Being a social media marketer for service based business for decades now, every time and again it is fun to consider myself a social media manager and a coach. But what is the actual difference between social media management and coaching services, and when or why should you use them is what I am going to explain in detail in this post.
If you’re trying to figure out the difference between social media coaching and social media management, or want to discover the best options when planning to hire a social media manager or a social media coach, read on…I am spilling my tea here!
Social media management and social media coaching are two completely different services, but they both provide social media trainings as well as help individuals who wish to manage their own social media accounts. However, the biggest difference between these two genres is that social media managers mostly provide their services to businesses or corporations, while social media coaching, on the other hand, tends to concentrate a lot more on individual users or solopreneurs.
A huge part of social media management is monitoring and measuring social media statistics in order to track results. Social media coaching is a form of marketing that helps businesses (in group coaching) and individuals to strategize, engage, and grow their social media presence with some guidance, aka social media done with you rather than done for you.
Lets take a look at these differences in detail:
Social Media Management (Done For You Services)
Social media management is the process of managing an organization’s interactions and presence on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn
The goal of social media management is to drive traffic to your website, increase engagement and make your brand more recognizable.
A social media manager is responsible for implementing a social media strategy to achieve these goals. They manage content creation, approve posts and respond to comments or messages.
A large part of social media management includes responding to comments, DMs, posting and scheduling posts, answering questions from followers and so on. In addition, these individuals must be able to identify what type of content works best for each social media platform in order to create effective campaigns.
Some social media managers have common platforms or tools to share their content ideas with you.
Social Media Coaching (Done-With-You)
A social media coach is a consultant or an experienced marketer whose job is to support you or walk with you in using the different social networks for your business or personal brand to achieve a certain goal you have in mind.
Her/His main responsibility as a coach is to empower you with advice/tips/suggestions that will help you better structure your social media profiles. If you’re a small business owner, this will enable you to better promote your products and services on your chosen channels.
It is important to have a social media coach if you are navigating your way into social media marketing because-
You will be given a tailored plan according to your goals and lifestyle to follow .
- You will be taught each you how to use the different channels that are out there like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter—depending on what you want to work with.
- You will be guided into how to create content for your business on these platforms.
- You will be taught how to measure the success of your posts so that you know what is working for your business and what isn’t.
- You will be given a tailored or custom strategy for you to refer back to so that you know what actions to take when things don’t go your way.
In other words, social media coaching is a form of marketing that helps businesses and individuals to strategize, engage, and grow their social media presence. It typically includes helping with the following:
– Social Media Strategy: How to create an effective strategy for your business or for your personal brand on various social networks?
– Content Creation: What type of content should you post on your channels? What frequency should you post?
– Engagement & Interaction: How do you interact with your followers? How do you use hashtags and mentions in your posts? Should you respond to all comments or only the negative ones?
– Analytics & Optimization: What metrics should be tracked on each channel and how well is a channle optimized to attract the right set of audiences.
Social media coaching is a form of one-on-one training that helps people develop their social media presence. It is not just about how to use the different platforms, but also about how to create a strategy for your content and marketing efforts.
The person who needs social media coaching must have an understanding of what they want to achieve from their social media presence and be able to articulate it in an organized way. They also need to have some level of knowledge on how the different platforms work.
To sum it up, let’s look at what makes these two services different-
1. Social media coaching is for self-starters versus social media management is for people who are busy running their business.
2. Coaching involves being taught the principles of social media strategy so that you can apply it to your own business versus social media management requires you to hire a manager/agency to strategize for you and then implement those strategies on your behalf.
3. The big takeaway is that social media coaching doesn’t require you to hand over control of your social media accounts, like management does.
4. Social media coaching helps you address your personal shortcomings, mindset in order to achieve certain goals, such as an increase in followers or engagement rates. Social media management typically involves scheduling posts, vetting content ideas and suggesting new marketing strategies.
5. Social media coaches tend to focus on a specific niche like working with certain type of people or small industry versus social media managers do more than just social media.
You need to know the difference between these two services so you can make an educated decision when hiring someone to help with your social media presence. The key differences between social media coaching and social media management lies in who it’s for and why.
Takeaway: If you are looking for answers to your social media questions, social media coaching can help answer your questions and also ensure that you’re leveraging the power of social media in the most effective way possible.A coach is different from a manager, and you may need one or the other depending on your goals.
Knowing which service you need will allow you to work effectively with a social media expert who can help your business succeed online. Visit my Services section to learn more about my services and how I can help.
