Maeve Catherine

Through the years, we have watched technology improve and the age of its users decrease. I aspire to create and distribute impactful media posts about products, organizations and individuals that are age appropriate for all users.

Social media specialist’s are tasked with creating compelling content that audiences will engage with. Being knowledgable about features, algorithm, trends, and reading analytics of each platform is a key skills for a candidate. Indeed, defines a social media specialist responsibilities, in a recent blog post, “They are in charge of creating and implementing engaging social media strategies, running ad campaigns, responding promptly to followers’ questions and comments, and tracking performance metrics to measure the success of each campaign.” Social media plays a huge role nowadays in a company’s marketing strategy and social media strategists help prevent a task, that seems simple, fall through the cracks.

Preparing for Future

An important step I took in preparation of starting a career as a social media specialist has been attending higher education. I’ve earned my Bachelor of Arts in Communications and am two weeks away from competing my Master of Science in Interactive Media and Communications at Quinnipiac University. According to Hootsuite’s 2023 Social Media Career Report, “52% of social marketers studied journalism, communications, media or marketing in school”. Many job postings state that in addition to a degree applicants should have “minimum of 3 to 5 years of experience” in the communications and/or marketing industry. Through my classroom experience I have learned how to capitalize on trends to create an impactful social media strategy for an organization but applying these strategies in real world experience have evidently made me stand out in the applicant pool.

From August 2023 to May 2024 I worked in four different positions at The Agency at Quinnipiac which enabled me to work with a team on out of the box thinking that makes our clients happy. This agency experience stands out and is often brought up in interviews because we were working on projects that are used outside of the classroom.

Be open minded about the opportunities that are presented to you!

Responsibilities

Welcoming new ideas to attract audiences on multiple platforms is the best way to summarize the role of a social media specialist.

A social media specialist is responsible for defining, developing, incorporating and refining social media content analysis’s for the businesses and brands they are working for. Content analysis’s should be reviewed and refined quarterly to ensure that positive change is occurring for the brand. This is done by checking in with the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). On a yearly basis in depth a content analysis should be conducted which involves reviewing business goals, pillars, content analytics, content design and their competitors successes. With this information the business can make changes to the staff’s roles and responsibilities while also setting new attainable goals and KPIs for the next year.

On a monthly and weekly basis social media specialists should be preparing content and planning how it will be distributed. Before the start of every month a rough draft of the businesses content should be defined for the team to see. There are a number of online planning tools used in the industry, to name a few that I have seen listed in job listings are Hey Orca, Monday.com, Sprout Social, and Loomly. These digital tools make the distribution process easier but its important to know that being adaptable is just as important. On a weekly basis the content that was prepared should be reviewed for relativeness. Taylor Knight, a social media strategist at Vessi, explains “Everything takes a lot more time and planning than people realize. There’s always a purpose to every post that we do. Even if we have a fun post, we are still posting it for a reason—and we want you to take something away from it.” Focusing on creating cohesive and engaging content strengthens brand identity. Trends come and go at unexpected rates which warrants thought out change with the distinguished content pillars in mind.

Always Ready to Learn

Social media specialist’s are creative, adaptable, and have a deep understanding of platforms, trends, and analytics. As social media continues to evolve, staying open-minded to new ideas and and knowledgable of tools is critical for successfully driving engagement and achieve measurable results. Ultimately, social media specialists play a pivotal role in shaping a brand’s identity and ensuring its message resonates with diverse audiences.