5 Skills Your Social Media Pro Needs

As far as I know, there’s no official certification or schooling for a social media expert. Most experts and self-named gurus are self taught, and have varying levels of experience. Luckily there are tons of books, blogs,  seminars and webinars so that you can confidently hire someone who is both experienced and educated in social media marketing. But what kind of skills do they need besides that?

1. Written Skills

Your social media pro needs to be able to write often, and write well. They need to be able to spell and express themselves impeccably. They’ll be the ones in charge of taking your company news and blasting it out via your social media portals to all your customers and supporters. They also need to know how to draw people’s attention, so that people who can see your updates and blogs are intrigued enough to take the next step.

2. Analytical/Reporting Skills
Your new employee will need to be able to set goals for your marketing efforts, and then track the success and/or failure of those efforts. There are tons of tools out there for tracking social media success, (as well as tons of opinions on what’s best to track) and based on what your goals are, you’ll want reports on a fairly regular basis so that you can change your efforts accordingly.

3. Marketing Knowledge/Experience
The purpose of a business or organization being on social media portals is to market to your audience. The person in charge of this needs to have a marketing background in order to be able to understand what will draw people to support you, read and show interest in your website and products. They need to have a promotional “spirit” so they can think up all kinds of contests, events and other ways to get people engaged and involved in your efforts.

4. Personality
The image your business or org portrays online is very important. You want someone who is friendly and easy to communicate with, but knows when and where to draw the line when it comes to personal interaction. They need to be able to express enthusiasm for what’s going on, without seeming like they’re dishing or revealing too much. You also want someone who is a people person. Even though your social media pro will be engaging online, they’ll be

5. Professionalism
This is the number one reason why you don’t want to leave your social media marketing to your niece in high school. The person who represents you online and interacts with your customers should know when and where to draw the line from personal to professional. It should be someone who doesn’t express to many personal preferences on your social media portals, who can always communicate  in a positive way, and who you’re proud to have represent you 100%.

Once you find a person with all the skills you need, the education can be easily attained by someone passionate and driven enough to learn what they can where they can find it. As I had stated above, there is tons of information out there to learn, books, blogs and webinars alone.