A Social Media Consultant excels in leveraging the power of social media platforms to boost sales for their clients. The most common role Social Media Consultants performs is in promoting businesses and their products to groups of people on social media channels. Today, more people use the internet than ever before. This makes it easier for businesses to reach out to consumers using social media. It’s cheaper, it’s easier to raise brand awareness online, and e-commerce is in many places overtaking retail sales.
But simply opening a social media account and making posts isn’t enough to get engagement on social media. This is where a social media consultant comes in. They are hired as a neutral third party who can objectively look at the client’s brand. A social media consultant’s job is to find a way to make the brand marketable to as many people as possible on the internet. Social media consultant is different from the traditional marketing consultants, they are more specialized in the social media management whereas traditional marketing consultant looks after all the aspects of marketing. Learn more about marketing consultant business here.
Why Hire a Social Media Consultant?
A social media consultant is an expert in increasing engagement and improving sales using social media channels. While anyone can use social media and make posts on it, it’s very difficult to scale a business using only social media marketing. This is exactly what a social media consultant excels at doing. They know the ins and outs of the important social media platforms – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube. They know how to increase followers and subscribers, market products to the right audiences, and run social media campaigns that drive sales.
In the era of the internet, knowing the right strategies that a brand needs to implement to get returns on their investments is key to a successful career as a social media consultant. You will have to understand consumer psychology as well, such as what drives a person to want to purchase certain items.
A social media consultant can either work full time with a company or as a freelancer. Some social media consultants also become retainers of certain brands and run all the social media work of that brand. Some people also run social media consultancy businesses. These allow you to spend more time on developing strategies while other specialists work out the content, and creative and technical aspects of social media posts and campaigns.
To become a social media consultant, you will need to be an expert communicator. You should be capable of understanding narrative voices and be able to ideate new campaigns for different brands. A social media consultant who is working alone has a much bigger workload than a team of people. If you work alone, you should be able to use photo editing software like Photoshop, know copywriting, as well as basic web design.
A social media consultant’s job profile is both complex and exciting. Here is everything a social media consultant has to do, as well as the skills that help them at every step:
1. Gathering Data and Strategizing
The first role a social media consultant has to fulfill is that of a researcher. You should understand the brand and the brand voice. Who is the client? What are they trying to sell? Who is the target audience?
In this stage, your only job is to gather as much data as you can on the client, as well as their competitors. This data strictly pertains to social media platforms. How are the brand’s social media channels performing? Which competitor is doing better? Why are they doing better?
You should get enough data, so you have a comprehensive understanding of the client’s industry, the usual customers, and what drives sales in that industry.
2. Create Content Buckets
The next step is to isolate the social media platforms the client will be using. Not every client needs every social media platform. A restaurant could do great on Facebook and Instagram, but not necessarily on Pinterest or LinkedIn. Some brands need to make use of all the leading social media platforms as well.
Understand who the client is trying to reach out to and figure out which social media channels to use. Some age groups prefer some social media platforms over others as well. Once you’ve decided upon the social media platforms, you will have to create separate content buckets for all of them. Know exactly what to post and where to post it for at least the next three months. Make sure you include any special events and holidays along the way.
3. Content Creation and Posting
At this stage, a social media consultant can react in different ways. If they are a part of a team where they plan and strategize, they will direct the other specialists. But creating content requires good copywriting skills, graphic design skills, and even programming skills on some occasions. If you aren’t good in these areas, you may need to hire people who are.
Social media consultants who are comfortable with developing and posting content by themselves can implement their strategies by themselves. Usually, a social media consultant works together with graphic designers, a copywriter, a technical team, a lead generator, as well as a web designer.
4. Increase Engagement of visitors
The best way to sell products online is by engaging with consumers. The social media consultant will act as the voice of the brand and interact with consumers to increase brand awareness and boost sales.
The social media consultant also has to build a community around the business in order to develop brand loyalty.
5. Analyze Metrics, Implement Strategies
After working on the social media platforms for a few months, the social media consultant should use the analytics and data to see how well the brand is doing. Have the recent changes shown any improvement? Where can the social media channels be improved to increase lead conversion rates?
It’s by analyzing this data and gleaning insights from them that the social media consultant can determine where to take the brand in the future. This way, a social media consultant helps a business to scale and increase overall sales using social media.
