Discover Geeks Academy’s articles on: Blockchain, Coding, Cybersecurity, Cloud, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Gaming, Digital Innovation
Abstract: With the visibility and freedom of expression that social media offers, the rise of digital professionals is now unstoppable. The Social Media Analyst is one of the most requested professions.
Advertising is the soul of commerce, and commerce now happens mostly online. Today's social media is such a powerful advertising means that marketers can't help but take platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram into account when devising sales and business strategies and putting them into practice.
Thanks to the spread and dynamism of social media, companies can have immediate feedback with the public, interact with potential customers in real time, and collect valuable feedback and opinions. Therefore, without an active and consolidated presence in the main platforms, a company is considered at a loss and not competitive.
Within this context, Social Media Analysts offer companies an unprecedented opportunity to get in touch with customers and potential clients. While there are numerous social networks that provide a wide range of tools for customer support and explaining how products work, it is important to realize that simply having a social media presence is not a guarantee of success.
The Social Media Analyst is the figure on which the reputation, future growth and development of a company depends. To date, given the importance that social networks play in our daily life, without the presence of this figure, a company could not develop a 360 ° relationship with its consumers.
THE SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYST
Social media are crowded, competitive and with a huge potential. For a company, it is essential to gather, analyze, test and track data originating from them so as to identify the most effective strategies to pursue. This is why social media analytics is so important. With no data or feedback on what is happening on social channels, companies are in the dark about what works and what doesn't in the markets.
The Social Media Analyst develops a company's online presence and helps build brand awareness using social media. This task requires a large amount of data mining on various platforms to obtain detailed information on ROI in order to improve and increase a company's online presence. An analyst examines data to derive information that is used to build marketing strategies aimed at creating brand awareness.
Furthermore, the Social Media Analyst is the one who is able to study the trends in the social media landscape, research the most effective platforms and monitor the new tools available on the market that could be used to level up the company's performance.
So what are the tools a social media analyst should know how to use? Here are some of the most important responsibilities they take on.
1.Consumer Engagement
Consumer Engagement consists in the ability of a Social Media Analyst to listen, answer and ask questions to an online audience and to interact and understand their needs in order to create the product strategy on these. Among the various ways that the Social Media Analyst can use to engage the public are:
- Contests and giveaways
- Invite participation without incentives (asking questions, surveys, etc.)
- Creative content (interviews, ebooks, infographics, motivational quotes, etc.)
Importantly, consumer engagement is generally "proactive" where social media managers will actively interact with influencers or consumers (by tagging or mentioning others in social media posts or starting a LinkedIn group discussion) instead of engagement " responsive ”(like replying to comments made by a user).
It is essential that Social Media Analysts have a solid understanding of the products, services and of the sales process of the company for which work in order to correctly and effectively answer consumer questions about the products.
2. SEO and SEM Marketing
Another important task of the Social Media Analyst is to make optimal use of SEO, Search Engine Optimization. SEO. In fact, it aims to maximize the number of visitors to a particular web page by making sure that page appears at the top of a search engine results list. SEO involves a number of different methods to ensure a high position in the results list, such as including quality meta descriptions and targeted keywords.
Likewise SEM, Search Engine Marketing, is a form of marketing whereby companies pay for greater visibility in a search engine's results list. It is the Social Media Analyst's responsibility to combine SEO and SEM practices in order to accurately target relevant audiences while ensuring high website ranking and greater competitive advantage.
3. Promotion and advertising
It is important to ensure an active presence on a wide range of social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, but in order to grow and further promote the valuable content, advertising may be required.
Facebook for example requires high financial expenses through advertising to get hundreds and thousands of impressions. However, when done correctly, the results can be very rewarding. Instagram on the other hand, doesn't require expensive investments to generate a huge following and high levels of engagement. It is often up to a Social Media Analyst to decide which social media platforms can be profitable, where to advertise and what the budget will be.
4. Analyze and measure the effectiveness of the social media strategy
The Social Media Analyst is also required to record cumulative data from every single post made by every social media network. Although excessive, the information forms the basis for analyzing the effectiveness of the strategies employed. Data must be reported and monitored frequently. Commonly monitored metrics include:
- Followers
- Number of posts
- Impressions
- Commitments
- Traffic
- Leads
- Clients
5. Job Requirements and Essential Duties of a Social Media Analyst
The role of a Social Media Analyst, however, is not for the faint of heart. In fact, such work requires the ability to juggle many activities simultaneously, to research and diagnose in the shortest possible time and to adapt to constant change.
Below is a complete list of the skills required by a Social Media Analyst.
Quick feedback
Respond to any online customer feedback quickly and professionally, showing gratitude and sincere appreciation for the positive feedback and comments received online. Personalization plays an important role in creating a loyal customer community.
Social listening
Constantly listen to what consumers say online and react as quickly as possible to changes in your brand.
Brand consistency
Always adopt the "voice" of the brand as each brand has a defined personality and style of expression that is (and should be) evident in all online and offline businesses. It can also be done through personal branding.
Humanize the brand
To embody the values ??and traits of the target audience with the aim of provoking positive emotional responses such as laughter and surprise.
Engage with communities
Creatively and uniquely engages online communities relevant to the brand and seek inspiration from other communities as well.
Content creation
Write quality and valuable content online in order to achieve the highest possible engagement. Creating content is a challenging process and is critical to the success of any website.
Data monitoring
Manage general activities across a wide range of social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) by finding optimal posting and scheduling times and developing and implementing effective social media strategies.
Management
Managing general activities across a wide range of social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) by finding optimal posting and scheduling times and developing and implementing effective social media strategies.
Next Step: The Geeks Academy
There is no way to stop social media from getting bigger and better and there is no doubt that they have revolutionized society not only on a cultural level, but also on a business level. New avenues and new jobs will open up in this field as more and more companies embrace social media. In such a scenario it is easy to understand how talents such as creativity, friendliness, intuition and dynamism are necessary at least as much as technical skills to be successful as a digital professional.
This is why Geeks Academy has created specific courses for those who want a career in the world of social media.