Profession SMM-manager: duties and requirements of employers. What is SMM marketing and how does it work

  Who is an SMM Manager? The profession of SMM manager is one of the most popular and promising in the IT industry. In addition, this profession requires constant dynamic training in order to keep abreast of the latest trends and knowledge in this area.

Thus, it is a universal specialist whose activity is the professional management of people and processes within the brand's social platform.

It publishes interesting material on-line survey results of the site MediaJOBS.RU.

On-line survey results “On the work of the SMM manager in the opinion of the SMM managers themselves”published the portal MediaJOBS.RU, a leading Russian specialized resource on work and professions in media and advertising.

The survey involved 317 people. Among them are both users of the MediaJOBS.RU portal itself and profile groups in the social networks Facebook and VKontakte.

Three main questions were asked:

1. The work of an SMM manager: what qualifications are required first of all?
2. Where do they provide quality training for the work of an SMM manager?
3. Your advice on sources of knowledge for the work of an SMM manager.

The leaders are such qualities of a successful SMM manager  as an understanding of the brand being promoted, a sense of humor, as well as knowledge of the laws of marketing in SocialMedia and the social base of the audience. Only a little more than half of the respondents (54%) consider literacy an important quality of an SMM manager. 51% of respondents are sure that social media workers need the ability to quickly search and process information, analytics. The fact that for success of SMM campaigns the manager needs to work, not counting the time, was indicated by 39% of respondents (it would be interesting to know how many of them are really ready to work an irregular day for the sake of the result). A third of the survey participants noted the need to work with graphic packages, knowledge of design. And every fifth spoke in favor of the usefulness of knowledge of the basics of SEO.

As for the training of the SMM manager, according to the majority of survey participants, working in social media gets 50% of the experience on their own, through their own trial and error; otherwise, participation in SMM conferences, monitoring of foreign resources upon request, reading books on general marketing helps , advertising, consumer psychology, as well as public and related communities.

The survey noted the existence in Russia of several good courses for beginners to work in SMM. Among them, respondents indicated such courses as ICRA, Netologiya Online Education Center, Involve School of Social Media.

Among the authors of specialized courses and seminars  more often than others survey participants called Igor Ashmanov, Damir Khalilov, Dmitry Sidorin. In addition, courses were noted. Natalia Odegova, Ilya Balakhnin, Dmitry Rumyantsev and Alena Lenskaya.

At the same time already critical in relation to  to the "founders" of SMM "generation SMM-next." “Some“ gurus ”remained at the time when they themselves first glanced at the social networks, and the social networks had already left and turned to the side along the way. Yes, the trail of the past "guru" is still enough, but in the dust of the past reluctance to learn. And what “fun” accounts do teachers have! Come in and laugh. What can people teach that they don’t know how to conduct their own company’s page? ”Said one of the respondents.

“You need to communicate and read those who truly lead client and brand publicity and get these rights not because of a rollback. Profi - Fedyunin Sergey, Malikov Sergey, guys from the RIA Novosti team, someone from the Apostle, those who lead groups of all kinds of complex goods and services (pumps, windows, cars) that are difficult to attract an audience, ”indicates another young SMM managers.

There are a lot of tips on the sources of knowledge for the work of the SMM manager.From Western sources, “Social Networks. Instruction Manual ”by Mike Dalworth,“ Marketing of the Like Era ”by Dave Kerpen and work by Odden Lee.

Among the most interesting resourcesthat help “understand” the profession are called likeni.ru, cossa.ru, smm2.ru, seopult.ru, ingate.ru, socialbakers.com, lifehacker.ru, advertology.ru, adindex.ru, netology.ru , fb: 100% SMM , fb: ideablog , vk: SMMs , vk: SMM Online Magazine  , twitter: SMM News.

However, there is nowhere to get a systematic and high-quality education in this area. “But getting started for a beginner is a pain,” say SMM managers.

The editors of MediaJOBS.RU asked leading experts to comment on the results and answer current questions of the SMM managers themselves:

Katya Tulyankina, Head of SMM and Reputation Management Department of Internet Marketing, Ashmanov & Partners

“About a sense of humor, I think that it is important in any work. And whether it is good or not is not the most objective concept. Rather, it’s important for an SMM-player to be on the same wavelength as the team. As for education, I personally can only identify Damir Khalilov and his school, everything else, in my opinion, is a way of making money. Ideally, when the educational base of the SMM-student is a higher marketing or psychological education, and everything else comes with experience.

The three most important qualifications of an SMM manager today are: understanding the basics of psychology and the behavior of an audience of social networks, strategic thinking, and ease of recovery.

We accept people into our team, first of all, by our intuitive feeling whether this field of activity is suitable for the applicant and whether he will join our team. The internal atmosphere in each project team is the key to a successful project. We will never accept in a team a person who does not understand the goals and objectives of his actions. That is, in my opinion, a good SMM-boxer should be a good analyst, be guided in the performance indicators of each SMM-tool, be able to predict the achievement of indicators, promptly adjust the direction of their activities if the result does not justify the forecast. "

Ekaterina Rukavishnikova, SocialMedia Manager, Beeline

“The main requirements for the qualifications of an SMM manager are the highest degree of responsibility (social networks are not just a public space, this is a hyper public space where you need to follow every step you take). Ideal literacy, knowledge and understanding of the Russian language stylistics. It is also important to understand the specifics of the promoted brand and its target audience in social networks.

A candidate for our team must have an SMM experience of one or two years. Plus, I would add stress resistance and the ability to quickly assemble in an emergency, correctly prioritize with a large number of tasks. We will never hire a person who still believes that SMM's job is to lay out posts once a day over a cup of coffee and engage the audience with seals. But seriously, it’s a person who can’t clearly identify the line between a joke and a tough banter, which can be very dangerous for the brand. ”

Alina Bazelyuk, COSSA Editor-in-Chief

“One of our goals is to educate new people in the industry. It's great that, judging by the polls, we succeed. By the way, materials on SMM - one of the most read and commented on Cossa). Sometimes such an interest is even frightening: in addition to social networks, do readers need something ?!

At the same time, we are not an agency, we do not have the position of an SMM manager, editorial staff is engaged in social networks. The basic principles of maintaining a societe we have formulated for ourselves as follows.

User, not page. A social network is not a mirror of a site, it is a separate territory, one might say, an independent mini-publication. We strive to not only announce our main materials, but also to use the features of the sites: we communicate with users, look for new topics in the dialogue, discuss news, colleagues 'materials, and readers' posts. We strive to behave in social networks as a “who”, and not as a “what” - a user, not a page.

Dialogue and self-criticism. We try to answer questions and comments, "make contact". It is not always possible to do this without emotions, especially when you need to answer a comment: the reader likes to grumble, and not always on business. But criticism can be fair, and it is important to adequately accept it and draw from the remark a lesson, benefit, or even material for a future article.

Time and dive. Practice shows that you can’t deal with social networks occasionally - the reader notices this. You need to be there constantly to promptly offer news, to be a participant in communication. This is perhaps the most difficult. "

Kristina Mikheeva, managing partner of MediaJOBS.RU portal and expert recruiting agency States.RU

“The results of the survey on qualifications in the work of the SMM manager, in my opinion, have demonstrated the obvious“ growing up ”of this profession. The important thing is that the functionality is structured - at least in the profession of SMM manager, an SMM analyst, marketer and editor are distinguished. The majority of survey participants already working in SMM recognize the need for a serious background: marketing, branding, PublicRelations and journalism. Plus psychology is desirable. In addition, cases of internal self-restraint and responsibility for SMM activity have been developed, which always indicates a way out of the children's state of the professional group as a whole. ”

Social networks are not only a place for communication, but also a popular tool for promoting goods and services. True, like any other tool, SMM (Social Media Marketing) becomes effective only in skilled hands. This predetermined the emergence of a relatively new, but certainly promising profession - SMM-specialist. SD figured out who they areSMMboxers (or smmshchiki), where they teach this how they can help the business and which of them should be trusted.

What kindsuchsmmshiki?

The explosive growth in the popularity of social networks, the potential of which to attract new users has not yet been exhausted (although the largest of them is Facebook (1.7 billion users) - it has been accessible to all users for 10 years), of course, it quickly made social networks not only communication tool, but also advertising platforms and marketing tools. A huge audience in one place, which is also quite distinctly segmented, is just a treasure for marketers. It is easy to distinguish among the mass of users the target audience by gender, age, interests or place of residence. Social network users quickly share product information with other people, promoting it in this way. Moreover, SMM promotion is relatively inexpensive compared to other types of advertising and marketing - budgets are not required for the purchase of expensive advertising space or for the production of advertising materials, there are no distribution costs, etc. - and also provides quick feedback. The difficulty is that traditional marketing techniques on social networks do not work: user feeds are updated continuously and in order to be noticed, you need to learn how to compete not only with direct competitors' ads, but in general with all network content - publications of popular groups, news, personal events users, etc. To create such content for the brand is the work of the smm manager.

At the same time, the experts themselves are difficult to clearly describe the standard functionality of the smmshchik - as a rule, this functionality is determined by a specific project. However, the ideal SMM manager, according to the specialist in SMM Roman Vostrukhin, should not only have communication skills, but also understand special tools, which will distinguish him from just an active user, for example.

In my opinion, there are two main areas in which smsmshchiki work, ”Roman explains. - The first is communication in social networks, involvement, posting of information, etc. The second is the software component, the ability to work with special programs and services. Ideal when the SMM manager can do both.

Co-owner and technical director of Susanin news agency Alexey Mokrushin is sure that SMM can’t do without special software that expands the possibilities of analytics, strategy and impact on the audience by an order of magnitude.

Each social network is special in its use, each needs a special approach, ”adds Tatyana Pavlova, commercial director of Internet Active. - For example, Instagram posts can only be done on the phone, but this is not very convenient for a manager working with multiple accounts. Therefore, he needs to use applications related to the processing, storage and publication of photographs. Special programs allow you to publish posts systematically, provide targeting, monitoring, statistics. Fortunately, all the necessary tools are available on the Internet. Part is free, the rest is available on a monthly fee or subscription.

Our experts note that in the regions in general and in Udmurtia in particular, specialists who simultaneously have good skills in working with social networks, marketing knowledge and special software are literally units. Usually there are specialists who can do one thing. For example, to work with the content of a brand page - making it popular by collecting likes and subscribers. People on social networks are at home, but their communication talents are not backed up by marketing professionalism. That is, the popularity of the page is not converted into sales of goods or services and the employer's profit.

And this often undermines customer confidence in SMM as a tool. Already minimal knowledge of working in social networks allows you to start selling your services as a smmmschik, and with such offers the market is simply flooded. And it’s good if the brand’s page at least becomes popular. Worse, if there is no sales, and working with content, thanks to the smack-stupid, only compromised the customer’s brand. It turns out that in this case, the novice manager got at least experience, and the customer did not get anything at all, or maybe he lost something.

Where do they come fromsmmmanagers?

It’s useless to look for a certified SMM specialist: SMMs actually appear from nowhere and sometimes disappear into nowhere. All trainings, seminars, master classes, educational programs in non-state universities conduct, as a rule, practices with decent experience for SMM in 5-7 years. According to experts, this profession is too young to not give a chance to beginners: the experience of a specialist decides the success of a business, but where do new professionals come from?

There are many courses, teaching materials and distance schools. Therefore, with great desire, the theoretical part can be pumped well. It remains the case for practice, - Tatyana Pavlova is sure. - A smm specialist is one who understands all the intricacies of popular social networks, has mastered marketing and can make friends with a couple of hundreds of people in one post. He is able to constantly communicate with people, no matter how simple it may seem, but experience can teach all of the above.

Our experts believe that if the company expects to use social networks as a permanent tool for promoting for the long term, then it will be an efficient and budget option to provide resources to the beginner and grow his smmshchik. Moreover, the hired specialist receives an adequate salary - in Izhevsk from 20 to 30 thousand rubles. True, there are no guarantees that, having received training and experience, this specialist will not rush to leave the company to earn money on his own. In any case, there is an alternative - to work with a specialist and agency providing such services.

Why businesssmm?

Experts emphasize that smm can be used for a wide range of business tasks: from direct sales to image projects. Currently, the most mass-owned businesses are working with social networks related to the provision of services aimed at a wide audience, as well as small enterprises. For the latter, the choice is explained by low costs and efficiency.

Any person who has minimal social networking skills can promote their business. This is very different from the "outdoor", media, etc., where, without resources, a person can not be advertised. Therefore, SMS promotion in the areas of micro-business is very popular, that is, where the owner provides the service: beauty salons, hand-made, construction and real estate services. Only one condition is important here - that your client is online. That is, you need to consider user behavior. There are products that people use, but promoting them online is hard, because, for example, it is not clear how to buy it. Say, an insurer can advance in social networks, but people will not be very clear what to do next, how to buy insurance. But, let’s say, with some kind of beauty salon or store everything is clear: you saw a phone or a website, came — got your hair cut, ordered it — you brought it, it's simple.

Where do they work and how much do they earn?

Most small businesses advance in networks through the efforts of the entrepreneurs themselves - in any case, as long as they have enough time for this and the effect of this work is. When the performance is low or the owner does not have time, you have to turn to professionals. And this is not such a rare story when a very small business that sees growth potential in attracting customers through social networks hires an SMM specialist - not every entrepreneur knows enough networks, understands what kind of content will be interesting to the audience, and knows how to use it to communicate.

Small companies most often in such cases turn to the help of outsourcing specialists - freelancers or digital agencies. Large companies use both options: either shift these responsibilities to full-time specialists, or hire freelancers. Most large companies working with individuals (banks, telecommunications companies, airlines, etc.), as a rule, already have SMM managers on staff, whose duty is to maintain company accounts on social networks and communicate with users. At the same time, agencies are often hired for SMM promotion of special projects.

It all depends on the result that the company receives from SMM promotion. If a freelancer is deeply immersed in the specifics of the business, copes with the tasks set, then why not? - considers Tatyana Pavlova.

Worse, when SMM becomes just a burden on the work of the press service, then people who are inexperienced in promoting on social networks who are going to learn on the go often get down to business.

The presence of a full-time SMM manager depends on the structure of the company, on its relationship to its costs, outsourcing, and HR strategies, ”says Roman Vostrukhin. - At one time in Russia it was decided to have a separate person for each case. Now companies often use outsourcing - people begin to understand that everyone should do their own business. When you accept an accountant or a sales manager, you can control him. But how to control the smmshchik, it's hard to understand: count the number of posts, the number of likes that he set? Well, he’ll add a bunch of stupid posts and a bunch of likes there, add a bunch of bots - that’s fine. Therefore, to take a person on staff - it can be absolutely useless, because there will be nobody to control his work.

A full-time specialist is closer to the products and employees of the company. It is easier for him to get interesting information, - Marina Sukovatkina stands up for regular smsmshchikov.

The work of SMM managers is evaluated at the level of specialists in related specialties - press secretaries, journalists, etc.

As elsewhere, payment can vary greatly depending on the region, area of \u200b\u200bbusiness and qualifications, ”explains Alexey Mokrushin. - In our region, the price of the monthly labor of such a specialist can start from 20-25 thousand rubles, there are segments where 15 thousand rubles can cause a contract. But in general, from 25 and above. In the Volga Federal District and in the Urals - from 30–40 thousand per month, in Moscow - from 45–50 thousand.

If a person just sits and does something on his salary, then yes - 20-25 thousand rubles a month, ”agrees Roman Vostrukhin. - If this is a business and you are your own boss, then it’s very different: you can earn 10 thousand, or you can earn 300 thousand rubles a month.

Aleksey Mokrushin believes that the booming demand for SMM services, the blind faith in the omnipotence of this technology and the salary ceiling have passed a couple of years ago and now "the market has calmed down, I realized who is who."

There are methods for assessing the labor of such specialists, they are not universal, but in general there are, ”the expert says. - There are successful examples of work, there is a need for systematic work, all this leads to the understanding that special people working with social networks are and will be needed in the future, especially those who constantly develop themselves and achieve the results that the business sets before them.

Help CD

How much is SMM?

In SMM there is no concept of “fixed price”. Cost is determined by many factors. The main ones: whether you work with a freelancer or an agency, the reputation and experience of the contractor, the complexity of the project: the tasks set by the customer, the starting conditions and the amount of work needed to get the result. Thus, the same amount of work can be estimated in different ways and the difference can be very significant - tens of times.

That is why you will not find fixed price lists for the service "promotion in social networks" on the sites of the largest Russian digital agencies. They (and their prices) are focused on working with large customers and large-scale projects. But smaller agencies tend to find their niche, clearly indicating the amount of work and their cost.

An analysis of their price lists shows that the cost of the service starts from 8 thousand rubles per month for a minimum set of work (one post per week, automation of material posting from the customer’s site - as a rule, is already provided by the site engine, but not all customers know about it) . In this case, there’s no need to talk about any marketing or even “promotion” - in fact, it’s just supporting the account in a “live” state.

If we talk about work that more closely matches the meaning of the word “marketing”, then the maximum standard set: analysis of competitive sites, from three posts a day, contests, polls, “seeding” on thematic sites, detailed analytics and reporting - will cost five times more expensive - in the amount of about 40 thousand rubles a month.

The profession of an SMM manager was finally formed only by 2010, when social networks took a strong position as a platform for promoting the business. SMM-specialists are responsible for the promotion of brands, goods and services in social networks, and the scope of their responsibilities depends heavily on the project concept. For example, for one project, you can engage, and for another.

Everything that the SMM manager does is aimed at making profit from social networks. The specialist attracts traffic, works with the audience, forms her opinion about the brand.

The main responsibilities of the SMM manager include:

1. Strategy Development  company presence in social networks. A specialist usually forms a clear task of promotion: increasing customer flow, increasing brand loyalty, detuning from competitors, and so on.
2. Creation and design  thematic communities, groups, pages, publics.
3. Drawing up media plans and content plans.
4. Content Generation  - both with the involvement of "contractors" (designers and copywriters), and without it.
5. Promotion  groups, pages, publics and so on. It includes creating and configuring advertisements, conducting contests and attracting traffic by any other available means.
6. Analysis  conversion rates and adjustment of advertising companies depending on the result.
7. Communication  - creating responses to negative and positive messages from users.
8. Making report  and analytical work.

These are the main responsibilities of the SMM manager. Depending on the project, its functions may expand or vice versa - narrow down. For example, the promotion of groups is often practiced by a team in which one is responsible for the content, the other for advertising, the third for design and so on. Many professionals additionally train their assistants.

Each project usually has a clear job description for specialists.

Key skills of an SMM manager

Important skills of the SMM-manager, without which his services would not have the desired effect, are:

• sociability: a specialist should be able to communicate with different audiences in her language;
• equilibrium: it helps to adequately get out of unpleasant situations;
• responsibility:  the specialist is obliged to complete what has been started to the end and not to abandon the project halfway;
• stress resistance  - without it it is impossible to solve force majeure situations;
• resistance to criticism  - without it, it is difficult to see and correct the mistakes made.

These requirements are often found in job openings. Some companies are ready to conduct training for novice professionals, while issuing a minimum salary if they have good personal qualities.

How to find a job for an SMM manager?

The SMM manager must be able to independently search for orders. Many specialists work on freelance and are looking for new customers with the help of:

• social networks  - You can start a working page and publish cases, tips, thoughts and other interesting content for potential customers there;
• mailing lists  CVs for vacancies on various sites such as HeadHunter, Avito, Job.ru and so on;
• kP mailings  - commercial offers - for different companies in which there are no open vacancies, but their presence on social networks is minimal;
• publishing resume  on special portals such as Avito and other well-known resources;
• freelance exchanges  of type Kwork, fl.ru, freelance.ru  and so on.

Over time, many experts come on the recommendation, and then the SMM-manager is not looking for work - she "floats" into his hands. True, this applies only to those who really know their business well and increase the profits of companies through their development in social networks.

How much does a specialist earn? The exact amount depends on the terms of reference, promotion region, company budget and other factors. For example, average salary of an experienced specialist in Moscow in May 2016, according to HeadHunter, amounted to 60,000 rubles. Statistics were collected based on 220 vacancies.

Today I’ll tell you who is today SMM manager  or SMM specialistwhat he does, what is his responsibility, what skills he should possess, and a lot of other information on this subject. It will be useful to know not only those who are looking for vacancies of an SMM manager, but also those who are looking for such a specialist and want to receive professional and high-quality services from him. So, first things first.

SMM manager: who is this?

I think it’s not a secret for anyone that representatives of most business fields are looking for their customers, their target audience on the Internet, in one way or another - promoting their brand / product on social networks. This is precisely the task that SMM specialists perform.

An SMM manager (SMM specialist) is a person who promotes a particular product / brand / website in one or more social networks.

The SMM manager can work in different ways:

• to a company providing marketing services;
• to the company whose brand / product he will promote;
• as to several companies / customers;
• at his workplace in a company with an established work schedule;
• remotely from home with a free schedule.

In general, there are many options for the work of an SMM specialist, and each contractor, as well as the customer, is free to choose those that are more suitable in their situation.

SMM manager: responsibilities.

Consider the main tasks of the SMM manager: what is the responsibility of the SMM specialist, what are the requirements for candidates for similar vacancies (in each case, the emphasis can be placed on some separate areas of work).

Task 1 Definition of SMM promotion strategy.  First of all, the SMM-manager determines the target audience of the project, conducts a marketing research of its interests and behavior. Then he selects the optimal sites (social networks) for promoting a particular brand or product where this target audience is maximally concentrated. The tasks of the SMM specialist also include the selection of optimal methods for SMM promotion, the inclusion and integration of this marketing area in the overall marketing strategy of the company.

Task 2 Creation and positioning of communities in social networks.  SMM-manager develops and creates communities / public pages on social networks, thinks over their name, description, design, design, structure. If necessary, develops applications for social networks, pages for events, meetings, events, etc. The SMM specialist conducts communities and official pages, integrates them with the official website, (depending on the situation).

Task 3. Community administration, content management.After creation, the SMM specialist administers these pages: creates, selects and publishes content. He writes texts, creates pictures and videos adapted to the format of the social network and a specific community, plans the optimal time for their publication, creates and motivates discussions. The SMM manager stimulates user activity on the pages, disseminating the necessary information through personal accounts of subscribers, attracting new subscribers to the community.

Task 4. Advertising companies in social networks.  The tasks of the SMM specialist necessarily include conducting advertising campaigns on social networks in order to attract more subscribers to the community. Work with targeted advertising of the social networks themselves, advertising in other communities, holding contests, promotions, sweepstakes, etc.

Task 5. Community Management.  SMM-manager quickly monitors communications on its pages, makes sure that the atmosphere there is friendly and trusting. Stimulates user activity by publishing discussion posts. It tracks negative comments and quickly responds to them (it does not delete, but smoothes out the negative, ideally completely eliminates them). Identifies leaders and sources of negativity in the community and works with them. Organizes online meetings, discussions, events.

Task 6. Network and community monitoring.  The SMM manager analyzes the statistics, the dynamics of the development of entrusted communities and draws conclusions about the effectiveness of SMM promotion, reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the company. He must understand the tools of web analytics and social network statistics, be able to calculate the cost of each target action (attracting a subscriber, selling through social networks, etc.), and monitor client traffic.

SMM specialist: skills, qualities, requirements.

Consider what skills (in addition to the above) and qualities that an SMM manager should possess.

1. Marketer Skills.  The ability to conduct marketing analysis, develop advertising and advertising strategies, conduct advertising campaigns and events.
2. Manager skills  The ability to find business partners, negotiate and business correspondence, manage a project, draw up an action plan, work for the result.
3. Communication skills.  A high level of communication, the ability to competently and constructively communicate, to find a common language with a variety of people.

To work as an SMM specialist it is not necessary to have a diploma of higher education (although, undoubtedly, a diploma of a marketer or manager will be a significant advantage). You can take some courses that teach this specialty, you can learn this business yourself if you wish.

In the work of the SMM manager, the key role is played not by a diploma or other document on education, but by the real effectiveness of his work, its result.

SMM-manager: vacancies.

Where to look for work and vacancies for the SMM manager? There are several options here:

1. In advertising and marketing agencies.
2. In companies engaged in SEO promotion, Internet promotion.
3. In the media.
4. On any sites (information, company websites, online stores), because they may need the services of SMM promotion (you need to look through the vacancy sections and independently offer your services).
5. On employment portals (you can respond to already posted vacancies and post your resume).

Now you have an idea of \u200b\u200bwhat an SMM manager is and what he does. Despite such an absurd description as it may seem to someone, this work is not so complicated, it is not difficult to master. Many can work as SMM specialists, but, of course, units can be a highly paid professional in this matter, as, indeed, in any other business.

I hope my article will help you make the right choice. Stay on and master the various ways of active earnings and investing. See you on the pages of the site!

I welcome you to the blog InetSovety.ru. In this article, you will find out who the SMM manager is, what he does and how to master this Internet profession. We all use the Internet for our own purposes, but we cannot influence the system in any way. One of the most popular places where all participants of virtual reality gather are social networks. Simple users use all their capabilities, including the purchase of all kinds of goods.

However, no one thinks about where these opportunities come from, that is, who gives them. And the SMM specialist is engaged in this. Who is he, what is he doing, what is it for? Let's look at these questions one at a time.

The concept of SMM specialist and the tasks that he solves

Who is the SMM manager, and what does he do? First, let's look at the very concept of SMM.

Decoding SMM sounds like Social Media Marketing, or social media marketing. This is an integral part of promoting the interests of companies via the Internet, and more precisely through social networks (personal pages, groups). All these activities are handled by the SMMs.

It should be noted right away that the services of such a specialist are not cheap at all, so if you are just starting your own business, you will need to prepare for the upcoming financial expenses. However, believe that thanks to the services of such an employee, you can get much more than you spend at the beginning.

So who is this SMM specialist? Let's figure it out.

Profession Features

An SMM manager is a person who promotes business. However, this is a very painstaking work, so if at first glance it seems to you that working in social networks or blogs is easy, then this is not so. In fact, the SMM specialist must also solve many other problems, namely:

• to study the needs, interests, tastes of the audience, on the basis of which the construction of a strategy for the further development of the project is carried out;
• respond to user requests, study comments, and then respond to them;
• conduct various events to attract new customers - contests, quizzes;
• to develop interesting online applications for social networks;
• create channels on various video hosting sites;
• SMM manager is responsible for advertising campaigns aimed at promoting a business on the Internet;
• keep all accounts or communities associated with the company, as well as moderate them;
• work with freelancers;
• optimize content for the needs of a blog or community on a social network.

But that is not all that the SMM manager does. Moreover, these points are not his duties. These are only the tasks that such a specialist faces. In addition to them, he is engaged in:

• community management;
• work with interfaces of sites, groups in social networks, etc .;
• creation of a start-page and additional tabs on the pages of the project that he leads;
• monitoring and analysis of the functioning of all implemented systems;
• highlighting leaders among the target audience, and ensuring close interaction with them;
• creation and maintenance of corporate accounts on social networks, or blogs;
• advertising and marketing moves, but in a veiled form.

That is, if we consider the question of who the SMM manager is from a different angle, then we can definitely say that this is a universal specialist who combines skills:

• a marketer;
• advertiser
• moderator;
• admin
• official representative of the company.

Now you know who such an SMM specialist is and what tasks he solves. However, this is not all, because, in addition to solving these problems, such an employee also has a number of responsibilities. Let's look at them.

Professional duties of an SMM specialist

The responsibilities of an SMM manager are quite voluminous, so this should be a responsible person, confident, able to make the right decisions and recognize beneficial partners in people.

• forms and promotes SMM products;
• deals with pricing;
• conducts advertising campaigns on social networks;
• finds new customers, while continuing to maintain partnerships with current ones;
• analyzes the activities of competing companies;
• studies new trends in a particular area of \u200b\u200bbusiness, and implements them in your project;
• creates comments with which you can maintain a good company image;
• manages various projects.

That's all the responsibilities of an SMM manager. At first glance, it might seem that this is all very complicated, and indeed: if you decide to connect your life with promotion on social networks, then be prepared for the fact that at first you will have to overcome some difficulties. However, soon you will get used to it, and it will be much easier and more interesting for you to perform the functions of an SMM specialist.

Advantages and disadvantages of the SMMSchik profession

SMM manager is a very difficult profession, which, in addition to many advantages, also has its negative aspects. But first, let's look at the main advantages of this post.

1. Great demand for the services of SMMshchik, due to the rapid development of marketing in social networks.
2. More trusting and respectful user experience. In contrast to an advertising worker, to whom people often express overt antipathy, this employee reveals much more trust. The SMM manager of social networks is not related to direct advertising, but does all of this secretly, carefully and competently, and most importantly, unobtrusively.
3. A wide selection of users to create a target audience.
4. Relatively low price for advertising.
5. The ability to search for new customers.

The downside of this profession is only one, but it adds a significant spoonful of tar to a barrel of honey. Due to the fact that an SMM specialist is a person, roughly speaking, free (that is, he is often a freelancer), then potential employers, unfortunately, can not always imagine the scope of work they perform. Accordingly, they can underestimate its importance in the world of business in social networks, which will negatively affect the salary of such an employee. Otherwise, this profession is one continuous plus.

Requirements for the SMM Manager

Understanding and knowing who this SMM specialist is and what he does is not enough to decide if you are ready for all the difficulties associated with this profession. In addition, you should be aware of the knowledge and skills that such an employee possesses. Without this, you cannot work in this position.

With regard to personal qualities, the SMMs must have:

• communication skills, that is, to be sociable and have a large vocabulary;
• creativity, that is, have great creativity;
• desire to reach new heights;
• thirst for self-improvement;
• the ability to conduct a thorough analysis of the information received;
• the ability to think systemically, logically and consistently;
• such a character trait as self-organization;
• the ability to orient oneself and orient others towards achieving positive results from joint activities;
• independence;
• ability to quickly and efficiently solve tasks;
• the ability to express their thoughts creatively and easily, and at the same time communicate them to other users;
• a good sense of humor (this quality will definitely come in handy when creating an advertising campaign).

In principle, these are all the requirements for such an employee as a SMMschik. If you are confident that you will cope with all the tasks and you have all of the above qualities and skills, then the path up the career ladder will be easy to overcome.

How and where can I learn the profession?

How to become an SMM specialist? First of all, you must master:

• the basics of creating and promoting contextual advertising Google Edwards and Yandex Direct;
• the essence of working with Internet statistics and web analytics;
• internet communication skills;
• basic rules for working in social networks;
• cEO rules
• basics and;
• web technology.

Training for an SMM manager can be completed at many universities and institutes in Russia. Of course, most of them are located in Moscow, and the most popular educational institutions are:

1. NRU Higher School of Economics.
2. Gubkin Russian State Pedagogical University.
3. MGUMO of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.
4. MSTU named after Bauman (the so-called "Bauman"), etc.

It should be noted right away that they do not learn how to become an SMM specialist in these educational institutions. However, they will be able to give you all the necessary knowledge in the field of marketing and the exact sciences, which you will then be able to successfully use in order to start working on social networks as SMMschik.

You can get the necessary business promotion skills on social networks by signing up for online training at the university of Internet professions Netology .

Career progression

You must remember that at first, SMM for beginners is sometimes very difficult. You will have to go through many steps that will gradually lead you up the career ladder to the desired position. But first you have to work:

• moderator in a group on the expanses of social networks;
• host your blog on the Internet;
• sEO optimizer
• freelancer, copywriter, web designer;
• advertiser or PR manager.

Of course, in order to become a SMMsman it is not at all necessary to apply for each position (or study at the institute) separately. Nothing prevents you, while working in one of these areas, in parallel to study the other. Thus, you will save time and money, because you will know exactly what qualities and skills are combined in such a specialist as an SMM manager.