6 Important Soft Skills for Social Media Agency Managers.
Fail on These and See Your Agency Tank!
As a social media manager, there are certain abilities that should have an automatic residence in your skillset.
Let’s talk about six soft skills that you should develop as a social media manager, why they’re important, and how you can develop them.
What Are Soft Skills?
Soft Skills Vs. Hard Skills
Soft skills are the abilities that we develop throughout life. They are important for career success, but they aren’t specific to a particular career. Hard skills, on the other hand, refer to the essential skills that workers need in a given industry.
Soft skills are things that’ll help you be successful as a social media manager, but aren’t specific to the trade, such as interpersonal skills and positive attitude development.
1. Problem Solving
What Is It?
For a social media manager, challenges can take on many forms. Problem solving refers to the ability to address and combat the various obstacles that are presented to you in your personal and professional life.
You may need problem solving if you notice that you’re not experiencing significant Instagram growth.
One possible solution for acquiring Instagram followers is using a growth tool, such as Kicksta. You would need to do research on the various options and choose the best one for your account.
Kicksta is a good choice as one of the leading tools in the industry since it offers organic growth to customers. This is something you would take into consideration when problem solving, as you would want to be sure to select an effective tool and eliminate the problem as quickly as possible.
Why Is It Important for a Social Media Manager?
Problem solving is an important skill for a social media manager because you’ll encounter unique obstacles from a variety of clients.
As a social media manager, it’s important for you to be able to problem solve by planning ahead as well as by thinking on your feet, in order to best serve your clients.
How to Develop This Skill
As obstacles are presented in various aspects of your life, be sure to take note of them and really focus on the process of addressing them.
Identify the problem and take time to consider possible solutions. Then, select the solution that seems most appropriate. This part of the process is often trial and error.
Eventually, you’ll identify the solution that works best. After implementing this solution and seeing it through to completion, track its success and take into account any feedback you receive.
2. Time Management
What Is It?
Time management is the skill of balancing all of your responsibilities and scheduling your life such that you accomplish everything you need to do in a timely manner and without feeling stressed.
Why Is It Important for a Social Media Manager?
As we mentioned earlier, the life of a social media manager is never still. There’s always something new or different to be done, and no two days look the same.
Since social media managers have such varied tasks and schedules, it’s easy to become overwhelmed or have difficulty keeping track of everything you need to do. Effective time management can help to ease the feeling of overwhelm and make sure that all tasks are kept in order.
How to Develop This Skill
Effective time management is largely dependent on accurate prioritization of tasks. Every day, make a list of jobs you need to do. Organize these into the tasks that have an urgent deadline and tasks that have a high level of importance.
Start off by completing the most important tasks that need to be done the soonest. From there, assess which tasks should take the highest priority.
3. Critical Thinking
What Is It?
Critical thinking is the ability to recognize the most legitimate and important aspects of information. As you read, hear or learn things, thinking critically will help you to analyze new information and use it in the most effective way possible.
Why Is It Important for a Social Media Manager?
Critical thinking is something you develop as a social media manager because you frequently need to use given information to create a plan, such as a social media campaign.
When presented with facts or goals for a campaign, you need to identify which elements should be included in posts and how this information should be presented. There’s a lot of planning involved in the life of a social media manager, and critical thinking allows you to develop effective strategies.
How to Develop This Skill
To develop critical thinking skills, start by asking yourself questions as you learn information. Consider the source, the reasoning behind the message, how the information can be useful to you, and what connections can be made between this information and others.
Critical thinking relies heavily on asking and answering the most relevant questions, so it’ll be very helpful to identify which questions are most effective to ask and answer.
4. Communication
What Is It?
Communication is the process of sending and receiving information. To communicate effectively, you need to craft and deliver messages in such a way that audiences fully understand what you want to say. Additionally, you need to take into account the messages that you receive in order to more effectively share information with others.
Why Is It Important for a Social Media Manager?
When designing posts, crafting a campaign, or simply interacting with other users on social media, you’re communicating. Therefore, you need to ensure that you’re communicating as effectively as possible.
Poor communication skills from a social media manager will reflect poorly on an entire organization and lead to multiple negative repercussions. Strong communication skills aren’t only expected of a social media manager, but they also allow things to run smoothly for you and those you work with.
How to Develop This Skill
To improve your communication skills, notice how audiences receive the messages you send, and listen carefully to the feedback that you get. Both of these are good indicators of the level of effectiveness of your communication.
5. Work Ethic
What Is It?
Work ethic refers to your attitude and outlook regarding your work, as well as your methods of completing work.
Someone with a strong work ethic puts significant effort into the tasks they complete and ensures high integrity of results when doing a job.
Why Is It Important for a Social Media Manager?
When working as a social media manager, you represent not only yourself but your client as well. Managing social media means building an online reputation for an individual or company. Doing this with a poor work ethic would bring negative repercussions to your clients and, later, to you.
Having a strong work ethic when managing social media means that you produce high quality work that reflects well on you and your clients.
How to Develop This Skill
To improve your work ethic, make sure that you are fully focused and dedicated during the times that you work on any given project. Giving all of your attention to your current project will help you to work diligently and produce the best possible quality of work.
6. Flexibility
What Is It?
Flexibility is a soft skill that goes hand-in-hand with adaptability. Being flexible means that you can take challenges in stride and change your plans as needed.
Flexibility can be more difficult for those who like to adhere to a specific routine, but it is necessary to always keep an adaptable mindset.
Why Is It Important for a Social Media Manager?
As we’ve mentioned, social media managers frequently need to balance multiple clients or projects at once. This means that there are many variables in your work life, and things can quickly change at any given time.
In order to be a successful social media manager, you’ll need to be able to quickly adapt to challenges and changes that arise from any aspect of your work.
How to Develop This Skill
In order to develop flexibility, try viewing changes as opportunities for things to improve. Instead of seeing new or different tasks as obstacles, consider the ways in which they can make some aspect of your life or your work better.
Also, remember that changes aren’t the end of the world! Take a moment to consider how you can fit them into your typical routine or schedule. Changes occur frequently in all aspects of our lives. Everything is easier when you have the ability to accept changes and know that life goes on, no matter what.
Further Reading from Skills You Need
The Skills You Need Guide to Personal Development
Learn how to set yourself effective personal goals and find the motivation you need to achieve them. This is the essence of personal development, a set of skills designed to help you reach your full potential, at work, in study and in your personal life.
The second edition of or bestselling eBook is ideal for anyone who wants to improve their skills and learning potential, and it is full of easy-to-follow, practical information.
Diversify Your Soft Skills
Social media managers have numerous tasks and responsibilities, which means that you need a variety of soft skills in order to be as successful as possible in your work.
Hopefully, you’ve learned something new about the skills that you should prioritize as a social media manager. So, what are you waiting for? Get started on developing those skills and see how your work life improves!
About the Author
Elizabeth Schutte is a freelance blog writer and social media content creator through her business, Elizabeth M. Schutte LLC. She is currently working toward a degree in public relations and Spanish at Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL, where she also works as the Public Relations Officer for the Penguineering Research Team.