Community Giveaway: Share Your Thoughts for a Chance to Win!

There are many useful skills in social media to have, like content creation and management or data analysis, but for me, creativity and thinking outside the box is the most important thing. It’s more art than science - which tools of the trade can’t replicate, only amplify. 

Flexibility -- sometimes posts need to go sooner than planned or be delayed/canceled at the last minute. Sometimes campaigns need to change to meet the moment or consumer sentiment even when you’re well into the planning or even execution process. Being flexible and letting things roll off my back has been invaluable!

Being transparent and honest with leaders! Forming a relationship with your leader that’s built on trust and honesty helps to make you viewed as a trustworthy employee who will help leadership see a different perspective!

Scheduling a yearly check-up on my career goals to see if I’m meeting them, if I want to change them etc. Also, having a mentor who can guide me and answer any questions that I may have. 

For me, it’s been organization and the basics of project management. It’s oddly the skill that the team and other colleagues are most impressed with, and seem to be the most rare among communications people at my organization. Learning how to organize and break down large projects into small pieces and set deadlines and communication for each small piece along the way is what sets me apart, to the point where my boss has started offering me out as a consultancy to help people get processes or get organized. 

I think adaptability in skill sets (even, or maybe especially as I get older 😅) and environments has helped. You don’t have to know everything but it’s good to be a quick study and learn to fill in the gaps instead of staying in your inadequacy. 

I have to say that one skill I have that is a game changer is the willingness to understand I don’t know everything and always have a capacity to learn. Closing yourself off because you know everything you can know, makes it that much harder to be open to what is new; technology is always changing and making an impact in the roles I play. As a Marketing Manager for an international nonprofit, I have to be willing to learn and listen to what is new so that I do not get left behind the curve. 

The one skill that’s had the biggest impact on my career as a social media designer is mastering visual hierarchy. Understanding how to guide the viewer’s eye through a post - whether using size, color, or the placement of elements - has consistently boosted engagement and made my designs more effective. 

The skill that’s transformed my career the most is designing with a mobile-first approach. Since most social media content is consumed on mobile devices, ensuring that my designs are optimized for mobile has significantly improved user engagement, and clients have noticed!

A daily practice that I think is easy to get lost in the fray is “Always be networking.”

I think this is very important in the social media space, because we have to be very integrative across many channels and styles that are constantly evolving to be successful. And partly because so many of us are solo practitioners. 

It’s easy to fall into the rabbit hole and not look from side-to-side. But networking can help feed needs from immediate practices to career growth to helping chart a course for the future on many levels.  

I agree wholeheartedly! I cant’ tell you how many new platforms, systems, and best practices I’ve had to learn in the last few years. But, trusting that you CAN adapt and learn is one of the greatest assets.