An SMM manager is a specialist in positioning and promoting a brand, product or service through social networks. This profession quickly burst into the first places of the list of the most demanded.
Social media is no longer just about “chatting with friends”. This is a powerful promotion tool, which is professionally and effectively owned by a specialist of a fairly new profession – an SMM manager.
You pick up a smartphone, update social networks and see that you can find everything in them: shops and showrooms, image pages of stars and politicians, banquet venues and a film distribution announcement for the week. Behind all this abundance of information is the SMM manager quietly and imperceptibly.
Who is SMM manager?
An SMM manager is a specialist in Social Media Marketing – positioning and promoting a brand, product or service through the Internet and social networks. This profession quickly burst into the first places of the list of the most popular, despite its relative youth – it is only the same age as popular social networks: Facebook, VKontakte, Instagram. The goal pursued by an SMM manager is to sell (literally or figuratively) to you a commercial or personal brand or product produced by it. In fact, an SMM manager works at the intersection of marketing, IT, journalism and psychology. He needs to know the needs of the buyer, understand the course of his thoughts, master the word and at least be able to work with site management tools.
Pros of being an SMM manager
The competitive advantages of the profession of an SMM manager include a free schedule and lack of attachment to the office. The work of an SMM manager is in perfect harmony with a home chair, a warm blanket and a mug of tea. But if you are one of those who are discouraged by freelancing, the market will be happy to offer you vacancies for an SMM manager in large companies with a schedule from 9.00 to 18.00 on weekdays. This profession gives ample opportunities for creative self-realization, good earnings and the widest choice of tools. In addition, it involves constant learning and self-improvement.
Cons of SMM manager
But this barrel of honey was not without tar. Despite the lack of reference to place and time, the SMM manager is still subject to a clear control lever. His name is Deadline. Among other things, this profession involves direct and frequent communication with the customer. And here it often does not do without the human factor. Not without reason, in vacancies for the position of SMM manager, one of the first requirements is “stress resistance”.
Education
The profession of an SMM manager, like no other, involves constant self-learning. It changes at the same speed as updates are made in the social networks beloved by millions. But, of course, you still have to start somewhere. After all, a good foundation is the key to effective practice and self-education. To date, the profession of an SMM manager has not yet been taught by any Russian university. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, this direction is quite harmoniously considered in broader blocks of professions: marketer, advertiser, public relations specialist. Secondly, it is almost pointless to spend several years of a classical university on SMM. After all, the profession is developing so rapidly that the knowledge you gained in the first year will lose relevance or undergo significant changes by the middle of the second year.
Courses
The most effective in terms of learning the basics of SMM will be medium-length commercial courses and online schools. It is worth choosing them responsibly, studying the reviews, and preferably through the recommendations of friends in the profession. One of the most common training formats now is mastering the profession with an online mentor: an industry guru who develops his own online or offline learning methodology, where he shares his own best practices, tricks and experience.
Demand
To date, the profession of an SMM manager has not only stood out as a separate one from the marketing block, but has also become one of the most sought after for the second half of 2020. It’s easy to find an explanation for this: the pandemic has put many employees out of work. Having survived the crisis, people decided to apply their knowledge and skills in work not “for their uncle”, but for themselves. Small business began to grow. Shops, workshops, consulting began to open. And then their Instagram pages. Professionals began to share their opinions in thematic blogs. And of course, their activities today are simply impossible and practically useless without an inconspicuous but very important assistant – an SMM manager who actively promotes their activities to the masses.
Employment and career
An SMM manager is not the kind of job for which you will be asked for a diploma of higher education. Practice is important here, so most likely a potential employer will want to see your portfolio or, as it is sometimes called, whales. Often, without them, they simply will not conduct a dialogue with you. Therefore, it is important to first develop examples of your work. You can do this by spending free time with a personal or commercial brand. And some courses and online schools are already looking for practice for students during their studies, releasing each of them with a portfolio folder in their pocket. And then – everything is like everywhere else. The more successful your projects are, the stronger you are as a specialist, the better you “sell” with your work, the more you get paid.
Prospects for the future
Quite rightly, we can say that SMM is not only the present, but also the future. As long as the Internet is alive and developing, as long as social networks are in vogue, there will be work for the SMM manager. And do not worry about the finiteness of the market: there will be enough customers for everyone, because the digitalization process is actively luring all local brands, media people and even the Pope into the network.