Six essential qualifications of a “social media manager”

Laura Kinoshita

Today’s guest post is by Laura Kinoshita, a senior communications consultant overseeing healthcare campaigns with Hafner Creative Communications.   Laura moved to Hawaii in 2001 to work with astronomers at the W. M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea. Before that, she was managing supervisor at Fleishman-Hilliard. Laura is a member of PRSA and the International Social Media Association. Follow Laura on Twitter at @lkinoshita. 

Six Essential Qualifications of a Social Media Manager

According to the job boards, you’ll soon be working with a ‘social media manager.’ Harrah’s Entertainment, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, Starbucks and even SAP are all recruiting for social media managers. Yet, chances are these positions will be supporting the marketing and sales directors, not the public relations or corporate communications departments, where they belong. Might it be time to look at your position description, and see where social media fits within your organization?

Where Does Social Media Belong?

Social media tends to get mixed in between marketing and reputation management, just as public relations gets confused with marketing. Two marketing scholars, Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong, make the distinction between public relations and marketing by describing marketing as “actions that build and maintain desirable exchangeable relationships” (Principles of Marketing, 2008). They consider marketing as an exchange of value, an activity where ownership of money, contact information or other property changes hands.

Left to the marketing or sales departments, social media runs the risk of becoming a stream of promotional links and ads. However, when managed by a communications or public relations director, social media has a better chance to support CEO goals with better communication, cooperation, ethical handling of issues, customer loyalty and brand equity.

Most marketers want social media to improve search engine rankings, grow Web site traffic, convert ‘browsers’ to ‘buyers,’ increase click-thru-rates and other types of “exchange-related“ functions. Inbound marketing tends to get wrapped up in giveaways, contests, rewards or other tactics mostly designed to boost e‑commerce traffic and sales. Public relations directors, in contrast, want to strategically build relationships among a variety of stakeholders — community residents, journalists, legislators, investors, employees — just to name a few.

CEOs who fail to understand how social media can support corporate objectives put their organization and brand at risk. Like public relations, social media must be managed as a strategic function across the enterprise, not just left to the sales department as a lead generation tool.
The Social Media Job Description

Consider if the following components would make good additions to your own job description, or suggest to your HR manager if these requirements might be added to the social media manager position description:

1. Reports to the Communications Director.
2. Has a bachelor’s degree in communications, marketing or journalism, ideally with 6-10 years experience (with at least two year’s experience with social media).
3. Plays a lead role in the company’s overall communications strategy. 
4. Advises department teams on a broad communications strategy.
5. Identifies and shares important issues and trends.
6. Has superior writing and strategic thinking skills.

Jobs to Avoid

The following job requirements (taken from actual job listings) probably indicate a company is missing the social media concept entirely. Rethink your strategy if the job description includes any of the following:

• Applicants need to submit their Twitter profile, and/or have a minimum number of followers.
• The job description includes vague or unprofessional words like “buzz” or “badass.”
• Applicants have to compete in some sort of contest, and the candidate with the most “sign-ups” wins (http://jobs.vidli.com/apply/cf1c/421c).

CEOs who give social media enterprise-level visibility and support will see dramatic results in their business. Highly qualified employees will be the difference between social media campaigns that churn and stagnate, and those that grow active, loyal and engaged members over time.