Social media marketing is slowly taking over traditional marketing. Many companies are planning to spend more on their social media profile and hire professionals to manage them.
A social media assistant is one of the most valuable social media experts who can write, design, publish, communicate, and do much more to boost a brand’s social media presence, improve its reputation, and help the brand increase its revenue.
This article explains all you need to know about social media assistants and see if the career is a good choice for you or not.
Who is a social media assistant?
As the job title indicates, a social media assistant assists the employer in handling and managing his social media profiles to increase the profile’s growth, followers, leads, and sales.
He wears many hats. He can be a content creator, designer, content publisher, online website handler, and much more, depending on a company’s needs. The more skills a social media assistant has, the more his value will be in the market.
Social media assistant skills
A social media assistant should have the following skills to get success in this field.
Knowledge of multiple social media channels
An average person has around 8 social media accounts today. Therefore, businesses don’t rely only on one social channel anymore; instead, they create profiles on many popular channels, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok. You should know how to use popular social media channels for the benefit of the company.
Core social media marketing skills
As a social media assistant, you will have to perform many tasks to promote the business on social channels. You should know what SEO, SEM, analytics, and content curation are so you can play your part in boosting sales and increasing the revenue of the company.
Editing and proofreading
Proofreading and editing are done before content (text or art) is published on social media. It is done to make the content error-free. A social media assistant knows how to thoroughly examine the content, locate errors and then remove them.
He also checks if the content tone, style, or format is consistent or not. Using consistent style is a way of grabbing customers’ attention and gaining their trust. Therefore, he makes sure he publishes content that show consistency.
Report preparation and presentation
A social media assistant has to present reports of campaign results to the social media marketing manager. The report should be easy to understand and concise, so the manager can read it without any difficulty. You should know how to prepare professional reports with the help of report tools.
Communication skills
Social media assistants work with different teams. Sometimes they go to the content creation team to ensure content is delivered on time, and sometimes they go to the marketing teams to learn about the marketing strategies and share their marketing ideas, too. To do all these things, you should have good communication skills so you can convey your thoughts and ideas clearly.
You will also have to provide excellent customer service to convert your potential customers into loyal repeat customers. Salesforce research shows that 89% of customers are likely to buy again from the brand that offered them excellent customer service during the first purchase. Having good communication skills can help you tackle angry, disappointed, happy, sad, and every other kind of client easily.
Ability to manage multiple tasks within the designated time period
You will have to get content from content creators, read and proofread it, and publish it regularly to ensure the company’s profiles stay active on all social media. In addition to this, you will have to analyze metrics of posts, draw results from the analysis, and create reports on time. You will have to perform all these activities within the designated time period, so you can avoid project delays.
What are the basic roles and responsibilities of a social media assistant?
A social media assistant is responsible for the following tasks.
Manage multiple social media profiles
An effective social media assistant not only handles social media profiles but also improves their performance over time. He checks the number of likes, followers, comments, and impressions to determine if the content is generating engagement or not.
Identify the target audience
Each business has its own target audience that depends on the business services and products. If a business sells home accessories and furniture, then the most suitable audience might be homeowners or couples. Similarly, if the business is about stationery products, the most suitable target audience will be teenagers and school-going students.
A social media assistant conducts online research to understand his target audience and then generates content based on their preferences.
Interact with the target audience
A social media virtual assistant makes sure that engaging content is produced every day, so he can increase audience interaction. He uses hashtags, Instagram Stories, and customer testimonials to interact with potential customers and gain their trust. He is also responsible for responding to their messages and comments.
Grow social media presence
The success of an online business depends on many factors, and one of them is the growth of its social media presence. A social media assistant uses different tricks and techniques to help a company improve its social media presence. He checks current trends, pays attention to customer service, uses multimedia, and audit results to see what else should be added to social media marketing strategy.
Schedule content calendar
Another role that a social media assistant plays is the creation of a content schedule. He creates and manages the schedule to make sure content is posted on each social media profile regularly and consistently. When you share content regularly, and it reaches your potential customers, they have your brand in their minds when they need a product or service that you offer.
Proofread and edit content
Social media assistants are aware of the company’s content-related goals. They do not publish just anything the content creators give them. In fact, they first read the content, edit it if it needs amendments, and publish it only if it is according to the company’s social media marketing strategy.
Monitor campaign results
They also track important metrics to see if they are generating results according to the set goals. If a campaign is not working the way they wanted it to work, they will make necessary amendments to it and analyze the results again.
On the other hand, if a campaign generates better results than the previous campaign, they invest more in it to improve their social media presence and overall sales.
Setup email campaigns
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways of boosting your sales and increasing the number of followers. There are more than 4 billion email users in the world. Many marketers give this channel more importance than any other channel.
A social media assistant creates captivating emails and sends them 3 to 4 times per week according to the marketing goals.
Generate reports
A social media assistant tracks, analyzes, and measures metrics so that he can generate a report. He discusses the report with the content creators and managers to see what else needs to be improved, removed, or added to the social media strategy.
Social media assistants expected salary in the United States
The expected average total salary of a social media assistant in the US is around $51,063 per year, including $35,071 base salary per year and $15,992 additional salary per year. According to Zippia, the highest paying cities for social media assistants in the US are Duluth, Egg Harbor, Burlingame, and Washington.
How to become a social media assistant?
You need the following things to become a social media assistant.
- Qualification: Many employers prefer candidates who have at least a bachelor’s degree in relevant fields. Getting a degree from a reputed institute will certainly increase your chances of getting the job.
- Skills: You also need to learn core social media skills to become a social media assistant. You should know how to create business profiles, increase your number of followers, publish regular content, increase post engagement, do SEO and SEM, run campaigns, and respond to comments and DMs in a positive way.
- Experience: You should gain experience by working for small companies and agencies that need your assistance. If you have to work for a post that pays a low salary, then do that without hesitation. Know that, for beginners, learning and gaining experience should be the top priority over earning. Once you have experience and become skilled, don’t hesitate to ask for more or apply for a company that pays more.
Social media assistant interview questions and answers
Have you checked our social media profiles? What do you think about them?
This question is asked to check if you are serious about the post or not. Candidates who are truly serious about a post first learn about the company and its system before going for the interview. So, you need to do the same. Explore social media profiles of the company and try to understand its content strategy. Give your honest opinion about their content, profile structure, and other elements. Give your suggestions about improving social profiles. It will help you show your knowledge and competency.
How do you handle the negative response of customers?
Tell them you maintain a positive outlook and respond to negativity with positivity. If a customer is not happy with your product, you find alternative solutions to make a good impression on the client and retain him.
How do you manage to multitask?
To answer this question, you can say that you plan things ahead to keep them organized and complete them on time. You can name a few time management tools that social media experts often use.
How do you gain the support of customers?
Here, you will have to show them how you can build their brand’s credibility using your social media skills. Share a few techniques with the interviewees that show you know how to gain trust. Some can say you share customer testimonials, use trendy content, or share a company story to create a connection with the customer and gain their support.
FAQs
What is a day in the life of a social media assistant?
A day in the life of a social media consists of different social media-related tasks that vary from one assistant to the other depending on the needs of the company they are working for.
Generally, we can say a social media assistant spends his day doing the following tasks.
He starts his day by attending meetings with the managers and other colleagues. During these meetings, social media marketing content strategies are discussed, and their results are evaluated. He listens to the manager’s recommendations carefully and then lets the content creators and marketers know about those recommendations so they can create content accordingly.
He gets content from content creators and edits it. He checks if the content is according to the current content strategy or it. He also makes sure the content represents the company image and message in an excellent way. He publishes content and analyzes its metrics.
He sends replies to DMs and responds to comments to show potent customers that the company values their messages and thoughts. He contacts influencers to learn about the results of the campaign. He winds up his work by 5 pm and makes a to-do list for the next day’s tasks.
Are social media assistants in demand?
Within a few years, demand for social media marketing has improved by over 45.9%. Now, companies need more social media pros who can handle different tasks related to social media. A social media assistant helps companies manage multiple projects simultaneously and achieve desired results. That is why their demand has significantly increased over time.
Summary
Social media assistants are multitalented. They know almost everything about different social media channels. They can publish content, run ads, track metrics, increase post engagement, communicate with the customers, and do much more to improve the company’s social media presence and promote its products.
If you like social media-related jobs and have good communication and marketing skills, a social media assistant post is certainly a good career choice for you.