Who is an SMM manager? The secret of SMM promotion on Instagram

Do you love hanging out on social networks and communicating with people there? I can congratulate you, you are one step away from becoming an SMM manager! Joke. In fact, an SMM specialist (as he is also called) needs to be able to do a lot. In this article I will tell you what an SMM manager is.

The most important thing to start with: SMM is Social Media Marketing. Social media (network) marketing. Today SMM specialists are divided into subprofessions, I will talk about this in more detail in the article itself.

In this material I will tell you how people get into the profession of SMM manager, what kind of profession it is, and what pitfalls there are.

SMM manager - what is it and where did this profession come from?

Today's SMM originated from “big” marketing: when social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Twitter became popular, well-known companies and brands came there. They always come to where they are going the target audience(people to whom you can sell a product or service).

And since there is a target audience on social networks, there must be those who interact with it. A specially trained manager who can speak to social networks in their language. This is how the profession of social media manager appeared: a multi-armed multi-legged man who is able to create, analyze, and communicate with people and build a long-term strategy.

The more an SMM specialist can do, the better for him. A big agency will tear away a cool professional, or a company will simply hire him to become its representative on social networks. But in practice, an SMM manager needs to be able to do so many things that it’s almost never combined in one person.

Skill 1: Social Media Promotion

Where any audience attraction begins: advertising. In social networks it is divided into three global types:

Official advertising based on the platform itself
Unofficial advertising in other people's accounts, public pages, channels
Self-promotion through various kinds of likes, comments, and private messages.

The first two methods are paid, the second is conditionally free. Not everyone can do promotion; they are specially trained to do this. They study the specific target audience of the brand, model an “avatar”, that is, the audience’s pains, needs, and prosperity. And then they test a bunch of different hypotheses on how exactly to interact with them. Attract with video or photo advertising? What language to speak? How to get a person to click on an ad? What will hook him?

This is a separate large branch of marketing, it is called targeting, from the word target - goal. I will not dwell on it in detail now, I will only say that targetologists are in great demand today and are taught in many places. But one targetologist, in isolation from the other so-called generation chain. leads - not effective. If you simply bring clients to subscribe to the group and do nothing else with them, then there will be no effect from your promotion - the business needs clients, not subscribers.

I write in detail about targeting in the article “ Who is a targetologist and what are his tasks?”

There are a lot of social networks, and your eyes are filled with opportunities for promotion!

Skill 2: Analytics

Another responsibility of a multifaceted specialist is to analyze WHO came to him. Study the portrait of your audience. Is it predominantly men, women or about equally? Do they have the same needs, or do they want different things from you? What objections do they most often come to you with? What cities do they live in? They have children? What is their average income? Do they make a single purchase from you, or return frequently? How many regular customers are there compared to new ones?

An SMM manager should be able to ask himself, answer all these and 1001 other questions, and then present them in the form of a report to his employer. Firstly, this way you show that you are not just sitting still, posting pictures about cats in public, but studying the market, doing what you are paid for. Secondly, by receiving such invaluable data, your customer can adjust his own market behavior strategy. Simply put, having learned that tourists are buying your backpacks, he can order an advertising campaign aimed specifically at those who are going on vacation.

Naturally, you also need to analyze the reaction to your posts on social networks. Which of them get more likes, reposts, and comments? Why? What time? This is necessary to understand what people respond best to in order to further build a content plan.

That is, filling the group with content that will further increase engagement (likes, reposts, comments). After all, the greater the involvement, the better the entire group reacts, the more new clients come, the greater the company’s profit.

Skill 3: Content Creation

An SMM manager must be a good copywriter. Be able to write briefly, concisely, interestingly. Do you know that in long text Does VKontakte automatically cut off the first paragraph, most often? leaving only 5 sentences above the “More details” tag? And you, as a group administrator, only have 5 lines to interest the reader before he scrolls through your post.

Content is critical, but it should not be too loud, offensive, or out of line. It should be written in a language understandable to the reader, but immediately convey the essence for which the text was written. Remember that VK is not a lecture hall, not a philosophical treatise, but a place of entertainment and communication. And if you have something to say, then say it right away. Without long introductions, introductory speeches, which make you bored.

The above applies not only to VK, but also to Instagram and Facebook. On social networks, people respond well even to advertising posts if they are written in an unconventional way. Non-advertising content should be written as captivatingly as possible, so that the person feels that you are addressing him personally and giving him something truly interesting. Useful, necessary. And never publish several identical posts at a time, otherwise you will simply be hidden from the feed. And you will lose contact with your subscriber.

When they talk about a four-armed, multi-legged SMM guy, it’s only partly a joke...

Skill 4: Design

You might think that design should be done by designers, not SMM specialists. But the fact is that in public spaces, design plays not only the role of decoration. This is also an element of communication with subscribers.

For example, in the community header, any marketing guru will always tell you to place the name and a short, succinct description of what the group is about. So that a beginner can immediately understand what is interesting here. You also need to check what the header looks like on the screen mobile phone, because the version of VK for smartphones simply cuts off the edges of the horizontal cover. All these nuances may be unknown to “mere mortals,” but the SMM specialist should know about them.

Just a couple of years ago, personal WIKI menu design was very popular in public pages. It was essentially a mini-page with buttons that, when clicked, opened various pages. But now VK has changed, wiki markup is a thing of the past, but everyone is writing articles. Such as you are reading now. Only you are on my website, and there articles open directly without leaving VKontakte. But design is still used there - everyone always needs pictures for articles.

WIKI markup is becoming less and less common in 2020, but this does not mean that it has lost its importance.

Design on social networks has been and will be needed. And if you can make at least a simple hat for subscription page in Senler (service for sending messages), this will be a big plus for you in your work. By the way, a simple hat with beautiful fonts can be made even without Photoshop, for example in free service Canva.com.

Skill 5: Communication

One of the main responsibilities of an SMM manager is to build communication. Do you remember how I started my article as a joke? But this is the honest truth. The SMM specialist communicates a lot with clients, because this is how you can win them over. And he also has to work out the so-called. negativity, covering pain and objections. And if he does it poorly, then the opinion of the WHOLE COMPANY may suffer.

Want an example? Three years ago I walked up to a KFC counter in a town near Moscow and asked for a Wedgie Twister. Since I am a vegetarian, this dish was the only thing I could order in this establishment. In response, they told me that the Wedgie Twister had been taken off the menu. In fact, I was left without breakfast that day. Seething with anger, I climbed into the official KFC public page on VK, wrote them a message in which I said exactly that - “you left me without breakfast.” About half an hour later they answered me: “Try eating a potato cutlet for breakfast.”

Is this a bad answer? Yes, it’s terrible, because in fact, they didn’t even sympathize with me, didn’t explain why they removed my favorite product from the menu, and didn’t take any part in my situation. They just offered to replace one product with another, although this product was in their portions - the cat cried. In a word, this was a bad example of SMM management.

What should a good person be like? The SMM specialist must understand that for the client he is the face of the brand. Just like any other salesperson, he is also responsible for the perception of the entire company. And I had a positive experience communicating with such people.

Want an example? No problem. I want to buy myself new headphones, I find them through a search in several stores. In one of them I see a price that suits me, but I want to clarify the availability of headphones and delivery conditions. I don't want to spend money on a phone call (or I'm an introvert and only communicate via text). Therefore, I scroll down the page to the contacts block and find a link to the public page of the VKontakte store. And there I see the “Write a message” button. I press it, and after a couple of minutes the manager answers me and tells me: the headphones are not in one store, but they are in another. And how to get there.

Skill 6: Strategy Development

To tell the truth, there are very few strategists on the market today who understand how to develop brands and services of companies on social networks. If only because social networks themselves are constantly changing, growing, and introducing something new.

One may ask: how can an SMM specialist develop some kind of strategy if this is the job of the manager? Yes it's true. But social networks are only one channel through which a product can be sold. A company may have advertising on radio, television, search engines and a public page on a social network. So, the public needs its own strategy, different from all the others.

The point is that on Instagram, VK, and Facebook, people want people to communicate with them. After all, this is a social network, it was created for the sake of communication. You can’t just constantly post advertising posts in the hope of an unrelenting flow of applications. People need to be entertained, we need to come up with competitions and activities for them. And if some kind of negative reaction suddenly arises, you need to immediately come and respond to it.

A simple example: once on VK someone wrote in their hearts that “this Tinkoff is not even a real bank.” In response, a few minutes later in the same comment thread, a response appeared from the confirmed Tinkoff account: “Why are we not a real bank?!”

You can’t deny the brightness of Tinkoff Bank’s promotion!

Please note, this is not an emotional reaction, but a thoughtful move. Firstly, Tinkoff Bank has special person, monitoring brand mentions on social networks. Secondly, the same or another person comes to any such mention and responds. That is, today no one reads how he was beaten somewhere on VK yesterday. And he comes right away and defends his point of view. Therefore, a strategy of HOW to do this is vital for social networks.

Another example: the Russian Post, dearly “beloved” by all of us, also began to explore the vast expanses of the Bolshoi Theater. And reacts to mentions on social networks. This is what the reaction to a photograph of the collapsing facade of a building that was freshly renovated a year ago looks like:

It’s a pity that the Post Office’s repair technology is not yet at the same level as the technology for searching for mentions of yourself on social networks...

Several technical aspects

When a community is run by a specially hired SMM specialist (administrator), it is very important that its subscribers do not feel abandoned. That’s why a good manager always responds to comments, especially with questions about the product/service.

To monitor new comments on VKontakte, you can use the VK Admin program, it is available for both iOS and Android, and is free. Allows you to immediately receive notifications about personal messages to the group, comments, and any other activities. The faster you respond, the higher the chance that a potential client will bring real money to your employer.

Another very important feature that almost no one ever thinks about: people who joined the public and people who liked a specific post. I may have already written something on this topic above, but I’ll repeat it. The point is that if you see fresh interest in your topic and you have a task - to bring as many new clients as possible, then as an SMM manager you are obliged to use every opportunity for this.

A cool SMM manager can even use likes for promotion! Laek... Laik...

This way, a simple like will turn into the first very serious contact with a potential client. Almost no one does this, because the work seems very dreary and time-consuming. But, listen, you are an SMM specialist. Your whole job will be communicating with people, won't it?

It’s exactly the same story with newcomers. Remember what I said about analytics? It makes sense to study which post people engage with the most (for example, if it was reposted a lot). It also makes sense to greet each person who joins in private messages, ask what interests you, offer your product, and listen to the person. Just through ordinary communication you can bring dozens of clients to your business every month. From social networks alone.

Do you really need to work so hard?

A fair question: do you really need to know so much and work SO hard to work as an SMM specialist? Well, the question here is what exactly does your employer need. The tasks can be very different.

Behind the beautiful logos and shiny pictures lie mountains of work...

I had a friend who was hired for 10 thousand rubles a month to fill a public page dedicated to Moscow events. Concerts, festivals. The essence of her work boiled down to the fact that she copied photographs and texts from other similar sites, inserted them into posts with delayed publication in advance and... that’s all.

The entire work was only 4 hours a week, and for this they paid 10 thousand rubles a month. In fact, this was not the work of an SMM specialist, but of a content manager. If you get 4 such customers, then you can earn 40 thousand a month, working, well, if a couple of days a week. What I described is mechanical work that does not require skills; it can hardly even be called a full-fledged SMM.

Choose a customer that is within your capabilities, so as not to overstrain yourself out of habit. When you get the hang of it, find another one, and this way you can increase your earnings in SMM!

Another friend of mine once worked as an SMM specialist in a very cool project dedicated to online education. I didn't ask how much he was paid, but he was able to afford several trips to Europe without putting too much of a strain on the family budget. He was a full-fledged SMM manager: he monitored everything that was happening in the group, welcomed newcomers, responded to all comments and to every personal message. Analyzed the group's statistics and promoted the brand on the social network. Gave discounts. Entertained, captivated and sold.

In such a position, he had to give his all in order to maintain the image of a large educational project with which people developed a trusting relationship. And he was a very important and useful employee for the company. He was even called SMM-Jedi, hinting at the presence of superpowers. =)

And I myself once tried to work as an SMM manager for an international company that organized weddings in the Czech Republic. A month later, I realized that this story was not about me and left there. But in the process of communicating with the director and designer, we created a logo based on my idea, which they still use. And yes, I didn’t earn as much as I wanted, but I still didn’t leave without any money :)

What qualities does an SMM manager need?

1 Quality. Sociability. Of course, to work as a cool SMM specialist you need to be sociable. Love people and adore contacting them. Write to them, ask if they like everything, solve the problems they have. So, if you hate communicating with people, then you definitely shouldn’t do social media marketing, but it’s better to take up some other specialty that is not related to communication.

2 quality. Responsibility. By the way a manager communicates in public, by the commitment with which he approaches his responsibilities, the company as a whole will be judged. I already told you: the SMM specialist is one of the faces of the company. And by the way, that’s why you will be required to be able to write competently and clearly. No swearing, slang, personalization or value judgments. It seems simple, but not everyone can do it well.

The main point of any communication between an SMM specialist and a client is not to chat, but to make the client more loyal to the brand and company. And the best thing is to “close” for some kind of sale. After all, the SMM specialist is paid precisely for the final result: bringing new clients to the company and maintaining contacts with old ones.

3 quality. Seriousness. There are a lot of distractions on social networks. They are created for relaxation; people come to their favorite social networks to communicate and have fun. But the SMM specialist works here. In this he is a bit like a host of events: weddings or birthdays. Where all the guests are having fun, the host works very seriously for several hours in a row. The same is with the SMM manager, his task is to make sure that community users feel good, interesting, so that they remember the brand as something they like. And then they came to the store and bought some product from this company.

4 quality. Stress resistance. People always have complaints with which they come to the company’s official public page. And they write without mincing words. An SMM manager must be able to enter into the situation of the person with whom he is communicating. Because even simple sympathy on his part can remove a whole bunch of objections from the client. Saying “I understand you, this is a disgrace” is not at all difficult. And now you are already acting in concert with the client who wrote to you, and he no longer wants to kill you so much. Great, right? =)

The profession of SMM manager is confidently gaining popularity among progressive Russian (and not only) youth. And this is not surprising: active computerization of commercial activities requires the participation of specialists in promoting online sites, manufactured or sold goods, and services provided. This is precisely what SMM managers are required for – specialists in working with content and social networks.

Smm manager: responsibilities

Why do you think some posts receive tens or even thousands of likes, while others go unnoticed? It’s simple: the post was made effective by a professional SMM manager who knows how to create “catchy” texts, use “explosive” topics and create “bright” titles. Such work must be posted so that a potential employer can see it.

He is well versed in the environment of social networks, understands their functionality, marketing, psychology, copywriting, SEO. He knows how to work with a special, unique, narrow-profile audience, and easily determines the preferences of the target group. Often SMM specialists are familiar with the work graphic editors, understand layout and programming. Another important plus is excellent knowledge of Russian or another working language.

Promoting websites on social networks is an extremely dynamic process that requires an active lifestyle, constant development, the ability to process enormous amounts of information, and adherence to strict deadlines. In addition, the specialist must be able to use analytics sites, track user behavior and interesting this moment Topics.

Job responsibilities of an SMM manager

Development of a website/product/service promotion strategy. The manager, independently or with the help of in-house marketers, determines the target audience, its needs, interests, monitors behavior, placement and location on the network. The SMM specialist also develops a loyalty system for target visitors of the Internet resource and improves the usability of the site.
Development of an online advertising company. The employee prepares a plan for advertising online, determines its budget, directions, and monitors changes in conversion.
Monitoring the company's online reputation. The specialist monitors public opinion about the quality of the company’s services/products, directs user opinions “in the right direction,” works with problem clients, complaints, objections, and removes negative reviews or “hot” comments from the site that could harm the company’s reputation.
Creating and posting quality content. As a rule, employers often require experience in writing articles, posts, creating and editing pictures, and video editing skills from an SMM manager.
Posting information about the company on social networks. This is one of the main responsibilities of an SMM specialist.
Analysis of competitor activity. The employee monitors the activity of competing companies on the Internet, analyzes their work methods and adopts the most effective ones.

An SMM manager can work both remotely and in the office on a 5/2 schedule. (Read the link for why one of the most promising forms of labor.)

A lazy, measured person who types phrases on the keyboard with one finger will clearly not like this profession.

That is why recruiting managers pay attention to the following qualities of candidates for this position:

analytic skills;
strategic planning skills;
experience of successful forecasting;
communication skills;
broad-minded, quick learner;
stress resistance;
sense of humor.

How much does an SMM specialist earn? In different ways, depending on the regions. For example, in Moscow he can earn 30-80 thousand, a professional with 5 years of experience can find a job for 100-120 thousand rubles. In addition, SMM managers often create personal communities, successfully promote them on social networks and make good money from advertising.

You can learn important skills in this profession from this video:

Welcome to the InetSovety.ru blog. From this article you will learn who an SMM manager is, what he does and how to master this Internet profession. We all use the Internet for our own purposes, but we cannot influence the system in any way. One of the most popular places where all participants gather virtual reality, are social networks. Ordinary users use all their capabilities, including purchasing all kinds of goods.

However, no one thinks about where these opportunities come from, that is, who gives them. And an SMM specialist does this. Who is he, what does he do, what is he needed for? Let's look at these questions one by one.

The concept of an SMM specialist and the tasks he solves

Who is an SMM manager and what does he do? First, let's understand the very concept of SMM.

The decoding of SMM sounds like Social Media Marketing, or social media marketing. This is an integral part of promoting the interests of companies via the Internet, or more precisely through social networks (personal pages, groups). All these activities are carried out by the SMM specialist.

It is worth noting right away that the services of such a specialist are by no means cheap, so if you are just starting to run your business, you will need to prepare for the upcoming financial expenses. However, believe that thanks to the services of such an employee, you will be able to get much more than you spend at the beginning.

So, who is this SMM specialist? Let's figure it out.

Features of the profession

An SMM manager is a person who promotes a business. However, this is very painstaking work, so if at first glance it seems to you that working on social networks or blogs is easy, then it is not. In fact, an SMM specialist must also solve many other tasks, namely:

study the needs, interests, tastes of the audience, on the basis of which a strategy for further development of the project is built;
respond to user requests, study comments, and then respond to them;
conduct various events to attract new customers - competitions, quizzes;
develop interesting internet applications for social networks;
create channels on various video hosting sites;
SMM manager is responsible for advertising campaigns aimed at promoting business on the Internet;
maintain all accounts or communities associated with the company, as well as moderate them;
work with freelancers;
optimize content for the needs of a blog or community on a social network.

But that’s not all that an SMM manager does. Moreover, these points are not his responsibilities. These are only the tasks that such a specialist faces. In addition to them, he is engaged in:

community management;
working with interfaces of websites, groups on social networks, etc.;
creating a start page and additional tabs on the pages of the project he is leading;
monitoring and analyzing the functioning of all implemented systems;
identifying leaders among the target audience and ensuring close interaction with them;
creating and maintaining corporate accounts on social networks or blogs;
carrying out advertising and marketing moves, but in a veiled form.

That is, if we look at the question of who an SMM manager is from a different angle, then we can absolutely say that he is a universal specialist who combines the following skills:

marketer;
advertiser;
moderator;
administrator;
official representative of the company.

Now you know who an SMM specialist is and what problems he solves. However, this is not all, since, in addition to solving these problems, such an employee also has a number of responsibilities. Let's look at them.

Professional responsibilities of an SMM specialist

The responsibilities of an SMM manager are quite extensive, so he must be a responsible, self-confident person who can make the right decisions and recognize beneficial partners in people.

forms and promotes SMM products;
deals with pricing;
conducts advertising campaigns on social networks;
finds new clients while continuing to maintain partnerships with current ones;
analyzes the activities of competing companies;
studies new trends in a particular area of business and implements them into his project;
creates comments with which you can maintain a good image of the company;
manages various projects.

That's all the responsibilities of an SMM manager. At first glance, it may seem that this is all very difficult, and indeed: if you decide to connect your life with promotion on social networks, then be prepared for the fact that at first you will have to overcome some difficulties. However, you will soon get used to it, and it will be much easier and more interesting for you to perform the functions of an SMM specialist.

Advantages and disadvantages of the CMM profession

SMM manager is a very difficult profession, which, in addition to a lot of advantages, also has its negative sides. But first, let's look at the main advantages of this position.

There is great demand for SMM services due to the rapid development of marketing in social networks.
More trusting and respectful attitude of the user. Unlike an advertising worker, to whom people quite often express outright antipathy, this employee is shown much more trust. The SMM manager of social networks has nothing to do with direct advertising, but does all this hidden, carefully and competently, and most importantly, unobtrusively.
Wide range of users to create a target audience.
The cost of advertising is relatively low.
Opportunity to look for new clients.

There is only one downside to this profession, but it adds a significant fly in the ointment. Due to the fact that an SMM specialist is, roughly speaking, a free person (that is, he is often a freelancer), potential employers, unfortunately, cannot always imagine the scope of work he performs. Accordingly, they may underestimate its importance in the world of business on social networks, which will negatively affect the salary of such an employee. Otherwise, this profession is one big plus.

Requirements for an SMM manager

Understanding and knowing who an SMM specialist is and what he does is not enough to decide whether you are ready for all the difficulties associated with this profession. In addition, you should be aware of what knowledge and skills such employee has. Without this, you will not be able to work in this position.

As for personal qualities, a social media manager must have:

communication skills, that is, to be sociable and have a large vocabulary;
creativity, that is, to have great creative potential;
desire to reach new heights;
thirst for self-improvement;
the ability to conduct a thorough analysis of the information received;
the ability to think systematically, logically and consistently;
such a character trait as self-organization;
the ability to navigate yourself and guide others to achieve positive results from joint activities;
independence;
the ability to quickly and efficiently solve assigned problems;
the ability to express your thoughts creatively and clearly, and at the same time convey them to other users;
a good sense of humor (this quality will definitely come in handy when creating an advertising campaign).

In principle, these are all the requirements for such an employee as a social media manager. If you are confident that you can cope with all the tasks assigned, and you have all the above qualities and skills, then the path up the career ladder will not be difficult for you to overcome.

How and where can you learn a profession?

How to become an SMM specialist? First of all, you must master:

basics of creation and promotion contextual advertising Google Adwords and Yandex Direct;
the essence of working with Internet statistics and web analytics;
Internet communications skills;
basic rules for working on social networks;
CEO rules;
basics and ;
web technologies.

Training to become an SMM manager can be completed at many universities and institutes in Russia. Of course, most of them are located in Moscow, and the most popular educational institutions are:

National Research University " graduate School economy."
Russian State University of Oil and Gas named after Gubkin.
MGUMO MFA of Russia.
MSTU named after Bauman (the so-called “Baumanka”), etc.

It’s worth noting right away that these educational institutions do not teach how to become an SMM specialist. However, they will be able to give you all the necessary knowledge in the field of marketing and the exact sciences, which you will then be able to successfully use in order to start working in social networks as a social media manager.

You can get the necessary skills to promote your business on social networks by signing up for online training at the University of Internet Professions Netology .

Career advancement

You must remember that at first, SMM for beginners can sometimes be very difficult. You will have to go through many steps that will gradually lead you up the career ladder to the coveted position. But first you'll have to do some work:

moderator in a group on social networks;
running your own blog on the Internet;
SEO optimizer;
freelancer, copywriter, web designer;
advertiser or PR person.

Of course, to become a social media manager, it is not at all necessary to apply for each position (or study at the institute) separately. Nothing prevents you from working in one of these areas while simultaneously studying another. Thus, you will save time and money, because you will know exactly what qualities and skills a specialist such as an SMM manager combines.

Today, Instagram is breaking all records for popularity among all social networks. More than 90 million active users from various walks of life create all the prerequisites for successful business. But in order to make money on Insta, you need to competently present and convey information about your product, product, service or brand to a potential client. From this publication you will learn what it is SMM promotion Instagram, get acquainted with its main stages, learn about methods of paid and free promotion your profile in this social program.

Defining the concepts

First, let’s figure out what SMM promotion is. SMM is an abbreviation for Social Media Marketing. Translated into more understandable language, SMM means social media marketing. The main (and only) task of this mechanism is to attract the interest of social program participants to an account, resource, product or service.

The stages of SMM promotion on Instagram are as follows:

Determining the target audience (TA), studying its interests, exposure to marketing influence.
Creation of interesting, useful and viral content, as well as a schedule for its publication.
Carrying out a set of measures to increase the size and involvement of the audience.
Creating a positive image of a seller, supplier of goods or services, brand, etc.
Analysis of promotion results based on statistical data.

It should be understood that only the main stages of promotion on Insta are described. The list of events may vary depending on the company’s objectives and its interests on the social platform.

Why is it so important to identify your target audience?

Determining the target audience is the most important preparatory stage before starting to promote the company on Insta, as well as any other social network. Why is this necessary? Everything is simple here: any business is focused on a specific group of people (TA), whose representatives are potential consumers of the product or service. The success of business development depends on their interest in your offer.

The more you know about your target audience, the better you can tailor your offer to their interests, requirements and needs, which will ultimately give you a significant advantage over your competitors, namely:

the ability to personalize an offer based on gender, age, and interests of the target audience;
increasing consumer loyalty;
creating a positive image and improving reputation;
significant budget savings on creating advertising campaigns.

In other words: understanding the characteristics of your target audience will allow you to plan your work to promote your company (account) in such a way as to use only the most effective SMM promotion methods.

Competently designing your profile before starting promotion

SMM promotion on Instagram begins with the correct profile design (see article “ “). Your profile is the first thing that greets a person who visits your Insta page. After reading the information specified in your profile, the user can become your follower or leave your account forever without even reading the content.

In addition, the information in your profile helps people find you in searches, and therefore (purely theoretically) affects the attraction of subscribers. Also, the profile provides the only place where you can insert an active link to a third-party resource, be it your company’s website, a product catalog, an account in another social program, or a sales (landing) page on the Internet.

When creating a profile, follow a few simple rules:

Come up with a nickname. It should reflect the essence of your activity, but at the same time be simple and memorable.
Fill in the “Profile Name” field. Please note that this information indexed by Insta search. To make it easier for a potential client (customer, subscriber) to find you, create a profile name in the form of a high-frequency query. For example: “Sale of wedding bouquets in ....”; “Nail extensions in...” etc.
In 150 characters, try to include the main type of activity, information about what a person can get by subscribing to your page, free (alternative) methods of communication, for example, WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, Skype, insert a link to a third-party resource if you have one Yes (if not, then do it).

To attract attention to your profile, use unusual fonts, centered text alignment and other tricks of experienced SMM specialists.

Content comes first

Whatever you say in your profile description, “the content will speak for you.” If the photos are unique, interesting and high-quality, and the description under them is carefully crafted, then the subscriber will “follow” your page. A mandatory element of SMM promotion on Instagram is a competent description of each post using hashtags.

Ideally, a combination of 5% high-frequency, 40% mid-frequency, 35% low-frequency and 20% highly specialized hashtags will be used under each post. Please note that the description should not consist of tags alone. Convey in a nutshell what you wanted to say with this photo and be sure to add a call to action.

Ways to promote for free on Instagram

The next stage of Instagram SMM promotion after you start publishing content is attracting followers to your account.

To attract new subscribers, use the following tips:

Come up with and use several highly specialized (unique) hashtags that reflect the essence of your activity. Use them in post descriptions. This way you can attract your target audience and new followers.
Comment on the content of other users, preferably from the list of successful accounts of your competitors. If you comment, they will comment on you, this is an axiom.
Use the mass following method. Typically, about 30% of the people you follow will follow you back (see “ “).
Please "like" it. People whose content is liked often reciprocate, which increases activity on your page, and hence your ranking in the Instagram popularity rankings.
Place geolocation tags on published photos. This will help attract your “countrymen” to the page, which is very good for business, especially if it is tied to a specific area.

Another effective way of SMM promotion on Instagram is mutual PR or exchange of advertising posts with account owners on related topics.

Ordering advertising as one of the ways to promote

Not free, but very effective way Promoting a business on Instagram involves creating an advertising campaign.

Targeted. This option is available to all business account owners, so if you have not yet switched to a business profile, then go and promote your products or services through official advertising in the application or through the Facebook advertising account.
Advertising in well-promoted public pages. This type of advertising campaign creation is the most budget-friendly.
PR in the accounts of TOP bloggers. The cost depends on the popularity of the “star” and her “appetites”.

Paid services for account promotion

All of the above activities to promote your Instagram account can be carried out independently, but this requires a lot of time. If there is none, you can entrust the promotion of the SMM page to a specialist, or automate promotion methods by using paid functionality. Next, we will briefly consider several of the most popular resources that have received maximum amount positive reviews from domestic Instagram users.

Tooligram

Zengram

– a convenient online resource that allows you to automate the main methods of SMM: mass liking, mass following, auto-commenting, etc. There is a free test period.

Conclusion

In this publication, we tried to explain in as much detail as possible what SMM promotion of Instagram is and highlight the main stages of promoting an Instagram account. As you can see, you can independently promote your business on this social platform, and all the tools for this are implemented. Let us recall only the main points: identify your target audience, pay attention to correctly filling out your profile, prepare and start publishing quality content. To attract attention to the page: order advertising and use the capabilities of integrated promotion services on Instagram. Difficult, but interesting!

An SMM manager is a specialist whose task is to attract people’s attention to the promoted brand and convert them into clients.

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The main secrets of such an expert:

Constantly learning.
Knows the secret tricks of social media.
Masterfully masters auxiliary tools in order to do his work quickly and efficiently.
He knows how to express his thoughts competently and your audience likes it.
Tracks trends.
He understands psychology.

SMM manager - who is it: functions, tasks

You composed the text - topic, title, content of the post (1 hour).
Then we looked for photos (1.5 hours - we couldn’t choose what we needed for a long time).
We selected hashtags (1 hour and only because we didn’t bother too much with it).
We came up with the design, because it’s important to hook people.
Posted your masterpiece on social media.
We were expecting an explosion of likes, comments, and reposts.

Having not received the desired reaction, you made a new publication without desire. And then another one, etc. - sometimes daily, sometimes every other day, sometimes once a week. But your subscribers didn’t increase, only you and your mom liked you, and sales from social networks began to seem like something unreal, like unicorns or eti.

You realized that you spend a lot of time on what is necessary, but you don’t like it (it doesn’t work, it doesn’t give results, and who came up with that anyway). And we decided to entrust this matter to a specialist.

What does an SMM manager do?

Firstly, it saves your time, effort and nerves. This person understands how your potential customers behave on social networks, so they know how to attract them. He learned how to do quality work. And it doesn’t matter whether he’s undergone training or been in business for years - he has more experience and knowledge than you.

He is not upset by the lack of likes in his public pages, because he knows how to stir people up, create movement and stir up communication. Involve the audience in some kind of social process.

Secondly, it creates content and conducts dialogue with your potential clients. Thanks to this, awareness of your brand and product increases, more people come to the site and enter the funnel. It also earns their trust for you.

Thirdly, he does everything professionally. Starting from writing the text to the time of publication. He is aware of any changes on your page, he understands trends, and his actions produce results. Even before the start, you should discuss your wishes, goals and methods with your SMM manager.

Fourth, he constantly analyzes his work and looks for ways to make it better. This is already a sign of a real professional who understands that his task is to bring money to the client.

For this you pay him a salary, efficiently delegating an important task, the implementation of which helps your business grow.

SMM manager: salary as the price of success

If we take an average, the salary of an SMM specialist starts from 40,000 rubles. This is according to message boards. But this figure can either decrease or increase depending on various factors:

Region.
Knowledge, experience, responsibilities of a specialist.
Work in the office or remotely.
Level of “immersion” in the customer’s business.

The greater the volume of work, the higher the salary of the SMM manager. It is also worth considering the fact that the supply on the market from such applicants is very high. This gives employers a reason to offer lower fees for services.

Therefore, it is important for a person who manages social media accounts for companies to:

Constantly improve.
Find ways to get top scores at lower costs.
Show in every possible way that in his person the employer receives more benefits than he pays for it.

Plus, when working remotely, you can take on not just one project, but several. Especially if you are a master of different tools that simplify your work.

What you need to know to become an SMM manager

At first glance, it may seem that there is nothing complicated in such work. But if you dig deeper, it turns out that the specialist is a real Universal Soldier. He should understand:

The laws of social networks, because each of them has its own specifics and must be taken into account.
Copywriting to prepare posts and engage the audience with them.
Work with image processing programs and create catchy pictures for published publications.
Psychology, to know how to behave with subscribers and what they need to give in order to push them to a certain action.
Strategic planning and business processes, because he should understand where to move and what to broadcast.
Building and increasing brand awareness based on information about the company that is being promoted.
Analytics - to see what the numbers show, to know how to evaluate their dynamics and how to adjust the promotion strategy so that the indicators change for the better.

These are the necessary skills that will allow you to efficiently perform the duties of an SMM manager. But besides this, it is also important to be a competent, erudite person with an excellent sense of humor.

How to become an SMM manager

Although this profession is in great demand, there is no educational institution where one can learn it. Therefore, there are two ways to become an SMM specialist:

Doing it yourself is free and takes a long time.
Learn from those who have already achieved success in this area.

When mastering the necessary skills, focus on the following areas:

Marketing.
Web design basics.

It is important to understand:

How people behave on the Internet.
What motivates them?
How to get their attention.
Why do they like, comment, repost, subscribe to pages.
How to interest them and send them to the customer’s website.

Create accounts and for what purposes they are intended.
Manage client pages: prepare posts, develop a promotion strategy, work with visual content, track the reaction of subscribers, read statistics.
Conduct a social media audit to prescribe a strategy for further actions and improve performance.
Run advertising on selected sites and get maximum results from it.
Use content marketing to achieve your goals.

Constantly develop yourself because social networks are a very dynamic environment. Therefore, regularly read books, posts of opinion leaders (including foreign ones), go to training courses and just be in trend. Understand how everything works here so that you can convey your vision to the client, because he relies on you as a pro.

How the work of an SMM specialist begins

When you dive into a new project as an SMM specialist, carefully study the information about the company or personality that you will be promoting. You must clearly understand:

What exactly are you offering?
What is its main feature?
What problems does it solve?

Become more popular.
Gather a group of like-minded people in one place and develop “fans” of the brand.
Attract more traffic to your website or blog.
Sell.

Now it is important to understand who your target audience is. Make a detailed portrait of the person you will target when posting on social networks:

Is it a man or a woman.
How old is he.
Where does he live.
What are you interested in?
What is his marital status?
Does he have children?
Who does he work for and how much does he earn?
What problems does he have and why does he need to solve them?

Knowing this information about potential clients, you can easily determine which social networks these people spend the most time on and are most active on. You will have to work on these sites.

Carefully study their pages and save links to them so that you can monitor them periodically.
What kind of content are they posting?
How people react to him.
What would you do differently?

Having collected this data, you will draw up a strategy for promoting the company/brand on selected platforms, you will be able to develop a content plan for the first 2 weeks and decide on the frequency and time of publication.

This is enough to get started. After about a month, analyze the results. Perhaps the statistics will show that you need to adjust your content plan because you are not attracting the right audience. Track numbers over time and learn to adapt to the reaction of potential clients. Over time, you will understand in practice how to become an SMM specialist.

Maintaining pages of companies and brands on social networks has long gone beyond publishing cute quotes and funny cats. This task has become a set of targeted actions that help attract traffic to the client’s website and “nurture” customers for it. The better you do this, the more valuable you are to customers.

Grow your knowledge, experience, and competitive advantage to become a truly in-demand social media master.