Social Media Expertise for Managers and Entrepreneurs

Social media expertise have advanced dramatically since AI has come into the image. To maintain tempo with these modifications, social media managers should develop specialised expertise that complement AI-driven developments in content material technique, analytics and viewers engagement. Advertising leaders additionally want social media advertising expertise to assist social groups do their finest work.

On this article, we’ll discover how AI has reshaped the function of social media managers. Plus, we’ll listing the social media expertise social media managers and advertising leaders should grasp to remain aggressive.

How have social media supervisor expertise advanced?

be a very good social media supervisor has modified. A number of years in the past, social media managers had been responding to social community fragmentation and dynamic modifications in SEO (search engine marketing). As we speak, they’re optimizing content material creation, managing on-line communities and offering extra customized buyer care—whereas discovering new methods to make use of AI.

Based on The 2025 Sprout Social Index™, an important useful expertise for social media managers are social listening, knowledge storytelling and inventive course. Essentially the most priceless smooth expertise embody undertaking administration, model voice growth and strategic partnership constructing.

AI helps scale these expertise, nevertheless it doesn’t change them, particularly as a result of social practitioners want a lot of them to supply unique content material.

How social media supervisor expertise have modified since AI emerged

Talent specialization is the most important total change AI has introduced on. A 2024 evaluation of fifty social media job descriptions discovered that social media job tasks have gotten extra refined and data-driven.

Based on Sprout’s Q1 2025 Pulse Survey, listed here are the highest three specialised roles entrepreneurs want to add to their crew.

1. Social media analyst OR social media inventive director
2. Influencer advertising lead
3. Social media operations/undertaking supervisor

AI is altering the sport, however social media managers are nonetheless calling the pictures. By leveraging AI-powered instruments for duties like scheduling and writing alt textual content, they’re streamlining workflows and liberating up time for high-level technique and creativity. With AI as their assistant, social practitioners can deal with what they do finest: creating participating content material that drives outcomes.

Sprout’s built-in AI performance helps with the whole lot from sentiment evaluation to predictive analytics, multi functional platform, empowering social media groups to anticipate traits and optimize their methods in real-time.

If you wish to sharpen your expertise for 2025 and past, watch the video beneath. We function our high 5 expertise for the subsequent few years, together with AI and knowledge storytelling.

Stage up your social media expertise with the proper social instruments

As you grasp the abilities on this article, begin leveraging a social media administration device to additional your social success.

Check out Sprout social with a free trial, or schedule a demo to study extra.

11 social media supervisor expertise to additional your profession

If you wish to turn into a social media supervisor or develop your profession as one, these are the important thing expertise you must advance your profession. As an alternative of contemplating AI a talent, take into account it a device that can assist you perform the abilities beneath extra effectively and successfully. Listed below are 11 important expertise each social media supervisor must thrive.

1. Communication

Robust communication expertise are important for advancing your social media profession. From writing a quick to presenting marketing campaign insights, social media managers should successfully talk concepts to a variety of stakeholders.

Communication expertise are much more indispensable when you think about the breadth of inner and exterior audiences social media managers collaborate with often, from groups as various because the authorized and inventive departments to followers and even social platform companions.

There are two essential issues to bear in mind in the case of communication:

• When speaking internally, articulate your concepts and plans to decision-makers and cross-functional companions. This could possibly be about your content material distribution plan or the income affect you count on from a marketing campaign.
• You additionally want to speak persistently with exterior stakeholders, comparable to creators or influencers. Clearly outline expectations, marketing campaign targets and the way you’ll collaborate with them.
• Communication additionally applies to the way you have interaction within the feedback. Sprout’s Improve by AI Help supplies 4 completely different tones for buyer care, serving to you write considerate and on-brand replies sooner.

Sources to construct your communication expertise

• Presentation template: Use this social media technique deck template to successfully talk your social technique to the management crew.
• TED Talks on communication: Hear from a number of the world’s most inspiring audio system on bettering your social conversations, digital communications and storytelling talents.

2. Writing

Social media managers should be wonderful copywriters who embody and improve their model’s voice on social. From witty, attention-grabbing advert copy to well timed commentary, you must know write concise copy that speaks to your viewers.

The excellent news is that AI may help you draft submit captions sooner. Sprout’s AI Help gives copywriting help straight throughout the Compose Window, producing captions in your model’s voice primarily based in your model’s top-performing posts or a customized matter. Price noting: Even in case you use AI instruments to generate content material, you continue to want enhancing expertise to evaluate and alter the copy to make sure it aligns along with your expectations and model voice.

Efficient writers know tailor their writing for various audiences and platforms. For instance, whereas you should utilize as much as 2,200 characters in your Instagram captions, knowledge has proven that the most participating size is between 1-50 characters.

Sources to assist with writing

• Grammarly: This free device checks your grammar and proofreads your content material whereas providing you with prompts to make your copy extra compelling.
• Hemingway Editor: Use this web site and app to make your writing extra concise and readable. Whereas it’s geared extra towards long-form writing, you may as well use it to create impactful social media posts.
• Meta Blueprint: Meta gives free programs that educate you finest practices for writing participating posts, advert copy and captions for Instagram and Fb.

3. Inventive course

In an oversaturated social panorama, differentiation typically comes right down to inventive course. A powerful inventive technique stops you from chasing any pattern and ensures your content material is participating and audience-centric whereas nonetheless aligning nicely along with your model.

It takes inventive course to:

• Plan and produce revolutionary social media concepts
• Form a constant, platform-specific aesthetic that resonates along with your viewers
• Lead productive brainstorms that deliver out teammates’ finest concepts
• Develop and broaden your model’s voice and visible identification
• Information inventive decision-making

An awesome inventive technique additionally considers how audiences have interaction along with your content material throughout platforms. Utilizing a device like SproutLink turns your bio hyperlink right into a clickable touchdown web page, permitting for extra inventive content material presentation and bridging the hole between inspiration and motion.

Gymshark’s TikTok is a superb instance of inventive course executed nicely. The model has constructed an enormous following by tapping into health traits, influencer collaborations and relatable fitness center tradition humor. The content material feels native to TikTok whereas nonetheless being on-brand for Gymshark.

Sources to refine your inventive course expertise

• Inventive Mornings occasions: Inventive Mornings is a world breakfast occasion collection for the inventive group. Be a part of a neighborhood occasion or the net group to attach with different curious, inventive leaders in advertising, design and social.
• Vidyo: This easy-to-use AI device helps time and resource-strapped groups create social-ready short-form movies from longer content material.
• Illustroke: Use this device to create fast AI-generated illustrations from textual content prompts to supply your design groups with extra tangible course.
• Quick Firm and Marketing campaign: These two publications provide considerate commentary and criticism on the inventive advert world. Learn for perception into model and inventive technique, industry-leading campaigns and thought management.
• Sprout Insights Weblog: Take a look at curated articles on content material concepts for a wide range of social platforms on our weblog.

4. Effectivity and undertaking administration

As a social media supervisor, not solely do you must conceptualize campaigns and distribution rhythms, however you even have to guide and execute these plans from begin to end. Usually, this entails using a social community supervisor app to streamline workflows and maximize effectivity. Creating social media administration expertise like undertaking planning and execution lays the muse for future management roles within the {industry}.

AI received’t change the necessity for undertaking administration, however it could possibly make your processes extra environment friendly. Take Sprout’s ViralPost® function, for instance. It analyzes viewers engagement patterns and mechanically schedules posts in your queue at the very best instances. As an alternative of guessing when to submit, you’ll be able to deal with technique and execution whereas letting AI deal with the timing.

Among the many many time and undertaking administration instruments accessible, comparable to Asana or Monday.com, a social media calendar is tremendous useful for managing your completely different social duties. Don’t have time to create your personal social media calendar? Social administration platforms like Sprout even have an intuitive social media calendar you should utilize to handle your campaigns extra effectively, maintain all of your collaborators on the identical web page, monitor your progress with completely different filters and extra.

Sources to enhance your undertaking administration expertise

• Asana Mission Management: Use this device to plan and handle your initiatives from begin to end.
• Pomodoro Method and time-boxing: Generally you’ve received 50 posts to write down and schedule all of sudden. Setting apart a restricted block of time to work on a process helps maintain issues shifting.
• Social Media Marketing campaign Transient Template: Use this customizable social marketing campaign temporary template to arrange marketing campaign particulars, inventive course and different essential directives.

5. Advertising technique

Social sits on the intersection of promoting, buyer expertise and gross sales. It’s additionally a supply of priceless enterprise intelligence.

Even with the integral function of social throughout a corporation, proving social media’s ROI is usually a problem for a lot of social media managers. Based on The 2025 Sprout Social Index,™ social groups typically wrestle to tie their efforts to broader enterprise targets.

That’s the place advertising expertise are available. Understanding how social intersects with different techniques helps you create social media methods that drive actual enterprise affect and showcase these efforts to advertising leaders. However the success of a technique isn’t purely primarily based on execution; it’s additionally about how your viewers responds. Sprout’s Listening instruments assist you to gauge viewers notion by analyzing social conversations so you’ll be able to alter your messaging, optimize campaigns and guarantee your technique resonates.

When mixed with social intelligence, robust advertising expertise help you form conversations, proving the true worth of social to your group.

Extra assets

6. Agility

The social panorama strikes quick, and even the best-laid plans can turn into irrelevant in a single day. That’s why realizing when to pivot, experiment or double down is one in every of many must-have social media marketer expertise.

Being agile isn’t nearly reacting to traits or dealing with buyer suggestions in actual time. It additionally means realizing when to regulate your long-term social media technique.

Social methods should be as dynamic because the platforms they’re executed on. As a social media supervisor, it’s essential to experiment with completely different techniques and even shake up your technique solely to adapt to new traits or aggressive forces.

Studying out of your knowledge by listening to buyer suggestions and maintaining a pulse in your rivals in a well timed method makes you a extra nimble and hands-on social marketer.

Sources that can assist you keep agile

7. Social media intelligence

In our 2023 State of Social Media report, 90% of enterprise leaders agreed that their firm’s success trusted how successfully they used social media knowledge. This stat reveals the worth of social media intelligence as a talent for social media managers.

What’s social media intelligence? Briefly, it’s the flexibility to research uncooked knowledge and spot patterns and insights. AI-powered instruments like Sprout’s Analyze by AI Help, take this talent to the subsequent degree by monitoring important metrics, hashtags, key phrases, emojis and classes collected by means of social media listening and figuring out traits and sentiment shifts in social conversations. Whereas this solely helps you along with your listening knowledge, it nonetheless saves you a while sifting by means of knowledge so you’ve extra time to deal with refining your technique.

The story of Spotify Wrapped is a major instance of what’s doable while you use social media intelligence to drive technique. Spotify’s knowledge confirmed that customers had been organically sharing their listening habits on the finish of every 12 months. The model turned this perception into a customized, sharable expertise that’s now its most recognizable advertising initiative. By analyzing viewers conversations, engagement patterns and sentiment, Spotify reworked uncooked social knowledge into advertising gold.

This skill to translate knowledge into compelling narratives isn’t only for international manufacturers—it’s a talent each social media supervisor wants.

To correctly talk the affect of social intelligence to management, you must inform the tales behind the numbers. For instance, as a substitute of simply presenting the chances, you may clarify that engagement dropped 10% in Q1, however you elevated attain by 30% in Q2 by experimenting with posting instances.

Right here’s use knowledge storytelling to deliver your social intelligence takeaways to life:

• Tie insights to income: Present how engagement, visitors or social sentiment interprets into conversions, retention or price financial savings. Lead with the metrics management cares about most.
• Visualize key traits: The 2025 Sprout Social Index™ discovered that 45% of promoting leaders agree visible knowledge—just like the dashboards and experiences you’ll be able to entry by means of Sprout Social’s My Studies function—helps safe social media funding.

Sources for constructing your social intelligence expertise

• Social Listening Workbook: This workbook helps you get clear insights into what audiences take into consideration your model and work out optimize your technique accordingly.
• Marketer’s Final Information-Powered Toolkit: This highly effective toolkit is filled with recommendation on use analytics to your benefit from {industry} leaders together with HubSpot, Litmus, Unbounce, Vidyard and ZoomInfo.
• Information storytelling: This text reveals you construct efficient knowledge storytelling so you’ll be able to talk your data-driven technique in a method that resonates with members in and across the advertising crew.

8. Finances administration

As a social media supervisor, you must expertly plan and handle funds for varied applications, together with natural and paid media spending.

This consists of managing the price range for content material, particularly in case your undertaking consists of influencer advertising or if you must rent freelance professionals. These prices might fluctuate primarily based on the place you might be situated, the dimensions of the influencer’s following and the way freelance writers or editors cost their charges. You’ll have to determine which creator partnerships to prioritize primarily based on accessible assets and manufacturing prices.

To plan and allocate your spending correctly, you must first totally perceive the targets of the undertaking and conduct a social spend audit to check the bills from earlier months or quarters. This will provide you with a greater thought of which bills are a one-time spend and that are ongoing. Sprout’s automated link-tracking function can even assist maximize your price range by mechanically including hyperlink monitoring to hyperlinks posted in Sprout. This ensures you’ll be able to precisely measure the ROI of your campaigns and make data-driven selections about the place to speculate your price range.

Sources to complement your social media expertise for budgeting

9. Buyer care

Buyer care is a type of social media expertise that mixes customer support, folks expertise and one eye on uncovering alternatives. That’s why growing a social buyer care technique is an integral a part of a social media supervisor’s job description. Our Index reveals that 73% of social customers will merely purchase from a competitor if a model doesn’t reply on social.

Your social media response time must be dialed in. Almost three-quarters (73%) of shoppers count on a response inside 24 hours or sooner, which is in step with what our Index reported in 2022 and 2023. Not solely do you must take heed to and perceive your prospects’ issues, however you additionally should be proactive in dealing with emergencies. For instance, when a buyer reached out to United Airways inquiring when their web site could be useful once more, the airline responded instantly with an answer and follow-up query.

As a social media supervisor, you’re the model’s largest champion. Understanding prospects and their views means that you can create significant interactions that strengthen group belief. If you need assist streamlining this, Sprout’s Sentiment for Messages mechanically detects the tone of incoming messages, so you’ll be able to prioritize pressing issues and reply appropriately.

Personalizing interactions additionally makes a distinction. Once you reference dialog historical past, you flip on a regular basis exchanges into relationship-building alternatives. Summarize by AI Help simplifies this by summarizing previous interactions, so that you don’t should dig by means of threads to know the context.

Sources to reinforce your buyer care expertise

• Buyer Service Coaching Information: Construct important buyer care expertise with this free information from Salesforce. It covers the whole lot from communication strategies to AI-driven service methods.
• Podcasts: Buyer care begins with buyer understanding. A few of our favourite podcasts on this matter embody Hidden Mind, Invisibilia and What It Means. Take a look at our full listing of favourite podcasts right here.

10. Model voice growth

Your model voice is greater than what you say—it’s the way you say it. A powerful, constant model voice has to replicate your model’s values and persona whereas additionally serving to you stand out, construct belief and create an enduring emotional connection along with your viewers. It’s a tall order.

For inspiration, take into account Oatly, a model identified for its irreverent tone and daring and witty voice. The copy feels prefer it’s coming from a intelligent particular person somewhat than a model. It typically makes self-aware references to the truth that it’s for advertising functions, nevertheless it does it in a method that makes the viewers really feel like they’re in on the joke.

A part of crafting an superior model voice is ensuring it resonates. In case your viewers reacts unexpectedly to a marketing campaign or if sentiment shifts in a single day, you must know. That is the place social listening is available in. Spike Alerts assist you to keep forward of the dialog by flagging sudden modifications in engagement and sentiment, so you’ll be able to alter your messaging.

Somebody at Oatly should’ve learn our 2025 Index and seen that 93% of shoppers need to see extra manufacturers combatting misinformation (or they noticed the identical pattern we did…this appears extra doubtless). Both method, Oatly is proof {that a} well-crafted model voice works.

Sources that can assist you study model voice

• Model voice: This text has suggestions that can assist you develop your model’s voice.
• Grammarly’s Tone Detector: A free device to assist lock in model voice consistency by guaranteeing your writing matches your meant model voice.

11. Influencer advertising

When executed proper, influencer advertising builds credibility, will increase engagement and drives long-term model development—however provided that it feels genuine and strategic. Managing influencer relationships, monitoring efficiency and guaranteeing content material stays on-brand might be complicated. An Influencer Advertising marketing campaign administration device, like Sprout’s, streamlines the method by serving to you discover the proper companions, coordinate collaborations and measure affect.

Have a look at Pvolve’s collaboration with Jennifer Aniston—it’s a masterclass in influencer advertising executed proper. Aniston organically found the model whereas recovering from a again damage, making her endorsement really feel real and aligned with Pvolve’s message: “Break a sweat, not your physique.”

Later, Pvolve strategically elevated her function from consumer to collaborator, turning an genuine model connection into a robust advertising asset. By leveraging her affect, the model skyrocketed its social media consciousness and positioned itself as a pacesetter in low-impact health. This instance illustrates why influencer advertising is a vital talent. You danger being left behind in case you’re not together with it in your technique.

In our Q1 2025 Pulse Survey, 92% of entrepreneurs mentioned that sponsored influencer content material outperforms natural content material posted on their model accounts for attain. That quantity dips to 82% for B2C entrepreneurs, however nonetheless, the optimistic affect is confirmed.

Sources to strengthen your influencer advertising expertise

4 social media advertising expertise for advertising leaders to construct higher groups

Though they oversee the broader advertising technique, advertising leaders nonetheless want particular social media expertise. Why? It’s exhausting to champion one thing in case you don’t perceive it, and social groups should be constructed by somebody who will get it. Because the hyperlink between management and the social media crew, advertising leaders want to have the ability to talk the worth of social media and shut data gaps.

Let’s evaluate the social media expertise entrepreneurs have to construct profitable groups and belief with management.

1. Understanding social media tradition

Social media has its personal tradition, with its personal language, behaviors and expectations. If the purpose is to be the most important model in your {industry} on social media, you must perceive social media tradition, and your crew must be fluent in it. Per the Index, 93% of shoppers agreed it’s essential for manufacturers to maintain up with on-line tradition.

From a technique perspective, understanding social media tradition minimizes the danger of showing out of contact. Nonetheless, you even have to know your viewers, particularly contemplating completely different generations use social media otherwise. Pay attention and take cues out of your viewers to create content material that resonates. AI-powered social media listening instruments like Sprout’s assist your crew do that.

Gritty is an ideal instance of what occurs when manufacturers actually perceive social media tradition. When the Philadelphia Flyers launched their offbeat, googly-eyed mascot, the web initially rejected him. However as a substitute of resisting the memes, the Flyers embraced them, letting Gritty’s chaotic vitality shine. Gritty proves that when manufacturers cease forcing relatability and begin talking the web’s language, they will construct lasting model affinity.

When hiring and main your social media crew, the extra you perceive on-line tradition, the higher you’ll be capable of spot expertise that will get it. It’ll additionally make explaining the worth of social media simpler.

Ideas that can assist you grasp this talent

• Use social media each day. Observe manufacturers, meme accounts, creators and trendsetters. Have a look at feedback on common posts to determine how individuals are reacting and why they’re performing nicely.
• Ask your social crew to stroll you thru how they flip social listening insights into content material concepts. Understanding this course of will help you clearly talk how selections are made to management, constructing belief within the social crew’s technique.
• Use TikTok, YouTube and Instagram’s search capabilities. Social media search is changing Google for youthful audiences. Search a subject and see what forms of content material floor first—this provides you a glimpse into what’s trending.

2. Facilitating sooner approvals

When a pattern takes maintain, a model solely has a day or two to reply. Sadly, many alternatives are missed due to prolonged approval processes.

74% of executives surveyed for The 2025 Sprout Social Index™ say they belief their social crew, however social entrepreneurs nonetheless report fighting useful resource gaps and gradual approvals.

As a advertising chief, you must create the situations in your social crew to do their finest work, and on this case, it means doing all your due diligence whereas nonetheless clearing the best way for creativity.

Ideas that can assist you grasp this talent

• Revisit your social media approval course of. When was the final time you optimized your social media approval course of?
• Think about using a social media administration device. Utilizing a platform like Sprout helps handle workflows and velocity up decision-making.
• Cut back extra oversight. Are there folks concerned within the approval course of who don’t should be? Your social crew has a technique, they usually want your assist constructing govt belief and eradicating bottlenecks in order that they will implement it to its fullest potential.

3. Supporting unique content material creation

The 2025 Sprout Social Index™ discovered that originality is the second-leading motive shoppers observe manufacturers on social media, simply behind product high quality. Producing unique content material is critical in your model to be memorable.

When you’re questioning what sort of unique content material to supply, we surveyed our ICYMI group of entrepreneurs and creators about the way forward for social media for 2025, and 47% (essentially the most of any matter) mentioned they had been specializing in short-form video (60 seconds or much less).

Ideas that can assist you grasp this talent

• Embrace lo-fi video content material. Manufacturing worth and product-centricity are much less essential to shoppers in keeping with our Index, so make the most of this by encouraging your crew to supply extra lo-fi video content material.
• Give the social crew extra freedom to experiment with new forms of social media content material. Allow them to experiment with new codecs—interactive polls, behind-the-scenes footage or audience-driven content material—to find what actually engages your group.

4. Constructing a definite model voice

A compelling model voice does wonders to cease the scroll and make your model recognizable past the visuals.

If you need proof that crafting a definite model voice is price it, have a look at Duolingo’s social media story. In 2021, Zaria Parvez requested if she might revive the model’s inactive TikTok account. She was a junior advertising crew member on the time.

She didn’t have a lot of a price range, so she received inventive, took dangers, hopped on traits and gave the model an unhinged and hilarious voice on social media. Duolingo has grown from 50 thousand followers on TikTok to over 15 million due to its quirky model voice.

Ideas and assets that can assist you grasp this talent

• Work with the social crew to supply a social media model information. This may assist your social crew outline precisely how your model seems on social media, together with tone and voice.
• Put together to deal with questions and issues. Experimenting with a daring model voice typically will create some apprehension, however it will likely be price it while you strike gold and create superfans. Belief your social crew to adapt messaging primarily based on viewers engagement.
• Keep away from model voices which are sexually express or overly company. Based on our Index, shoppers are uninterested in these model voices.

Construct your social media expertise to rework your profession

Social is a profession path of lifelong studying. Whether or not you’re entering into your first social media supervisor function otherwise you’re already a professional, you must proceed to hone your social media expertise and evolve them alongside AI. Which means taking part in to your strengths whereas pushing your self to develop in new areas.

For instance, in case you’re already extremely organized and environment friendly, you’ll be able to spend time growing different expertise, comparable to constructing your private model or making ready to maneuver into folks administration.

Specializing in a selected social media talent can be key to your subsequent profession transfer. When you’re phenomenal at knowledge evaluation, maybe you turn into an distinctive knowledge storyteller. Or, if content material creation is your forte, you may need to upskill at video content material creation. No matter your social media expertise are, there’s room to develop.

Take a look at The 2025 Sprout Social Index™ to discover ways to stand out regardless of social media saturation and construct next-generation social groups.