be industry centric. Regular interaction with peers also will help keep you or your staff up to date.
An international virtual networking group to consider for you or your social media manager:
- Social Media Examiner’s Social Media Society (registration is done in stages and it is a paid group)
[I’ll fill in more when I come across them – a lot are privately run. If you hear of a useful one – then please do let me know!]
What are you doing to update your social media knowledge?
I’d love to hear about what kinds of things you do for you or your team to keep on top of the changes in the field and keep ideas fresh. If you have any questions about your social media team and how to evaluate the skills that you currently have inhouse, then please do drop a comment below or email me. I’d be more than happy to see if I can help.
