The 3 Vital Social Media Roles

Zanthe Martinuzzi is the digital marketing manager at Arc Interactive. She takes us through her experiences with social media marketing and why clear definitions of roles are important in getting the most out of the platform and how to avoid mistakes many businesses make with social media management.

Effective social media channels go way beyond just “posting” on Facebook and Twitter all day. Different job functions are required to fulfil different marketing and business needs. This article dives into the job functions and roles of successful social media marketing for brands - exploring which roles are needed and why. Although social media marketing, promoting social posts and community management goes hand-in-hand, they are very different functions - each being as vital as the other.

So what’s the difference? And why is this important for my business?

Social media marketers, also known as social media managers, focus on brand awareness, brand positioning and content development through specifically outlined content pillars. This is where the social media strategy is born, where content is conceptualised, social media calendars produced and posts uploaded to the individual social channels.

Paid media specialists focus on social media channel growth. This is where marketing and paid spend are involved with advertising, targeting posts that the social media marketers create the ideal audience and reaching set KPIs of success while optimising each towards peak performance. This role usually involves in-depth reporting and insights as to what performed well, what didn’t and why.

A community manager is responsible for engaging with consumers and managing client relationships on social media. They respond on the brand's behalf to comments, reviews, messages and questions. More often than not, they deal with people who have a relationship with or have heard of, the brand. Often this function is kept in-house and managed internally by the client, but this does vary case by case.

Simply put, a social media manager creates the content for the paid specialist to promote to the right audience whilst growing their fan base, and the community manager engages and maintains the relationships with the audience and fans. Whilst each role might use the same platforms, like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, their actions differ vastly.

Finding the right fit

Getting the right resources in the right social media roles are vital to publishing good quality content that gets users engaged, builds your audience and maintains good relationships with your online customers. A good social media team is a direct investment in excellent customer service. I hope you find this helpful, and I sincerely would like to hear your comments, input and experiences in the comments section below.

For more information on social media management of what Zanthe is up to visit: www.arcinteractive.co

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About the author

Zanthe is a former designer, and HTML web developer turned digital marketer based in Johannesburg with an acute eye for detail and a creative spark, she decided to pursue a career in graphic design. After qualifying, she worked as a designer and developer for a few years and then began studying marketing whereafter she found her niche in digital marketing.

Zanthe has since been doing digital marketing work on some big brands such as ABSA, Russell Hobbs, Danone Brands, as well as non-profit organizations and now works as the Digital Marketing Manager at Arc Interactive based in Johannesburg. When she isn't glued to her computer screen - blogging or making the digital connection between her clients and their customers, she spends time playing with her two cats, stays active, keeps her finger on the pulse regarding the latest trends in fashion and food, and tries hard not to be the worlds worst tennis player.

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