Every Company Needs Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is essential for every organization—from the solo entrepreneur to the largest international corporations. A company’s social strategy may include video, blogging, and search engine optimization (SEO), among others.
You might think social media marketing pros all have college or university degrees, but this isn’t the case. Many marketing employees and freelancers get their marketing training through bootcamps or certificate programs, whether they have graduated from college.
Social Media Marketing from the Pros’ Point of View
If you’re considering social media marketing as a career, you should try to look at the field from the standpoint of hiring managers or company owners. The digital marketing field is extremely broad, and social media marketing is only part of a company’s digital strategy. As a result, marketing professionals may be asked to take on one or more of the following roles:
- Social Media Strategist
- Content Marketing Specialist
- Digital Marketer
- Digital Strategist
- Marketing Manager
Social media marketing pros use a wide variety of methods in different fields. Budgetary constraints, departmental needs, and hiring decisions can all be important considerations for marketing. Depending on the field you consider, a college degree may be less important than the social media marketing skills you bring to the table.
To learn more about how to make an engaging and lasting impact on social media, check out this Intro to Social Media Marketing video from Noble Desktop. The 75-minute presentation delves into essential marketing topics like reaching a target audience, brand mission, and engagement. You can also view the presentation slides here.
Getting a Social Media Marketing Position without a Degree
To get started in social media marketing, consider the following (click the link to skip ahead).
- Understand the Big Picture
- Content Marketing Vs. Social Media Marketing
- Paid Vs. Unpaid
- Traditional Content or User-Generated Content?
- Video Marketing
- Other Digital Areas
- Find Your Niche
- Have Fun
1. Understand the Big Picture
Social media marketing includes well-known platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. It also encompasses content-based strategies like blogs. Some strategies include paid advertising, while others do not. Digital marketers specializing in social media may still need to know complementary areas like SEO, Google Ads and Analytics, and email marketing.
2. Content Marketing Vs. Social Media Marketing
While social media marketing may focus mainly on sales, content marketing is typically more about user engagement. If you’re looking to get started in social media marketing without a degree in advertising, marketing, or a related field, you also need to have a solid understanding of marketing principles. Start by finding out more about the differences between these two major areas.
3. Paid Vs. Unpaid
As you learn more about social media marketing, you’ll gain much insight about the pros and cons of paid marketing vs. unpaid marketing. Some paid work may entail hiring an employee or purchasing a subscription service. A primary element of unpaid marketing is user-generated content, or UGC (See below).
4. Traditional Content or User-Generated Content?
Although much of a brand’s social media marketing strategy involves paying for content, an increasingly larger percentage of today’s digital marketing is user-generated content. Examples of UGC can include:
- Online reviews or testimonials from customers
- Images
- Unboxing videos
- Live streams
- Blog posts
Marketers often think that their own created content is more credible than UGC; however, studies show consumers actually tend to find UGC more trustworthy than branded marketing content.
5. Video Marketing
As more and more online content is video-based, the video aspect of social media marketing has exploded. Top social media marketing platforms for video today include:
- YouTube
- TikTok
Other platforms that may feature video include Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Pinterest.
6. Other Digital Areas
The digital marketing field includes social media marketing. That means multiple aspects of digital marketing overlap with the tasks of many social media marketing strategists and analysts. If you’re looking to break into social media marketing, it’s a smart bet to immerse yourself in all digital marketing channels. Many social media positions require knowledge of corresponding tools, including email marketing with platforms like MailChimp or Constant Contact; search engine optimization (SEO); and print marketing or advertising.
7. Find Your Niche
One of the fastest ways to get into social media marketing is through an internship or part-time position. Although some of these are paid roles requiring a degree, others are not. Interns often work on collecting user-generated content, creating marketing images using Canva or other online tools, and even contributing to staff brainstorming sessions. Keep in mind that many office positions today also require additional skills like MS Office applications and Adobe Creative Cloud programs.
Finding your niche in the social media marketing world can be challenging. Among the best training options are bootcamps and certificates that offer comprehensive training in this field. Noble Desktop offers multiple programs for digital marketers, including social media marketing training. Here are two of the most relevant courses.
Social Media Marketing Certificate - This certificate program covers social media marketing training with the most popular platforms:
- YouTube
- TikTok
The program also covers content marketing using blogs and other written media.
Digital Marketing Certificate - Students who want to get their social media marketing training as part of a broader digital marketing curriculum benefit from this comprehensive program. Topics include all those listed above in the Social Media Marketing Certificate, as well as additional SEO and Google Ads & Analytics bootcamps.
8. Have Fun
Social media marketing is both creative and enjoyable. Whether you land a social media marketing gig, an internship, or a full-time digital marketing position, learning by doing is the best avenue to moving forward. And you can have fun using your own creativity along the way.
As you grow in your social media skills, you’ll find an ever-growing list of resources, some free and others requiring a subscription. The following are tools that can help you on your content creation journey:
- Canva - drag-and-drop social media graphics platform
- Bitly - URL shortener service
- Hootsuite - social media management platform
- Pixabay - resource for royalty-free photos and images
- Buzzsumo - content research tool
- Social Status - social media analytics tool
- Constant Contact - email marketing software