AI will upend much of how we function in the workplace — at least according to new LinkedIn data.
“By 2030, 70% of skills used in most jobs will change,” says Andrew Seaman, LinkedIn news editor at large for jobs and career development. LinkedIn determined which skills are used in most jobs by combining the skills companies are currently listing in job descriptions and skills individuals are listing in their profiles. They then made their calculations considering historical shifts in skills and projections around AI-replicable skills.
Seaman doesn’t think these skills will be replaced altogether. Instead, they’ll evolve. And other experts agree. “As technology continues to change the way we work, everyone must be aware as to what is evolving to keep their skills relevant and marketable,” says Stacie Haller, chief career advisor at Resume Builder.
Here’s what jobseekers should keep in mind.
‘You may not need to do data entry anymore’
In the near future, employers will use AI “to enhance” their workers’ abilities, says Seaman.
“You may not need to do data entry anymore,” says Seaman as an example. “But you may need to do data management.” Similarly, prompt engineering might not be necessary down the line. “It might be management of AI prompts and [large language models]” instead, he says. The menial tasks could be done by AI and the oversight and organization of those tasks could be taken on by people.
Not all jobs will be similarly affected. Manual labour or live performance, for example, likely won’t be impacted as heavily. But in jobs like software engineer, web designer and cashier, AI will take the tasks people have been doing and make people more productive by enabling them to complete more tasks throughout the workday.
Down the line, “maybe one person can do the job of several,” says Seaman.
‘People need to get used to change at this point’
As tasks evolve with tech, there are several things you can do to make sure you’re keeping up.
Read skills in demand lists on sites like LinkedIn, Upwork and Indeed to see what employers are looking for. If there are skills that seem relevant or interesting, “start adding them to your routine of learning” by taking different tutorials or even a class, says Seaman. If there’s someone in your life who has that skill, you can also see if they’re willing to teach you.
The bottom line is “people need to get used to change at this point,” he says. “That’s how they can stay competitive in the workforce going forward.”
Cody Berman has been experimenting with side hustles for years.
The 27-year-old picked up his first side gig his freshman year of college when he founded a disc golf manufacturing company. After that “I started getting some freelance writing gigs during college,” he says. “Also did some tutoring, podcast editing, video editing, running affiliate marketing campaigns.” He says he made between $1,500 and $1,800 per month on his various hustles.
Even today, Berman juggles a series of moneymaking ventures including selling an online course about how to start an Etsy business and renting out spaces on Airbnb. “I am a dabbler by trade,” he says. In 2022, his various streams of income brought in nearly $700,000 altogether.
Having tried so many hustles, Berman’s gleaned a few insights about which might be easiest to pick up. Here’s his advice for anyone looking to dive in immediately.
‘Look at the skills that you have’
Given people’s different skill sets and even assets, the easiest side hustle is “going to be different for every single person,” says Berman.
For him, the easiest hustles to dive into were those in content creation, like podcast editing and video editing. That’s because he’d learned how to use editing tools for both out of personal interest and didn’t have to learn anything new to dive in. “I actually started my own podcast in July of 2018,” he says. And he realized they were skillsets he could monetize.
“Look at the skills that you have,” he says. Are you a solid writer? Good at graphic design? Adept at customer service? Consider what you’re good at and make a mental note of which of those skills you could lean into. Take inventory of your assets as well. Do you have a car? An apartment you could be renting out? A bike you could make deliveries on? Any of these can help you make money.
The idea is to use what you already have at your disposal as opposed to accruing new skills or buying something new. Leaning into what’s there means you’ll be able to dive in right away and with ease.
‘There’s always someone who’s willing to pay’
In terms of where to find outlets for your hustle, start perusing sites like Fiverr, Upwork, GigSalad, Lessonface, Thumbtack and TaskRabbit to see what people are doing in a similar field. An aerialist in Los Angeles is currently charging $600 and up on GigSalad. An interior photographer in the Catskills is currently charging $150 to $195 per project on Fiverr.
“There’s an unlimited number of opportunities now with the internet and all these different apps,” says Berman.
Berman also recommends looking to your immediate network or local businesses for side hustle opportunities. Say you’ve got a knack for social media. “There’s landscaping companies, there’s plumbing companies, there’s electricians that have no idea what they’re doing on social media,” he says, adding that, “if you come to them with a decent proposal, you can run social media for them.”
Ultimately, “there’s always someone who’s willing to pay for something,” says Berman, “you’ve just got to figure out what that something is” and whether or not it falls in line with what you have to offer.
Feature Image Credit: Disc golf. Source: Envato Elements
Do you want to develop high income skills that will help you to earn a decent living with lots of flexibility? The best high income skills can be broken into two main categories: creative skills and technical skills. Both offer you the opportunity to earn a generous salary using the knowledge that you already have or are capable of working to refine.
If you’re ready to dive into the high income skills that can earn you a pretty penny, here are our top choices.
Creative High Income Skills to Learn
While creative high income skills may not pay as well as a more technical high income skill, there are still many benefits to exploring your creativity. They can give you an outlet for your ideas, help others create content that matters, and hone soft skills that will make you an ideal candidate in many fields.
SEO and Content Marketing Strategy
Search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing strategy are high income skills that can give you endless freedom. Some people choose to work for themselves, running successful niche blogs that generate income. Others work for a roster of clients, creating page content and running a blog.
This high income skill is in high demand as it requires a delicate balance of skills ranging from creativity to generate content to the more technical skills required to rank higher on SERPs.
If you aren’t sure where to start with SEO or a content marketing strategy, you can easily take courses like those offered by Income School. Be sure to see our full Income School review here.
Copywriting requires a much different skill set than creating engaging content. As one of the best high-paying skills, you must deeply understand what drives people to make a purchase. Instead of writing blogs, you will write marketing material to encourage sales.
There can be quite a bit of pressure with these high income skills because your success will be measured by how well your copy converts to sales. If you have the creative writing skills and the flexibility to understand what motivates people to make a purchase, this is a high income skill you can hone over time for a decent salary.
Maybe you don’t love the idea of being in front of the camera and starting your own YouTube channel or video content. That doesn’t mean that you can’t work in the field of video marketing though. Many people who record their own content are looking for video editing services so that they can move on to the next piece of content, making this another of the best high income skills.
Video editing requires you to have high income skills like deep knowledge of Final Cut Pro or iMovie, both of which are popular editing softwares. If you have the budget to spend on nicer software, many editors love Adobe Premiere Pro as well.
Both social media marketing and digital marketing will put your sales skills to the test. This high income skill requires social media marketers to master word smithing, a deep understanding of marketing, and a spark of creative genius. You should know what drives people to make a purchase or to engage with a brand.
Furthermore, it requires project management skills to keep all of your digital marketing campaigns running smoothly. A little bit of search engine optimization is also helpful to understand what terms people are searching for and how you can capitalize on those searches.
The only downside to high income skills like social media marketing and digital marketing is that you have to be available often to interact with customers and manage these campaigns.
Be sure to check out some of this related reading:
Affiliate marketing is another high income skill that requires you to create your own content. For example, you could write a blog post that refers people to a particular product that you are reviewing. Using these high income skills, you will use a unique link and earn a kickback from each person who makes a purchase using your link.
Does it sound simple?
If you have a knack for writing persuasive content, then you might be a good fit for affiliate marketing. The important thing here is to be transparent with your audience about whether a product is a good choice and to only recommend things that you genuinely love.
Your audience may leave if they think that you’re in it just for a quick buck, but you can easily earn a six-figure income if you play your cards right.
Be sure to check out our other guides on getting started with affiliate marketing here:
Another of the top high income skills, course creation can take many different paths. First, you might decide to cash in on your expertise in a given field. You can create a course that teaches someone how to follow your own skill on platforms like Teachable.
Set your own price for the course and start marketing your own business of online courses.
Other people prefer to take their knowledge of creating online courses to create content for other people. As a course developer, you would take the key skills you learned to create video and written content, structure an outline of an in-depth course, and then create and market it. There are lots of free resources that can help you get started with this valuable skill.
Here are a few reviews and free resources of some popular course creation platforms:
High income skills that are more technical like coding are constantly in high demand. If you have a mind for numbers and problem-solving, then these skills might be a good fit for you. The best part is that they are frequently high-paying skills as many people lack the technical knowledge of how to do these skills.
Coding is the first high income skill to think about learning. For those who specialize in coding, you will need to know how to build a website or work on apps. Coders are responsible for spinning something wonderful out of nothing but lines of technical code. You tell the computer or the internet what, when, and how to do something with this high-paying skill.
A college degree is often helpful in this field, but you may find free coding courses through sites like Udemy.
If you have a strong mind for numbers, data science or analysis is one of the best high income skills to learn. This involves sifting through tons of data points to come up with a plan for what would drive the company forward. The goal is to sense unique opportunities that the brand can take action on immediately.
This can also play a role in digital marketing and determining if a campaign is worth the money that is being invested into it. You would comb through the data sets to decide how successful the endeavour has become, putting you in high demand.
Do you have a passion for helping people to interact with a finished product? User experience is a high income skill that focuses on understanding what end users truly want and what their experience of the brand is, which ultimately ties into how well a page will convert or keep people coming back.
These trade skills often work hand-in-hand with some of the other best high income skills like software engineering, coders, and data scientists. Any aspect that influences how someone is likely to perceive a website, app, or other end point would fall into the purview of a UX professional.
If you already have a background in coding as a high income skill, then making the leap to software development or software engineering isn’t that much of a reach. With these trade skills, you would move from conception to the final development of high-demand programs. You could be building a program for the computer or an app, depending on your specialized skills.
To be successful with these high income skills, software developers will need hard skills like math skills, the ability to problem solve, an understanding of programming languages, and good project management skills.
If software development isn’t where your talent lies, then you can branch into other high income skills like web development or web design. Instead of creating programs, you would be responsible for the creation of beautiful and functional websites. You will still need some knowledge of coding, sales skills, and digital marketing to make a robust website.
Having these in-demand skills will make your job search a breeze.
Web development is broken into two high income skills: front-end and back-end. Front-end web design focuses on the actual aesthetic experience that a user will have when visiting a given website. Back-end web design works with structure and code to ensure that every aspect of the website runs smoothly.
If you have some of the soft skills and income skills that allow you to work well with others and have excellent organizational skills and communication skills, then project management might be the right fit for you. This high income skill is in high demand, as everyone has a major project that they are working on.
A project manager will be responsible for helping people to conceive and plan their project, gain the necessary talent to execute it, and see it through to its completion. While you could go back to a local community college for a college degree for these high income skills, not everyone does.
You can also take online courses and earn a certification if you have the raw talent to be good in this arena and if you naturally have the soft skills to support it.
Final Thoughts: Which High Income Skills are Right for You?
Are you ready to start putting a high income skill into practice and earn a decent living? Even if you lack some of the technical know-how required from some of these best high income skills, gaining the experience is easier than ever with the internet at your fingertips. All you need are some great soft skills and you can transform your tech skills into something marketable.
Whether you want to pursue search engine optimization or software development, there is a high income skill here for you to learn and grow with. Which one will you choose to pursue?
Showcasing the right hard and soft skills on your résumé will make it standout. This is exactly how to do it.
Writing a good résumé is a difficult balancing act. Sometimes it can be a challenge to keep your résumé length short and sweet while also including enough quality information to make a lasting impression.
Hiring managers will also hold a particular interest in the skill set you possess. This means it’s very important to know what is relevant to the job when thinking of skills to list on your résumé. And though it goes without saying, we’ll say it just in case: any job skills listed on your resume should be skills you truly possess.
So how do you figure out the best skills to put on your résumé? And what if you’re looking to find a remote job?
Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills in Your Résumé
There are endless skills that you can include on any résumé, and you have to decide which ones will be the most effective. There are hard, industry-specific technical skills, as well as soft skills that every job demands.
Hard skills are technical abilities that are specific to a particular job and are often measurable. For software developers, their set of hard skills would include specific programming languages. Soft skills are personal skills or creative abilities that can come naturally or be strengthened over time. Some examples of soft skills are adaptability, self-motivation, people skills, time management, and the ability to work under pressure.
Let’s take a closer look at the skills section for your résumé.
Top Skills to List in Your Résumé
Top Soft Skills For Your Résumé (Examples)
There are tons of soft skills (personal skills) that you can include in your résumé, but how do you know which ones to include? Here is a quick list of soft skills examples you should list on your résumé. (Be sure to carefully look at the job description and determine which soft skills you possess that are most applicable for the job.)
– Problem Solving Skills
No matter what the job is, eventually something will go wrong and employers want to know that you’re capable of coming up with a quick and effective solution. In fact, there are jobs that are essentially nothing but solving problems for the company, the clients, or both.
– Critical Thinking Skills
Being able to think rationally and thoughtfully is the basis of critical thinking. Employers want workers who can think through a problem or a project and determine the best steps needed. Critical thinkers come up with new and better ways to work, making it an invaluable skill to put on a résumé.
– Flexibility
Many organizations and industries covet employees who are dynamic and adaptable to every situation, or who have a natural ability to use a variety of methods and approaches in different circumstances to get the best end result.
– Communication Skills
Whether it’s written or verbal, being able to communicate with your boss, co-worker’s, and clients/customers in all situations is very valuable. The better you are at it, the better results you will generate.
– Teamwork
Most jobs will sometimes require you to work with other people at some point, and employers want to know that you can succeed in a team environment. Some jobs will prize this skill more than others.
– Organization Skills
This is not just about having a neat desk, but organizing tasks and projects for your co-workers, management, and at the very least, yourself! If you want to show off your organization skills, having a tightly structured résumé certainly helps.
– Creativity
Thinking outside of the box and coming up with creative solutions can be a real asset in any role. Perhaps you’re good at thinking about something in a way that hasn’t been done before. Creativity can be shown on your résumé through a problem you solved or through a creative skill like writing or design.
– Emotional Intelligence
According to Psychology Today, “Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others.” In the workplace, this means you’re rational and even-keeled, and can handle ups and downs without losing control. While this is important for everybody, it’s a must-have skill to include on a résumé for management.
– Attention to Detail
On the job you need to ensure you follow all instructions in order to complete your work. This can be especially important when you work with others. Paying attention to detail will be needed at any role you have. Consider times when you caught or fixed a potential mistake due to your attention to detail.
– Responsibility
Part of being a good employee is taking responsibility for your duties and even owning up to mistakes. Most managers don’t want to have to check in on their employees to ensure every part of their job is getting done. Responsibility means doing what you need to do to complete your tasks.
Top Hard Skills For Your Résumé (Examples)
Hard skills tend to be more technical, and each industry or type of job will usually have its own required set. Finding out what range of hard skills you’ll be expected to have in your field might require some research. Here are hard skills examples that tend to be in-demand across many industries. (Be sure to carefully look at the job description and determine which hard skills you possess that are most applicable for the job.)
– Computer Software and Application Knowledge
The list of professions that does not require you to use computers and certain types of software is very short. You could very likely break up “computer skills” into two or three specific technical proficiencies for your field.
– Design
Aside from the obvious professions like graphic or web design, there are jobs in marketing, advertising, branding, engineering, and construction that require some type of design skills—even if it’s only for drawing up presentations.
– Data Analysis
Understand data is very much in vogue right now, and there are a lot of jobs out there where you will be called upon to analyze metrics and extrapolate a practical use from it, making analytical skills extremely valuable to put on your résumé.
– Negotiation
There are many jobs that involve selling a product or service, purchasing stock or merchandise, brokering deals for production or transportation, establishing partnerships for advertising or investments, and so on.
– Mathematics
Finance, business, engineering, construction, manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and operations will require you to be competent with math in some capacity. If you’re in a profession that is more math-heavy, consider splitting it up into a few more specific skills areas.
– Project Management
Many jobs will require project management skills. The ability to manage your task flow and complete assignments on time is part of project management. Perhaps you have used project management software in the past or have completed a project early—these all show good project management.
– Marketing
Marketing involves selling and promoting products and services. Even if you’re not a marketer per se, many companies may desire this hard skill. Knowing the highlights and benefits of your company’s products and services, and being able to speak or write about them, can be valuable to many different jobs. If you have specific marketing or social media experience, even better.
– Administrative
Even if your job is not administrative in nature, it’s likely a part of your role. Administrative skills involve the things you do to manage your role: organizing, planning, scheduling, writing emails, managing files, etc. Employers want to know you’re able to take hold of the details.
– Writing Skills
Many jobs involve writing. Whether it’s to clients or coworkers, having a basic writing ability is necessary and an absolute skill to put on your résumé. Emails filled with typos and grammatical errors will not reflect well on you, and poor tone can send the wrong message. Demonstrate this skill through your cover letter and emails with the recruiter, and list any specific writing-heavy projects you’ve completed.
– Foreign Languages
Being bilingual can be a great hard skill and set you apart from your competition. Even if a role or company doesn’t initially have a need for a bilingual employee, they may look favorably on your ability. It is common to need someone with fluency in another language to help customers or clients, so play up this skill on your résumé.
Look for Target Keywords
If you’re still not sure if any of these skills are right for your situation, one quick way to check which skills the employer is seeking is to check the job description.
Read through it a few times and you’ll likely spot three or four key skills mentioned several times throughout the document. If that’s the case, you should do your best to focus on those skills in your résumé, too.
How to List Skills In Your Résumé
Sort Skills By Relevance
If you are applying for a sales job, your prior experience as a car mechanic is not the most relevant. You will want to emphasize experience that can be applicable to a sales role. However, if you lack the experience, search through your existing positions for relevant skills.
For example, if you were responsible for providing customer service as a mechanic, that is something that can be transferable to a sales role.
Add a Highlights Section
Modern résumés are built to be value-oriented, which requires providing information that is more achievement-based as opposed to task-based. If you’ve had multiple roles with varying achievements, select the top four you are most proud of and incorporate them into a Career Highlights section.
Try to avoid adding more than four as this section is meant to be the highlights of your achievements, and you don’t want to create sections with long lists of bullets, creating a very boring way to read content.
Categorize by Skill
If you are higher up in your career level, you likely have multiple responsibilities that cross several platforms or departments. If you are a manager or director of operations at a company, your responsibilities may include: managing staff, maintaining smooth daily operations, communicating with key stakeholders and/or vendors, developing and managing projects, and hiring and training staff.
With either your task-based information or achievements, you can categorize the content into sections to illustrate the diversity in your responsibilities.
For example:
Process Improvements: information of responsibilities and/or achievements that relate to creating and implementing processes to improve operational efficiencies.
Customer Service Skills: content that illustrates how you maintain or improve the customer experience at your company.
Change Management: information that can relate to restructuring staff, developing training programs for employees, and coaching individuals or groups on company best practices.
Your soft skills and hard skills are the very things that will either qualify you or disqualify you for a job. Be sure to include some of these top skills on your résumé for maximum results.
Feature Image Credit: [Source illustration: Anna Duvanova/Getty Images]
The idea of making money completely independent of any employer is a dream for many. But what skills do you really need to start living with that kind of freedom?
When you’re working for a company, you’re often a single part of a larger machine. You only have to focus on being the best gear or crankshaft that you can be to keep collecting that paycheck.
For many, this is a perfectly fine way of surviving. They occupy their desk, they collect their cash, and they “live” during the hours they can be home.
What does it take to live free?
There are some, though, who want more freedom. They aren’t satisfied being a piece of a machine. They want the flexibility and sense of pride that comes from steering their own life from the ground up.
When you’re running your own operation, you are the machine. That means all of your individual parts (skill sets) have to be up to snuff if you want to be profitable. So what skills do you need to be a business online?
Core skills for the entrepreneur:
Marketing
SEO
Copywriting
Business management
Data management and visualization
That list isn’t so daunting, is it?
Unfortunately, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Each of these bullet points represents a body of knowledge that entire degrees are dedicated to.
Do you really need 5 degrees to be a successful online business?
No! Thankfully not!
In the past, when information was less available, higher education or apprenticeship were the only ways to access this knowledge. Nowadays, you don’t have to waste your time with humanities classes you’re not interested in or fill out a tedious list of requirements all while accruing a debilitating amount of debt.
All the specific skills you need are readily available through online courses.
With online courses, you strategically invest in yourself. Individually they can be pretty pricey, but if you hunt around, you can find relevant bundles that fit all of your needs.
Bought individually, these courses would run you over $1,800. However, for the next few days you can snag lifetime access to all these resources for $39.
Sound too good to be true? It’s not! Course creators often bundle new courses with previously successful ones to boost enrollment in the new course. Their marketing ploy is your opportunity get the gold without breaking the bank.
If you’re interested in freeing yourself from the grind and striking out on your own, consider investing $39 in yourself. Get the full breakdown by clicking the button below!
Amid the New Year resolutions to shed kilos and quit drinking, there’s always one person at the party who holds up the champagne glass and pledges to change their career.
Frequent job switching is now commonplace and it’s expected Millennials will change jobs four times before they’re 32. If you’re finding yourself trawling Yudu or other internet job boards for a new career, you’re not alone.
But job hunting no longer means having experience in a specific role. Instead, as Facebook vice president of human resources Janelle Gale says, it’s your skill set that matters most.
“We actually value skills over experience in the grand scheme of things,” she said.
“Apply if you have the relevant skills even if you don’t have the right experience, because we’re looking underneath the surface for what’s really going to matter here and that’s what skills you can bring to the table.”
Transferable skills that relate to a range of industries are preferred and some big companies like Apple and Google no longer require applicants to have a higher education degree.
LinkedIn has scrolled through thousands of job listings to find the skills that will be the most sought after in 2019.
Last year, statistical analysis and data presentation skills were the top of employers’ lists, with tech design and development abilities also ranked highly.
This year, recruiters are looking to employ people with digital prowess, creativity and strong communication, favouring applicants with both hard and soft skills.
What are hard skills?
Hard skills are specific and teachable abilities, such as reading, writing and mathematics. Due to their adherence to logic and observance of specific rules and circumstances, these skills are often taught in courses. These skills are more easily measured and are directly applicable to particular industries.
The most in-demand hard skills:
• cloud computing
• artificial intelligence
• analytical reasoning
• people management
• UX design
• mobile application development
• video production
• sales leadership
• translation
• audio production
• natural language processing
• scientific computing
• game development
• social media marketing
• animation
• business analysis
• journalism
• digital marketing
• industrial design
• competitive strategies
• customer service systems
• software testing
• data science
• computer graphics
• corporate communications
It’s no surprise tech skills reign supreme. In a report issued by LinkedIn economists, four out of the top five emerging jobs in 2018 were digitally based, including tech developers and engineers.
A little further down the list, communication skills also emerge. Journalism, social media marketing, digital marketing and corporate communications all appeared in the top 25 desirable skill sets.
Yet, as proficient as you might be in these areas, the more intangible soft skills will help you land the job.
What are soft skills?
Soft skills aren’t as easily quantifiable as hard skills. Often abstract in nature, these abilities are derived from the right side of the brain. Soft skills are closely linked to personality traits, and harder to measure or assess.
For those who can demonstrate soft skills, the job market is wider. Around 57 per cent of leaders attribute more weight in the job hiring process to a candidate’s proficiency in soft skills, which are considered to be more flexible assets to the workplace.
This year, companies will invest in hiring staff who give them an edge in competitive markets. People who can lead technology changes and create market impact will be highly sought after. And if you have the ability to develop creative solutions, you’re more likely to be a hot commodity on the job market.
Editor of LinkedIn Learning Paul Petrone said the list reflects a shift in what employers prioritise in the workplace.
“Interestingly, the newcomers to our list were uniquely human traits. Among soft skills, creativity and adaptability joined the list for the first time, and among hard skills, people management was a new addition,” he said.
“While digital skills like cloud computing and artificial intelligence topped the list of hard skills companies need most, the emergence of these three new skills suggests that employers recognise the importance of embracing modern technologies as well as recognising those things technology can’t do — connect with other people, engage in out-of-the-box thinking and quickly adapt to new priorities or problems.”
A decade ago, the role of a social media manager might not have even existed. Today, however, almost every company is involved in social media one way or another.
A quick look at Google Trends shows the rise in interest in the term “social media manager” over the years, and it seems that people have never been as interested in the term as they are today.
What does it take to be a great social media manager? What are the skills to master and traits to have? How can you work on those areas?
In this post, we’ll try our best to answer all those questions. We’ll share 10 skills and traits that are crucial to being a great social media manager and relevant resources to help you improve in those areas.
Skills vs. traits
Throughout this post, we’ll discuss the various skills and traits we feel are most important for social media managers. But before we dive in, I quickly wanted to share some of my learnings about the difference between skills and traits.
Here’s a great explanation of skills vs traits from Red Letter Resumes:
Image credit: The Huffington Post
When it comes to finding your ideal social media manager, I feel you may be looking for the right mix of tangible skills (things like copywriting and analytics) and traits (such as curiosity).
7 skills top social media managers share
1. Copywriting
Copywriting is a fundamental skill for social media marketing (and probably all areas of marketing). Writing good copy is required in many areas of a social media manager’s role, from filling up your social media profile description to crafting tweets and Facebook posts.
To drive engagement and clicks, you have to fit a captivating story into your social media post and without great copywriting skills that can be difficult.
To enhance your copywriting skills, I’d highly recommend studying a few copywriting formulas to help you craft inspiring copy. Finding a copywriting formula (or two) that works for you can be a great productivity boost and also improve the quality of the social media content you publish.
One of our favorite copywriting techniques here at Buffer is the ‘Before – After – Bridge’ – you may recognize it from a few of our blog posts and social posts. Here’s how it works:
Before – After – Bridge
Before – Here’s your world …
After – Imagine what it’d be like, having Problem A solved …
Research has found that social media posts with images receive moreengagement and 43 percent of consumers want to see more videos content in the future.
Social media evolved a great deal over recent years, and we have moved away from mostly plain text based updates towards visual content such as images and videos. Designing and creating visual content is becoming an essential skill for social media managers.
3. Public speaking (confidence in front of an audience)
With features and apps like Facebook Live, Instagram Live and Periscope, live videos are becoming more and more important on social platforms. And marketers have noted this change, with 42 percent of marketers saying they want to create more live videos.
Why are marketers excited about live video? I believe the answer is two-fold: reach and engagement. Facebook Live videos are more likely to appear higher in the News Feed when those videos are live than after they are no longer live. From an engagement perspective, live content also provides opportunity for high-engagement and 1:1 interactions with audiences.
To tap into the live video trend, social media managers have to be confident enough to go live on social media to connect with their audience. Having public speaking skills will help you to present your ideas, interview guests, answer impromptu questions and chat with your followers in real-time.
If you want to see our awesome social media manager, Brian Peters, in action, you can find his live videos here. And below is a short clip of Brian discussing viral content:
As the face of your company on social media and the person who is likely to be responding to at least some of the messages your brand receives on platforms like Twitter and Facebook, it’s important for social media managers to have conversational skills and empathy to help you customers on social media.
Community engagement is quite similar in many ways. A great social media community manager is able to ask the right questions to facilitate engagement and answer questions about the product, company or industry.
With data and analytics, you know what type of social media posts do well. Behavioral psychology tells you the why – for example, why are people attracted to certain posts? Why do people share certain posts?
Knowing the what allows you to spot trends and try to repeat past successes; knowing the why enables you to understand the underlying causes for those trends in order to try and create future successes.
For example, your data might tell you that your tweets with images are doing better than tweets with only text. Based on just that information, you might create more tweets with images. However, it could be that your followers prefer visual content. Without knowing the psychology behind trends, you might miss out on opportunities to create other types of visual content such as videos and GIFs.
You certainly don’t need a degree or high level of expertise in psychology to be a social media manager, but a keenness to learn and understand psychology at some level is an important skill.
The term, ‘Analytics,’ is used quite broadly here, referring to both social media metrics (e.g. likes, comments, shares etc.) and business metrics (e.g. traffic, leads, conversions, revenue etc.). A great social media manager is able to understand both types of metrics and tie them together to give an overall view of the company’s social media performance against business goals.
A social media manager should be the guiding light in your business when it comes to measuring your performance across various social channels. As such, learning the ins and outs of social media metrics and judging which ones are meaningful for your business is essential for a social media manager.
For example, if your goal is to drive traffic from social media channels to your website and drive sales, being able to attribute traffic and conversions back to channels and even certain posts will help your team to understand what content is helping you to achieve your goals.
Knowing how to read and interpret data is now an important skill for social media managers.
3 personality traits great social media managers exhibit
8. Curiosity
A curious social media manager would immerse herself in the social media world, staying up-to-date with the latest development and experimenting with new social media marketing strategies.
Adaptability complements curiosity. When you discover something new or spot a trend, being able to quickly adapt to it can keep you ahead of the curve.
For example, the most engaging type of social media content has shifted from texts to images to videos. In a Fast Company article, Mark Zuckerberg was reported to have said:
A great social media manager is able to keep up with such changes and pick up the necessary skills (e.g. graphic design, video making etc.). (Imagine when virtual reality becomes the most popular type of content!)
Being able to generate likes and shares is great; knowing how social media fits in with the entire business strategy is even better! A business-savvy social media manager sees the bigger picture and understands the role of social media in the company.
They understand which metrics are most relevant and crucial to the business and how social media can help to push them higher. For example, a B2B social media manager might focus on generating leads for her sales team while a B2C social media manager might focus on increasing customer purchases directly. This way, her impact goes beyond just social media but to the entire company.
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