Suppose you’re looking to learn about the different social media marketing jobs available, or you’re building a social media team for your business. In that case, there are a number of different roles that you might consider — one of which is a social media specialist.
Throughout this guide, we’ll walk you through what a social media specialist is, their typical job responsibilities, skills needed, and how they fit within a social media team.
Let’s get started.
What is a social media specialist?
The job title “social media specialist” might lead you to believe that it’s someone who specializes in a specific aspect of social media marketing, like paid ads or influencer marketing. That’s rarely the case.
According to the job descriptions we reviewed, a social media specialist is someone who specializes in social media itself. They cover a wide range of activities related to social media, with a special focus on managing brand presence on specific social media platforms, as well as content creation. While they might have a certain "specialty," their strength is based on having a broad range of expertise in social media so that they can handle a variety of tasks.
The job level depends on the size of the marketing team, the scope of responsibility, and the compensation but a social media specialist is most often an intermediate level role requiring 3-5+ years of experience. The big distinction is that it does not include supervisory responsibilities — this hire won’t be managing anyone. Instead, it’s an individual contributor role in which most work is done solo or through collaboration with peers.
This role is also common at social media or digital marketing agencies. An agency-based social media specialist is usually assigned to a client or multiple clients to help them create content and manage their social media presence. This role will report to a manager or executive on the agency side, but they’ll also interface regularly with clients.
What does a social media specialist do?
A social media specialist’s specific job responsibilities depend on the job level they’re being hired at. Regardless, social media specialists are usually individual contributors, so they need to demonstrate a broad understanding of social media and the ability to execute strategies and produce work on their own.
- Content creation: Across the board, the most common skillset for a specialist is content creation, including designing content, writing copy, and filming and editing video for multiple social media platforms.
- Audience building: A social media specialist needs to be able to understand their brand or platform’s target audience and create a strategy and content that properly resonates with them.
- Implementing strategy: A specialist might create a social media strategy, or they may take over implement a strategy that someone like a social media strategist or social media manager put together.
- Content management: A specialist will also manage the publication (or scheduling) of any content they create for their brand account(s), including figuring out how often to post and the right times to post. They are often tasked with running the company's social media management tool.
- Community engagement: Specialists often will go through their brand account(s) to check on notifications, respond to comments and messages, and start conversations with other users in their industry to help boost brand awareness.
- Analysis: Specialists need to ensure that their strategy is working, meaning analyzing performance is a key part of their job. They might need to present these findings to their team and senior leaders.
- Collaboration: Specialists often need to work with other people or departments to fully manage a social media strategy, including salespeople, other marketing roles, copywriters, and more.
- Paid advertising: Many specialists are tasked with managing paid campaigns on a variety of social media channels in addition to organic content strategies.
- Client communication and management: At an agency, specialists are usually in direct communication with clients. They need to set, manage, and fulfill expectations while keeping the clients updated on efforts and results.
- Other marketing tasks: Depending on their specialty, a social media specialist may also be in charge of related tasks like creating email newsletters or writing blog content.
Social media specialist skills
Now let’s cover the skillset a typical social media specialist should be able to bring to the table. Again, the depth and breadth of these skills varies depending on the level of the role, but many of them are necessary skills for any marketing role.
Social media specialist skills can be broken down into hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are applied directly to the role, while soft skills are character traits that help them do a better job.
Some of the hard skills for a social media specialist include:
- Strategy building
- Researching
- Copywriting
- Grammar/proofreading
- Content creation
- Graphic design
- Social media platform knowledge
- Social media tool knowledge
- Analytics
- Paid advertising
Some of the soft skills that can make a social media specialist better at their role include:
- Communication
- Creativity
- Innovation
- Time management
- Emotional intelligence
- Flexibility
- Collaboration
- Public speaking
How a social media specialist fits into a social media team
Social media specialists sit on marketing teams and report to a manager, director, or sometimes an executive who acts as a generalist, overseeing all marketing activities. This role can also sit on the communications / PR team, depending on how the company is structured.
Their peers are usually other specialists who focus on specific marketing functions, such as a content specialist or an SEO specialist. This depends on the company’s core marketing channels.
This role usually appears at smaller or mid-size companies with small marketing departments. Larger companies might have entire teams dedicated to distinct functions of marketing, like an entire social media marketing team or an entire email marketing team. At a smaller company, you’re more likely to see only one or two people dedicated to a specific marketing function, like a social media manager and a social media specialist.
Marketing agencies typically hire multiple social media specialists. Each specialist works with one to a handful of client accounts to create social media content.
Consider if a social media specialist role is right for you
Learn more about building an effective social media team that can help your brand meet all of its digital marketing goals.
