Can anyone be a Social Media Manager?

Time to read: 2 minutes

Simona Cotta Ramusino shares her experience and the lessons learned after years of working as a social media manager for several FinTech clients.

Many people presume that because they can curate their own feeds, the same rules apply to managing a corporate feed. I have found that this is rarely the case.

Social media can’t stand alone

Possibly because of my PR background, but for me, social media has to mirror what the PR machine does. It has to communicate a clear profile of the company, its people and its values and use the same key messages to help present a consistent image. It must also promote key spokespeople as industry thought leaders. I am lucky to have often covered both PR and social media consultant roles. This means I can reflect on the tone and type of language used in social media posts.

I know what news a client would be interested in amplifying and what owned content is coming out that we can repurpose for socials. Big global firms may have these two roles fulfilled by more than one person. If that’s the case, ensure you are only a desk or a Skype/Zoom/Microsoft Teams message away from the PR manager so you can work in synergy.

Scheduling is the perfect mix of science and art

Most scheduling tools suggest the best times to schedule a post on different social media platforms. Most of the time, these suggestions are useful. However, don’t let the robots take over. Human intervention still makes the difference.

• Who is the audience for this piece of news?
• Where are they located?
• Which channels do they favour?
• Is it a big piece of insight that may be better to read at the end of the day?
• Or is it a video that should be watched during your lunch break?
• Is this a good blog post to read as you sit at your desk in the morning?
• Where / when is this [virtual] event taking place?

That’s at least what I think when scheduling posts. Choose the right time zone to catch your audience at the right time. Pick the right social channels to post to make sure you reach the right audience.

Talk your audience’s talk

Using the correct language is key. I mainly cover corporate social media accounts, where the audience is comprised of journalists, analysts, entrepreneurs, and senior financial services figures. For me, it is paramount that the language clients use on social channels is appropriate to reach their audience.

Here are my two key rules when writing posts:

• Eats, shoots & leaves. Avoiding grammar mistakes and typos is key, particularly on LinkedIn, because this is where your peers and your clients’ peers are.
• Appropriateness of tone. You will be surprised by how many blunders are made daily, how often a brand (or an individual) has had to backtrack because a tweet thought of as a joke was offensive – see @PureGym post comparing a hard workout to ’12 Years of Slave’.
• Apply a common sense filter. For example, when deciding whether a piece of company news is for internal or external consumption. Does the whole world need to see pictures of the company Christmas party? No. Are you issuing a release about an acquisition? If you are a listed company, you may have some time restraints on when to do this, so ensure you are aligned with your PR Communications Team.

Different platform, same rules

For me, managing corporate social media channels is like any other role in communications. You must build your experience and knowledge, learn from your peers and always follow corporate communications best practices. Maybe not as much fun as you imagined, but it’s effective.