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Social media started out as just a fun way to connect with family and friends, but it’s grown into an affordable, vital marketing strategy for businesses of all sizes. Many businesses are overwhelmed by all the tasks, to generate content, sort analytics and stats, around the clock monitoring, and all that go into managing multiple messages across several social media accounts, and they’re hiring persons and companies with the skills set to take care of this for them.
If you are good with your hands, great writing skills, analytical thinking, then starting a social media management business might be a good fit for you.
To get this going, its a good idea to understand what social media managers do. Similar to virtual assistants, social media managers offer a variety of services depending on their expertise and their clients’ needs. Services can include:
- Develop marketing strategies based on client goals
- Social media account setup
- Posting graphics and text on behalf of clients
- Staying current and sharing on trends and news relevant to the client’s business
- Increase the number of the client’s followers
- Community facilitation to the client’s target market
- Customer service for the client
- Marketing analysis
There are many good reasons to consider starting a social media management business. You’ll be paid to use social media, which can be great if it’s something you already enjoy doing. And it requires little investment or equipment to get started.
Here are the essential resources you need to run a profitable social media management business:
- A reliable computer system – (Laptop spec available on request)
- Internet Service with great speed – (i have a few recommendations on request)
If you want to put yourself in more advanced space and not run it as an essential business, I advise you include the following:
- Handy and reliable smart mobile phone
- VOIP phone (i have a few recommendations on request)
- A website/landing page (i have a few recommendations on free sites that would not become a problem when migrating)
- corporate email account (i have a few recommendations on request)
These resources would help you to run the business from home, or anywhere else.
You can focus on the social media sites that you know best instead of having to know every single social media platform. The need for social media managers continues to grow as more solo-preneurs, freelancers, and small businesses outsource this task.
Time to Launch
Becoming a social media manager requires experience more than education. Courses in social media management are available, but you should also do a little studying and research on your own.
You should understand social media as a marketing tool. It’s one thing to get a bunch of followers to view a “funny video” YouTube feed, and it’s quite another to build a following for a business. Social media marketing is different from traditional marketing, which is why many businesses struggle with it. Social media is all about having an interesting, informative, and/or entertaining conversation with the market.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to posting on social media. Each platform has its own rules and methods for best marketing practices. How a business promotes on Instagram should be different from how it markets on LinkedIn because each platform is vastly different.
You should have the ability to manage several social media platforms for numerous clients. There are a host of tools to help you manage platforms, but having a plan is crucial to ensuring that every client’s social media needs are met.
Planning
Your business plan is a roadmap for your business success. It doesn’t matter, if it’s a short one, so far you understand it. Outline your business goals, services, assets, liabilities, and marketing information, and explain how you’ll compete against your competitors.
A business name is always a good place to start and is not something to take likely as it would be part of the selling points for your business. I have created 43 business names to date and when I think of the processes, my grey hair attests to the brainstorming that went into them 😆.
You can offer several packages, such as a start-up service that creates accounts then passes management of them back to the client or a full-service package that does everything from creating the accounts, posting content, and moderating the community.
You might want to focus more on marketing or more on data analysis. Your Key talents will help you narrow it down. Go with what you’re really good at.
Consider if there are industries you want to focus on. For example, you can be a social media manager for Realtors or authors.
Determine which platforms you’ll specialize in. While knowing something about all the major platforms is important, sometimes focusing on a couple that reaps big results for a client’s particular industry is better. Some clients might have Twitter and Facebook down pat, but they need help with Pinterest or YouTube.
You might have difficulty charging top fees as a new business, but referrals and testimonials can get you there eventually. What you charge will depend on your experience and the work you do. You can charge by the hour or offer package plans. Advisably, its always nice to charge less on entry stages, but complete your services with add ons that allow you to increase the rate with every milestone and trust you develop with clients.
Learn the Etios of business partnership
In my 12 years of business, I have come to understand the power of partnering and the proof that big business thrive on a network of businesses that work together.
There are social media companies that are already operating with years of experience and an appetite for big games, making friends with them can earn you the crumps you need to grow. Others offer affiliation, referral, and partnership programs that allow you to benefit from referring clients, using their platforms, and making a commission.
This is an old trade secret in the social media space that has made many businesses millions, and if you learn to identify more businesses in the media, social media spaces as friends than foes, you would be setting yourself up for success.
As a business consultant, I am not able to make free recommendations, as these platforms are paid, and cannot be used to generate free marketing. You can send me a mail on recommendations and a full consultancy if you are looking to start a social media business.
Some extracts from this article are from my book, bulls by the balls, ITBS, and thebalancesmb
