The art of social media management is a multi-faceted series of tasks that revolve around the needs, opinions and desires of dozens, hundreds and thousands of unique individuals. As such, it can be difficult at times to accommodate everyone and make them feel welcome within your social media clout. With dozens of social media platforms now in existence, many social media managers feel the need to be in multiple places at once in order to have maximum effectiveness – and they are right.

What exactly makes a great social media manager and is it something that can be learned? In many respects, social media management is about knowledge, but certain personality traits are highly important. Below, we will discuss the main personality traits that help separate those who are good at social media management from those who are social media masters.

They Are News Breakers

It is hard to believe, but more people now claim to read about daily news events via social media than through traditional news sources. This means that there is a clear demand on behalf of social media users for information and late-breaking trends. A social media manager who is effective understands the need for this – to be the first source to break the news on a particular story or trend time and time again helps build credibility with your followers and assures them that you are on top of news and events. Rather than pinging lists of information to search engines for SEO, you may wish to consider content creation as a way to quickly disseminate information via social media to your fan base.

They Are Engaging

Social media operations are designed to open lines of communication and increase awareness about products, services, causes and other events. The biggest mistake that many social media managers make is that they do not engage in proactive dialogue nearly enough – when a follower makes a statement or inquires about a certain element, they may be turned off if there is no dialogue from the page/brand/company. The most successful social media outreach efforts have grown due to managers who understand that dialogue is a two-way street; if you are not interested in what others have to say, then the sentiment is likely to be returned after a short period of time.

They Are Controversial

Nobody wants to use their social media platform to advocate for one side of a controversial or otherwise heated topic, but this does not mean that social media managers cannot use these topics to initiate discussion among followers. Many brands and news agencies on social media drum up discussion by presenting topics that are bound to have strong opinions on either side. Depending on the mission of your social media efforts, it may be difficult to find relevant subjects that are controversial. For most, however, controversial subjects are low-hanging fruit and can be used sparingly to drive discussion to new heights when a lull in activity is experienced.

Conclusion

Social media management is not just about pinging lists of information to followers: it is about engaging in dialogues, providing valuable news and insight, and stirring up discussion via hot topics. Those with personality traits similar to these aspects will find themselves excelling in the world of social media.