Introduction

Picture by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels
Picture by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

The relationship between current and potential consumers and companies through the social media is currently on the rise.

The Social Media Marketer, as a new professional profile, can optimize this interaction by managing the image of the brand/company on the internet by boosting potential customers and sales through a series of strategies on online social networks: regular posts, content generation, aesthetic product and establishment photographs…., actions aimed at concrete targeted audiences.

This intermediary work, in addition to contributing to the projection of the companies beyond their local territorial scope by improving their business, is a business for the Social Media Marketer itself that can work for a single (or an own) company managing its brand or as freelancer for several businesses.  

Moreover, this profession has a unique advantage for young entrepreneurs used to deal on a daily basis with new technologies and social networks in a natural and almost instinctive way. Besides, for this business, a large initial investment is not necessary, since, at first, having access to a smart phone and a laptop is enough!

Task

Picture by Lisa Fotios from Pexels
Picture by Lisa Fotios from Pexels

To be a social media marketer and act as an intermediary between the (small) business and its potential clients you need to find out who might need your services by managing their social networks to support their business. So...

Let's do a little market research!

Your tasks are:

  • Find out which small shops in your neighbourhood might need your services as a social media marketer.
  • What kind of customers do they have? Age, special hobbies or tastes, gender,...
  • Who do you think they could sell their products to if they were known in an area beyond your own neighbourhood?

Process

Take a walk around your neighbourhood or the area where you live. Take a look at the shops and small businesses you find: the bakery on the corner, the cafeteria with those nice waiters, the pet shop, the traditional craftsman, the flower shop, the seamstress who arranges old clothes, the small clothing shop, the car mechanic, the hairdresser...

Now go to your social networks: Facebook and Instagram. How many of these businesses have social network profiles?

Great, you've already completed the first part of your market research!

Now make two lists:

  1. In one put all those who do not use social networks to advertise
  2. In the other, write those who do use social networks

The list number 1 is that of your potential clients, to them you could offer to be their social media marketer!

From the list number 2 you can get ideas: how they interact, how many followers the shops in your neighbourhood have, what kind of publications and information they share with their followers, etc. 

 

Conclusion

It can be difficult to convince traders of the value of your services without initial testing, so be patient and trust your ideas and initiative to show them over time how your services benefit them.

It is important that you can identify those businesses that could really improve their sales through social media profiles, for example, a bakery that makes artisan bread, suitable for gluten-free people and many varieties that could interest customers from the other side of your city, and which do not, for example, a bakery with only one type of ordinary bread that does not offer anything really significant and that would not make anyone cross the city to buy there.

Learning Outcomes

Competence Area 1: IDEAS & OPPORTUNITIES
  • 1.4) I can tell the difference between contexts for creating value (for example, communities and informal networks, existing organisations, the market).
  • 1.12) My vision for creating value drives me to make the effort to turn ideas into action.
Competence Area 2: RESOURCES
  • 2.4) I can describe my skills and competences relating to career options, including self-employment.
  • 2.6) I can set challenges to motivate myself.
  • 2.21) I can use various methods, including social media, to communicate value-creating ideas effectively.
Competence Area 3: INTO ACTION
  • 3.20) I can reflect on the relevance of my learning pathways for my future opportunities and choices.