Growing Your Social Media Manager Skills

With a fast-moving field such as social media, staying up-to-date on new platform features, tools, and phrases is important to your relevance online and your efficiency in your role.

Today, we’ll be going over ways to grow your current social media management skills and practices so you can always be ahead of the curve. 
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Find Your Starting Point

In order to grow, we first need to understand our full scope of knowledge and skills. 

Take a look back at the work you’ve done up until now and see if there is any major task or project you haven’t done yet, take note of it. This also goes with the processes and tools you use. If you find yourself spending a lot of time on a certain task, also take note of that.

By being more focused on your current processes, you’ll be able to determine what knowledge and skills you already know and things you may not. Doing this gives you a foundation to build off of.
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Areas for Possible Improvement

Now that you’ve established your foundation of knowledge, you can look into areas to improve upon.

Are you utilizing your tools to the fullest? Is your organization method efficient? Can you easily find the things you need? How much time a day do you spend looking for assets or items?

These are all questions you need to ask yourself when looking for the next area to improve upon.

Next we’ll look into possible ways to elevate your tools, content creation, and organization methods.
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How To Elevate Your Tools

To start, make a list of the tools you’re currently using and for what. Then go into each tool and rate it for how it’s functioning for you and your team.

How helpful is it from 1-10, how expensive is it from 1-10, and so on. This helps you reevaluate each of your current tools.

If a tool is overall scoring low, then it may be time to ditch it and look for a new one.

If you find there is space for a new tool, start by asking others for recommendations and then get to researching! This part can be tiresome but worth it in the end.

Here is a screenshot of a customer’s comparison chart they made to evaluate social media scheduling tools such as Cloud Campaign. 

They started by listing out different categories and functions that were important to them to have in their new tool. They then did research to see which platform had these tools and captured it within this document.

Methods such as this one, allow you to be upfront with what you need from a tool and easily form comparisons across the different options.

If you would like to use a similar comparison sheet, click here for a free template! Make sure to copy it and make your own.

How To Elevate Your Organization Methods

Organization is something almost all social media managers struggle with.

While I don’t know what your current methods are, I can share things that I have implemented to upgrade my organization game. 

• Using Google Drive to create folders to store specific content in
• Create groups of tabs in your browser to keep project aspects together
• Using Category Tags in Cloud Campaign

• Use these to organize content within the Cloud Campaign platform  

• Creating a Content Bank and a Swipe File 

• My Content Bank contains content I haven’t posted yet and my Swipe File is full of inspiration pieces I have saved over time

If you happen to be looking for new organization tools, we’ll save you the pain of creating a comparison chart and send you over to our Best Tools for Business Organization article!
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How To Elevate Your Content Creation

The nature of social media requires content to constantly be refreshed to keep our audiences entertained.

If you aren’t regularly updating your content, then this is your sign to do so! 

How should you elevate your content? Here are a few ways I like to bring new life to my content!

• Critically look at your reusable templates and see where you could provide new value within them
• Try taking new headshots and branding photos 
• Switch content types for your reoccurring posts, i.e. a carousel post into a Reel
• Create a list of new CTA’s and Hooks to use for your specific audience
• Take a design course to learn new skills
• Gather new inspiration  
• Hire a freelance designer to spice up your usual content
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Growth Looks Good On You

Reevaluation is a fundamental and often overlooked aspect of personal and professional development.

In our journey to achieve our goals and aspirations, it's crucial to maintain an honest and introspective approach. By taking the time to reflect and reevaluate our ways, we can bridge the gap between our current position and our desired destination.

Sometimes this process can be tiresome, but the results can be amazing! With new outlooks, new tools, and new inspiration, you’ll have taken your social media management game to the next level!