With more than 3.2 billion people on social media, it’s become integral for businesses to establish a presence on these platforms and leverage them for marketing purposes, across various products or services. However, for small companies with limited resources, building an internal social media team can be a challenge (or even impossible). Instead of giving up hope, companies should consider hiring a knowledgeable social media consultant — this will help them increase their reach and grow traffic to their accounts.
Businesses can greatly benefit from the guidance of a knowledgeable social media consultant. As the voice, eyes, and ears of a client across various social platforms, social media consultants are responsible for crafting an engaging brand presence. To give you more insight into this career path, we’ve compiled advice from five successful social media consultants. Are you considering the role now? Or maybe you’re looking to hire one for your team? Read on!
Table of Contents
What is a social media consultant?
Social media consultants are experts in strategic planning and marketing techniques that help companies increase their visibility on various social media platforms. They specialize in improving a company’s social media presence while also assisting with setting goals for campaigns. By analyzing the current status of the company, these consultants pinpoint potential areas of growth and develop strategies to improve the company’s performance.
What does a social media consultant do?
Social media consultants are tasked with a variety of responsibilities related to brand management, customer engagement and organizational communication: mapping out and executing a robust strategy, posting relevant content to websites and social media channels, interacting with customers and moderating communities, maintaining a cohesive branding message across platforms, staying updated on industry trends and competitors’ strategies, and submitting creative ideas to management.
Now How to Become?
1- Build a portfolio
When discussing social media marketing consulting, Keith Kakadia, Founder and CEO of Sociallyin.com shared the following advice – “Creating a portfolio of successful case studies is an important step in building up a client base as a consultant. Potential clients will want to see proof that you are capable of delivering positive results.”
Kakadia recommends that individuals looking to establish themselves as credible social media marketing experts should produce and disseminate content. Creating a blog or sharing posts on channels such as Medium can be great ways to highlight one’s expertise and demonstrate their capabilities in the field.
2- Gain entry-level experience
If you are interested in becoming a social media consultant, it is important to consider any experience you have that may assist. For instance, those who want to gain consulting expertise in copywriting can benefit from taking on a role as a copywriter first. Doing so will provide invaluable knowledge that can be used to help secure more advanced consulting positions down the road.
3- Network
President of AKvertise, Inc., Akvile DeFazio has this advice to offer those aspiring to become social media consultants: “Start networking as early as possible and make sure to spread the word about your expertise and services. As soon as you’ve decided that this is what you want to pursue, begin building relationships both in ‘real life’ and online. Doing so will help get the ball rolling towards a full-time career in this field.”
Aspiring entrepreneurs should understand the value of networking and relationship-building early on. I thought that my network would decrease when I left my job to start my own business; however, many peers offered assistance in helping me build contracting opportunities and clients. Taking part in activities such as attending conferences, joining professional networks, and engaging with local businesses can all be sources for generating leads and expanding your client base.
Networking is an important part of growing your business. DeFazio has several suggestions for building connections, such as visiting meetup.com, participating in Twitter chats related to social media, submitting guest blog posts, researching podcasts to be a guest on and attending industry events like conferences or pop-up networking gatherings. Building local relationships can also be beneficial; look into your chamber of commerce for more information.
Skills for a social media consultant
As a consultant, I have mastered the skills necessary to develop successful content for social media. I have a knack for coming up with new ideas and strategies that help companies to reach their goals. Analyzing data is essential as well; there must be an understanding of user engagement in order to measure the success of a campaign or action. Finally, strong copywriting is needed to effectively communicate messages online and capture readers’ attention.
Project Management: Social media consultants require excellent organizational and management skills to efficiently complete multiple projects simultaneously.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): To bring more visitors to their clients’ webpages, social media consultants apply SEO tactics.
Conversion Rate Optimization: When attempting to get the audience to take a desired course of action, social media consultants utilize conversion rate optimization strategies in order to boost the proportion of participants that follow through with the company’s plan.
