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Updated: Apr 1, 2022, 11:00am
A social media manager is responsible for planning, developing, implementing and managing strategies for the social media accounts of a business. Their competence determines how effectively the business will be able to portray its brand value online.
The first step in hiring competent social media managers is access to a pool of highly qualified candidates. And this is possible only if you nail the social media manager job description you use on hiring websites, social media channels and career pages. Here’s everything you should include in your description, along with an example that you can use as a starting point.
Social media managers establish an organization’s online presence and brand value by promoting the company and its products or services through the use of videos, photos, infographics or text posts on social media platforms.
A day in the life of a social media manager would typically include:
A social media manager job description should include a job brief, typical responsibilities, skills and qualifications you are looking for, an equal employment opportunities statement, how to apply, etc… We will unpack the most essential elements in this article.
A job brief tells the candidate what they are expected to do when they get hired. A social media manager can work across all industries but usually, they specialize or have experience in a few of them. So it is a good idea to mention your industry so that you can get more candidates with prior experience.
In this section, you should mention why you are hiring a social media manager. You should also mention if you already have a person or a team managing your social media accounts, or if this is a new position you are creating.
This is also a good place to talk about key results areas (or KRAs), such as more traffic, better conversion or better engagement, you expect the social media manager to achieve.
Based on the objectives, list out the responsibilities of the social media manager you are looking to hire.
Here, we are listing the most common responsibilities for social media managers; feel free to customize them according to your own needs:
Whether you are hiring for an entry-level or senior role, include the minimum skills and qualifications required:
Here are some “good to have” qualifications you can mention in your job description:
You can also include other elements such as information about the company, work culture, equal employment opportunities and benefits offered. You should also add information about what to include with an application, such as a portfolio or data points that establish their expertise.
What we have discussed gives you a theoretical foundation of how to create a social media manager job description. In this section, we show you some examples from live job website posts to give you an idea of how companies are creating job descriptions.
Although the core responsibilities of a social media manager remain the same, the type and format of content they handle depend upon the industry. So it is important to tell them about the industry they will be working for at the outset.
In this job description, the company has also touched upon the teams the hired social media manager would collaborate with.
The company has clearly mentioned that it needs a social media manager for Instagram and LinkedIn. This encourages candidates having prior experience on these platforms to apply.
If you are clear about the platforms you want to target, mention them clearly in the job description so that candidates with relevant expertise apply.
The company is a digital marketing agency and it is hiring for a client, which is mentioned at the beginning of the job description. It is a good practice because it sets candidate expectations at the beginning.
The job description also includes a Company Statement at the end of the description as part of the “About Company” section. We recommend including as much detail as possible in this section to let the candidates know and understand your organization beforehand.
You do not strictly need a degree to be a social media manager but most people get a bachelor’s degree in marketing, journalism or a similar field to prepare for the role. However, experience with social media is essential to becoming a social media manager. You can look for an entry-level job to learn the basics of social media.
The average salary for a social media manager is around $55,000 per year, according to data from Glassdoor. However, this can range greatly from around $27,000 for entry-level positions to over $190,000 for highly experienced staff in major cities, such as New York or San Francisco.
Who a social media manager reports to may vary by business and its unique organizational structure. However, generally, a social media manager reports to the senior marketing managers, the marketing director or the Chief Marketing Officer.
Shweta is an author and freelance writer. She writes about technology and small businesses. Her writing has also appeared in NewsWeek and Huffington Post.
Kelly is an SMB Editor specializing in starting and marketing new ventures. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist covering small business marketing content. She is a former Google Tech Entrepreneur and she holds an MSc in International Marketing from Edinburgh Napier University. Additionally, she manages a column at Inc. Magazine.
