Alle Ceambur

Have you thought of starting a social media marketing side-hustle? I’ve seen more and more people turning to social media not just as consumers but also as creators, entrepreneurs or marketers. In this post, I’m sharing my social media marketer checklist for NEW and ASPIRING marketers.

Why become a Social Media Marketer?

“Cuz it’s Cool?”😎 Let’s face it: working from home seems like “the dream”. You don’t have to waste time commuting to an office, get scolded by a difficult boss or face unpleasant co-workers. 

What do you need to become a new Social Media Marketer: 

• a laptop with Canva software — don’t worry about design skills, there are plenty of professional templates you can modify to suit your style
• a mobile phone (preferably with a good camera)
• a cup of coffee (very important for motivation and aesthetics!)
• broadband subscription (or FREE WiFi)

But even with all these how do you have all it takes to become a successful social media manager? Well, you won’t know until you try it. And like any other job, some people can fall in love with it, while others will feel the burden of constantly searching for the latest trends and topics to cover. 

If you’re curious to know, I have been working in marketing since 2019 and still love it! 🥰 So much so, I have developed the checklist below to help you understand everything you need to be a social media marketer in 2022:

The 7-Step Checklist for New Social Media Marketers

Let’s go through each of the steps in more detail.

1. Define your Business Goals

The most important question for a new social media manager is this: What do you plan to achieve in 6 months? Try to be SMART when planning goals. This will ensure that your objectives are actionable and doable within a time frame. 

For example, let’s look at this SMART goal for social media marketers:

GOAL: “I want to boost the number of social media followers across Instagram and Facebook by 2000 in the next 6 months.”

Exercise: Is this a SMART goal?

S — Specific (Yes, it has all the details needed)

M — Measurable (Yes, 2000 followers is something you can measure)

A — Achievable (Yes, 2000 followers over 6 months is realistic and achievable)*Tip: do some research or look at competitors before you assign a target number

R — Relevant to business (Yes, growing social media followers has an impact on social media marketers’ business)

T — Time-bound (Yes, 6 months is a definite time)

2. Write your Strategic Positioning Statement 

Here’s a little help. Answer these 3 questions: 

1. Who are you? — name and occupation
2. What do you do? — list the services you offer
3. Why should the client choose you instead of your competitors? — what’s your unique selling point?

Now use these answers and write your Strategic Positioning statement. 

Example of SP Statement:

“Hey, I’m Alle Ceambur and I’m a social media marketer. I create strategic content for SaaS and Technology startups. My work is featured in Top 100 Marketing blogs, including SocialMedia Today, Jeff Bullas, Neal Schaffer and more.“

PS: I like to use this SP statement on my website, email list signature and social media bios. 

3. Do a Social Media Audit 

Before you start posting anything new, take a step back and look at your old content. This is important because you want to know what needs to change in order for you to reach your new objectives. 

The good news is that you can do an audit pretty quickly, and all the tools are free. I have a video tutorial to teach you how to audit your Instagram in just 30 min!

Watch FREE here: https://youtu.be/A6VpjtX68kM

8 tools 🛠 to run an Instagram Audit in 2021:

📈@hypeauditor
📈@iconosquare
📈@influencerMH
📈@socialbakers
📈@UnionMetrics
📈@PallyySocial
📈#ninjalytics
📈#phlanx

Which one is your favourite?

Originally tweeted by Alle Ceambur, MBA (@SocialAlle) on March 9, 2021.

4. Research your Competitors 

For social media marketers, competitors are key! Not only do we look at them because we want to know their latest promotions, but competitors can help you learn about your audience. 

Few things to search for when you’re looking at your competitors: 

• what, when, where (which channel) and how often they post content
• how do they interact with the audience (comments, DMs, stories, etc.)
• how is their growth like (are they gaining or losing followers/likes)
• metrics like engagement rate, CTR, conversions (you can get this data from professional analytics tools like Iconosquare and Pallyy)

5. Work out your Social Media Content Strategy

Once you have done ✅ your competitor analysis and audit, you can start planning your content strategy. Remember to try different types of content and prioritize posts that offer value for your target audience. 

Example of content that is focused on user:

• Educational posts: Tips, Tricks, Tutorials, How to use, Product demos
• Inspirational/motivational posts: Quotes, Storytelling, Challenges
• Videos: Livestream, Webinars, Answering questions from the audience

Want to build a content strategy?

Check out this YouTube tutorial where I share my entire content planning process and all the tools that help me save time.

6. Optimize Scheduling to Multiple Social Platforms 

Social media marketing can be very time-consuming. 

I remember when I just started managing social media accounts for businesses, I had to use different platforms to schedule content for Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. 

Now, there are a lot more options for social media managers. With apps like Buffer, SproutSocial or Pallyy you can manage multiple clients, projects and schedule posts across all social networks from a single dashboard. 

Simply saying, you’re more efficient and you can increase the number social media clients you can manage! Give these tools a FREE try, and see which one suits you best before buying the paid plans. 

Suggested read: Learn more about which social media scheduler is best for marketers, bloggers or business.

7. Keep Track of What’s Working (& Do More of That!) 

The work of a social media manager is never finished. It starts with setting goals, planning content, creating the posts, and finally scheduling them. But the most overlooked task is what happens after you post. Do you just post and forget about it? No, that would be a mistake. A good social media manager always follows through and tracks performance. 

How often should you track social media analytics? 

1. 1 day after you post
2. 1 week after each post
3. 1 month after posting
4. 4 months/quarterly
5. 6 months
6. 1 year

Correct answer: All of the above. 👆 

Post analytics can help you find out gaps in your strategy, and see which posts are getting traction and what is your audience resonates with. Then, use this info to plan your next month of content and improve your strategy

PS: Tracking analytics also tells you when it’s time to change your strategy!

Concluding Thoughts – New Social Media Marketer Checklist

Hopefully, this article gives you some guidance as a new social media marketer. I wanted to shine the spotlight on a few key steps in this roadmap to help out new marketers. To summarize, having a strategic plan is important (goals, audit, content strategy), watch your competitors and knowing what’s working well and when to change your strategy. I would also encourage you to speak to other social media managers and seek out their feedback and advice. You can also reach out to me personally (email/Instagram) if you have specific questions about becoming a social media marketer.

With all the tips, I hope you can start planning better social media content.