Social Media Strategist

Lex Martin

When it comes to social media, there are a number of positions and people responsible for each successful social media campaign. For instance, social media managers are responsible for leading and developing a brand’s social media strategy. Their goals are to increase client engagement, visibility, and several other web traffic metrics. But what about social media strategists? How are they different from social media managers?

A social media strategist is someone who monitors social media trends, develops and implements social media strategies, and monitors their brand’s web traffic metrics. Social media strategists use a variety of new digital technologies, like Kiopi, to coordinate and monitor their social media campaigns. Kiopi is a social media management software company that prioritizes the end user above all else.

Social media industry professionals and content creators alike can use Kiopi to plan, schedule, collaborate, and produce content that promotes growth and client engagement all from one convenient platform. We designed Kiopi with a specific goal in mind – to deliver user-friendly, affordable social media management solutions. If you’re looking for the right social media management tool to meet your needs, give Kiopi a test drive! Start your 14-day free trial to get a feel for how far Kiopi can take you and your brand.

What is a Social Media Strategist?

Social media strategists are both creative and analytical in their approach to digital marketing strategies. Successful social media campaigns require not only quality content but also exceptional copywriting skills and a good understanding of current best practices. A social media strategist must, at times, wear multiple hats and have a broad set of skills.

Companies and brands hire social media strategists for many purposes, including increasing company web presence, producing high-quality social media content, and even working alongside other teams for effective results. Because our world is increasingly driven by digital marketing and social media, having a skilled social media strategist is essential for any marketing team.

Social Media Strategist Salary

How much does a social media marketer make?

On average, a social media strategist in the United States makes around $60,000 annually. This number can fluctuate depending on a number of factors, including location, education, industry, and experience. In general, the tech industry tends to pay social media strategists the highest average salaries.

What Do Social Media Strategists Do?

As we stated previously, a successful social media strategist must be able to wear many hats and coordinate with multiple departments because there are many elements of a social media campaign. Essentially, they bridge the gaps between the company they work for and the online social media community they’re targeting. Depending on the size of the company, a social media strategist may work as a one-person team, or they may handle a portion of the marketing responsibilities and outsource social media efforts that are simpler to others. Below, we outline some of the most important social media strategist responsibilities.

Create and Implement Social Media Strategies

One of the most important aspects of any social media strategist job is to develop plans for social media channels, implement those plans, and manage them as needed. To do this, a social media strategist must identify target audience preferences, figure out how to increase user engagement, and develop their plans around those goals. Specifically, a social media strategist will analyze trends and use their skills to increase reach to target audiences.

Determine the Most Important KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)

Once a social media strategist has developed their campaign, they will need to keep an eye on the performance of their social media posts using various social media measuring techniques.

In order to do this, they will use social media analytics tools, like Kiopi, to generate weekly and monthly reports about their brand’s performance. Tracking important metrics like comments, shares, likes, and clicks, can give a social media strategist a basic understanding of whether their strategy is working.

However, those metrics aren’t as telling as others. Certain other KPIs, such as the following, can provide more in-depth social insight as to the success or failure of a particular social media strategy.

Impressions
Brand mentions
Followers
Online engagement
Traffic
Leads
Sales

Build an Online Community on Social Media Platforms

It’s also important to remember that, while the numbers and the metrics do matter, other factors are just as important.

Building your brand awareness, understanding, and influence is a large part of the social media strategist role. Your online community across all relevant social media platforms should be as responsive and loyal as possible. This means using different strategies on each social media platform to connect with your audiences and build strong relationships.

Run Social Media Accounts

Many social media strategists also directly oversee their company’s social media accounts.

This could include several platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and more. Although it may sound simple to manage social media accounts and schedule content, it often takes a high level of organization and strategy. To create successful, engaging content, a social media strategist must also be a skilled graphic designer, content writer, and communicator.

Some of the ways in which a social media strategist produces effective solutions with high-quality content include the following.

Working on a multidisciplinary team with product development teams, sales, and other departments
Identify target audience preferences and ensuring that campaigns reflect these in a cohesive way
Establishing and building brand awareness, understanding, and goals
Using new digital technologies to track and reach marketing targets
Responding to comments, messages, and direct messages to ensure open communication with the online community
Announcing recent changes, new product launches, and other important brand information
Adopting and utilizing social media trends in a way that boosts company web presence and user engagement
Becoming a marketing trendsetter who can stay up to date on the newest tools and technologies that may benefit your business

Measure Social Media Marketing Success

One of the most important social media strategist responsibilities is to track the success of their social media channels and campaigns. In order to provide effective solutions and high quality content, strategists must continuously monitor their campaigns. This inlcudes monitoring social media traffic versus actual sales. Even if a brand has a high number of followers and web traffic, this doesn’t automatically translate into sales and leads.

Successful marketing strategies will involve analyzing multiple factors, such as the brand’s reputation, changes in KPIs, and many other forms of data. A social media strategist will often prepare weekly and monthly reports to monitor their brand’s success in the online space. If they notice a dip or a plateau, it may be time to change up their strategies or marketing targets.

Track and Implement SEO Solutions

Although a social media strategist won’t be entirely in charge of a brand’s SEO, they will still need to analyze SEO for the brand and ensure their content is as optimized as possible.

Just as people have personal preferences, so do search engines.

SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of improving your brand’s visibility in particular search engines, such as Google or Bing.

A social media strategist should have experience with many aspects of digital marketing, including graphic design, web design, communications, and SEO. Content, images, videos, and schema must all be optimized for the social platforms and search engines that your brand is targeting. Monitoring social media optimization performance and adopting new strategies when needed are crucial for successful campaigns.

Network With Other Social Media Professionals

The Internet is a massive, ever-changing digital environment. New trends and algorithms appear every day, every hour, and sometimes every minute. Because of this dynamic, networking with other industry professionals is crucial. Social media influences are one avenue through which brands can increase their support and awareness.

Let’s say that your most recent campaign hasn’t taken off as you expected. Your contacts with influencers can completely change the trajectory of your campaign. Collaborations and communication are essential for the success of nearly any digital campaign.

How Do You Become a Social Media Strategist?

There are a few different ways to land a social media strategist job. One way involves getting a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field, such as digital marketing. This will help you learn all you can about social media platforms, strategies, and best practices. Remember, however, that getting a bachelor’s degree isn’t a requirement, although it often helps to enrich your resume.

You can also learn about different social media platforms and strategies by getting proven work experience and learning independently.

Below, we outline a few ways in which you can gain a better understanding of how to become a qualified social media strategist.

Stay up to date on the latest social media platforms, trends, and tools. Exploring new technologies will not only make you a trendsetter, but it can also help you become more passionate about the field.
Network with online influencers, marketers, and pioneers. Creating a rich personal network of contacts is crucial for building your personal brand, discovering new trends and strategies, and gaining experience.
Learn as much as possible about social media and digital marketing. The online space is constantly changing, which means you should research trends and tools as often as possible. Some simple ways to do this include attending online and in-person conferences, networking events, joining social media threads and discussions, and reading blogs.

What's the Difference Between a Social Media Strategist and a Social Media Manager?

Although a social media strategist and a social media manager may sound like the same titles, these two positions often have very different responsibilities. In many cases, social media managers will oversee the day-to-day operations of a campaign and ensure that it is executed effectively. They may also communicate with followers and customers and maintain relationships with their online communities.

A social media strategist, on the other hand, looks more at the big picture. They do extensive research on what will and will not produce results for their brand, as well as generate plans and reports on their active and upcoming campaigns. Although the scope of responsibilities is often broader for a social media strategist, they must work closely with other members of their marketing department to achieve their goals.

Depending on the structure of a particular organization or company, these roles often overlap and may even be condensed into one role.

What Skillset Should Social Media Industry Professionals Have?

A skillful, qualified social media strategist should have extensive experience with all the most popular social media tools and programs. They should be well-versed in how to use all social media platforms, as well as have a versatile toolkit for tracking content, collaboration, performance, and more.

The following are some of the most important skills that every social media manager should have.

Artistic flair and creativity.
Excellent communication skills.
Project management.
Content creation and curation.
Writing ability, graphic design ability, and web design skills.
Ability to learn quickly.
Solid understanding of basic marketing tactics.
Ability to think both creatively and strategically.
Ability to build and maintain relationships.
Finely-tuned analytical skills.
Community and social media presence management.
Adaptability in a quickly changing environment.

Along with the above skills, a social media strategist must familiarize themselves with the best tools on the market. Depending on your personal preferences or your company’s personal preferences, you’ll likely work with more than one tool for scheduling content, measuring campaign performance, conducting competitor analysis, tracking SEO results, and more.

Kiopi acts as a one-stop-shop for those who want an effective social media management tool without paying an arm and a leg. Not only can you plan social media content, schedule social media posts, collaborate, and produce content, but you can also analyze your content’s performance – all from one easy-to-use platform.

Kiopi was designed by people who actually use social media management software to save you time, money, and energy. If you’re looking for a way to simplify your digital marketing strategies, Kiopi has everything you need to succeed

Improve Your Social Media Strategy With Kiopi

If you are a social media strategist who’s looking for a better way to produce engaging content, monitor ROI, monitor SEO, and track results of your campaigns, Kiopi is here for you. Our platform was developed with the end user’s experience in mind, meaning that it’s effective, easy to use, and affordable. We offer the same benefits as other major social media management platforms, but with more affordable pricing and a more intuitive user experience. Start your 14-day free trial today and get a taste of how Kiopi can skyrocket the success of your digital campaigns.

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