Important Social Media Skills That Employers Value

Social Media skills employer sees

Important Social Media Skills That Employers Value

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Table of Contents

Updated June 17, 2021

The demand for social media managers and specialists is growing, as most companies have a strong social media presence. SCORE reports that Many organizations hire social media managers to shape their social media strategy and create and post material, as well as measure its impact.1

Even if you’re not looking for a job with “social media” in the title, you might find that these skills will come in handy during your job hunt.

Many marketing jobs have a social media component. If you’re applying for a job as a marketing director, marketing coordinator, or marketing manager, it’s likely that you’ll need to at least understand how social media works as part of an overall marketing strategy.

Here are some essential skills you need to be an excellent social media manager in a growing and exciting career field. If you're in the process of trying to build your career as a social media manager, be sure to incorporate these skills into your resume, and use them to increase your appeal during interviews.

Skills You Need to Be a Social Media Manager

Social media managers and other professionals in this field use various platforms to communicate with the public, including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. These professionals run their organizations' social media accounts, developing an online presence, and building a brand’s reputation.

To be successful in this field, you’ll need a combination of hard and soft skills. Being technologically savvy will get you far, but there are many professionals who strictly focus on content creation. If you are in the latter field, being a strong writer and understanding the language that appeals to your target audience are essential.

A bachelor's degree is typically required for a social media manager position. Relevant majors include journalism, communications, marketing, and business.

Types of Social Media Skills

Writing

Most social media posts include text, and many are text-based. That means that, for your posts to be effective, your text has to be worth reading—clear, engaging, and on-message. Part of writing good copy is simply the craft of putting words together: grammar, spelling, and punctuation. There's also the aspect of understanding a company's "voice" and employing that with consistency, intelligence, and sometimes with humor.

Ad Campaigns
Authenticity
Blogging
Content
Creative Thinking
Critical Thinking
Editing
Editorial
Email Marketing
Good Grammar
Humor
Personal Branding
Sentence Structure
Social Media Marketing
Social Publishing
TypePad
Tumblr
Twitter
Voice
Wide Vocabulary
Witty
Written Communication

Here's an example of how to highlight your writing skills on your resume:

Created the voice of ABC Corp—genuine, witty, always happy to serve (and not above poking gentle fun at our rival, XYZ Company). Managed all social media accounts and mentored marketing team interns to keep tone and branding consistent across platforms.

Design

While most social media posts include text, images, and video are becoming increasingly popular. Even text has a visual element for many platforms, since you can choose color, size, font, alignment, and in some cases, you'll want to include emoji or other symbols. Designing these elements well will make the visual dimension of your posts clearer, more engaging, and more effective.

Adobe Acrobat
Audience Development
Branding
Campaign Creation
Community Building
Content Marketing
Content Strategy
Creativity
Detail Oriented
Digital
Digital Marketing
Facebook Ads
Google Ads
Graphic Design
Image Creation
Image Editing
Image Management
Marketing
Media Creation
Media Implementation
Photo Editing
Pinterest
Style
Video
Video Editing
Web Marketing
WordPress
YouTube Advertising

Here's an example of how to highlight your design skills on your resume:

Detail-oriented graphic design professional with photo editing chops and Facebook ads experience.

Public Speaking

Public speaking on social media? Yes, indeed! Video, especially live video, is one of the best ways to engage your audience. And if you’re going to star in your video, you are going to have to be comfortable and well-presented in the public eye. Here's a list of public speaking skills you may need.

Communication
Entrepreneurship
Filming Equipment
Interpersonal
Leading Teams
Listening
Motivation
Oral Communication
Passion
Podcasting
Presentation
YouTube

Here's an example of how to highlight your public speaking skills on your resume:

Award-winning podcaster and YouTube creator who excels at motivating and leading teams.

Customer Service

Social media is not just a way to get your message out, it is also a way to listen. You can use these channels to engage in dialogue, receive feedback, and address concerns. If you work for a business, this type of work falls mostly under the heading of customer service.

Another way to describe this part of the role could be community engagement. In either case, to do it well, you have to be open-minded, diligent, and genuinely interested in what your visitors and customers have to say to you through social media.

Communities
Customer Relations
Engagement
Facebook Engagement
Generate Interest
Increase Engagement
Networking
Ning
Relationship Building
Responsive
Social Sharing
User Engagement

Here's an example of how to highlight your customer service skills on your resume:

As a happiness hero at LMK Inc., earned the fastest response rate and average resolution time three months running, resulting in my promotion to happiness supervisor and trainer four months after hire.

Analytics

Social media services provide a variety of ways to measure the performance of your posts and tweets. From public information such as shares, likes, plays, and comments to private information that only you can see, these metrics help you find out what works best for your message. With this insight, you can tweak your topics, format, and even times of day work to maximize impact.

Bear in mind, though, that the numbers don’t tell the whole story. To make sense of the picture, you must also know a bit about behavioral psychology, so you can make good guesses about why a tweet or a post is doing well, and adjust your social media use accordingly.

Analytics
Budgeting
Campaign Tracking
Competitive Analysis
Data Analysis
Data Analytics
Emerging Trends
Facebook Insights
Google Analytics
Keyword Analysis
Metrics
Monitoring Public Usage
Ranking
Reporting
Research
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO Best Practices
Social Media Monitoring
Tracking
Trend Spotting
Trend Setting
Trends
Trending Topics
Viral Potential

Here's an example of how to highlight your analytics skills on your resume:

SEO-focused product manager with track record of creating and optimizing viral content. Expertise includes: Google Analytics, Facebook Insights.

More Social Media Skills

Strategic

Brand Awareness
Brand Marketing
Campaign Management
Community Management
Content Distribution
Directing Traffic
Execution
Identifying Problems
Optimization
Planning
Problem Solving
Research
Sourcing
Time Management
Strategic Planning
Strategic Vision

Business Savvy

Best Practices
Buffer
Content Distribution
Content Management
Content Management Systems (CMS)
Digital Media
Ethics
FeedBlitz
Flickr
HootSuite
HTML
Instagram
LinkedIn
Management
Mobile
Organization
Pay Per Click (PPC)
PitchEngine
Product Management
Project Management
Reddit
Six Apart
Sharing Content
Technology
Twitter Ads

How to Make Your Skills Stand Out

INCLUDE YOUR MOST RELEVANT SKILLS ON YOUR RESUME:When preparing your resume, use social media skills lists like this one to help you demonstrate your abilities. Pick a few skills from each section to show that you are well-rounded.

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