How to Write a Social Media Manager Resume: What to Include

Your resume is your first opportunity to showcase your skills to potential employers. When crafting a social media manager resume, highlight your achievements, educational background, and relevant professional experiences that showcase your expertise in social media management. Demonstrate why you are a good candidate for the position through your social media. Highlight any online platforms you are on, such as Facebook, Instagram, and other accounts), and list any social media projects you are currently working on. 

Organize your resume so that your professional summary is among the first things an employer reads. Your summary should give readers a snapshot of your professional life and highlight why you are the best candidate for the specific position you’re applying for. Include relevant keywords and phrases here and throughout your resume. 

Following the summary, create a separate section for your professional experiences, essential skills, and educational qualifications (including certifications). Include all relevant experience and skills you gained thus far in your career, explaining how they have helped you achieve success thus far. This section should take up a large part of your resume. 

What does a social media manager do? 

As a social media manager, you’ll manage a company or organization’s social media presence, developing and implementing digital marketing strategies focusing on brand exposure and promotion. Social media managers interact and engage with current and prospective customers via social media and create content to reach an organization’s target market. As a social media manager, your capacity to confidently oversee all aspects of social media is important in running a successful business. There are various ways to do this, including videos, photos, and written posts on numerous online platforms.  

Read more: What's a Social Media Manager? And How to Become One

How should you construct a resume for a social media manager? 

Format your social media manager resume in reverse chronological order. This ensures your most recent work and experiences appear at the top of the page. Before you get into the content of your resume, always provide your personal contact information at the top of the page. At a minimum, include your social links, email address, and phone number. 

Start with a summary statement.

Begin your resume with a professional summary of your qualifications and experience. The summary gives hiring managers a quick insight into who you are as a social media professional and the value you can add to their team. 

Place your professional summary at the top of your resume, just under your personal information and header if you include one. The professional summary gives potential employers at-a-glance details about why you might be a good fit. List your skills and experience regarding social media. Highlight specific professional experiences relevant to the job you’re applying for. It can also provide a snapshot of your entire professional career. 

It’s appropriate to mention accolades and professional achievements that help you stand out as a candidate within the summary section of your resume. Try to quantify these achievements when possible by including data such as percentages or dollar amounts. 

Read more: How to Write a Resume Summary + Examples

Add professional experience.

After the summary, add your professional experience. You can present this as a reverse chronological listing of relevant work experience. Outline your role and responsibilities (perhaps those most related to social media manager responsibilities) in each position, skills you used or acquired, tools you used and built proficiency in, and samples of successful campaigns. Include your job title, employer’s name, and company location. 

Highlight key skills.

Next, include a section on key social media manager skills you’ve gained while working in this field. Here, you want to focus your efforts on including relevant keywords that may catch the attention of hiring managers. This section is critical, particularly as employers increasingly use skills-based hiring to find qualified candidates. 

Explore job descriptions in social media manager listings to research some of the in-demand skills employers seek and highlight those that match your background. Some essential skills include writing, research using analytic skills, customer service, SEO knowledge, and creativity and design. 

List educational achievements and certifications.

Close your resume with a section that lists your educational achievements and any relevant certifications you hold. Include dates, educational institutions, and other relevant information under this section. 

Common education and certifications for social media managers

When crafting your resume, you might wonder how your education and certifications stack up against typical competition for this role. While each candidate will be uniquely qualified, consider the following standard qualifications and how to present them on your resume.

Education

The standard for social media manager education is a bachelor’s degree in a field such as journalism, advertising, marketing, or public relations. 

When listing education, first list your educational experiences in reverse chronological order with your most recent degrees or academic accolades. Include the name of your degree, the school name, city and state, and enrollment dates. 

For example:

Bachelor of Science (BS) Marketing 

University of Georgia, Athens, GA August 2004-December 2009

Include your expected graduation date if you’re still attending college or are completing your degree program. If you have not yet earned a degree, list your high school information.

Certification

Certifications, while not always a requirement for employment, may improve your chances of getting hired as a social media manager. A few certifications social media managers may hold include: 

• Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate 

• Certified Blockchain and Digital Marketing Professional Certificate

• Kellogg Professional Certificate in Digital Marketing 

• Meta Blueprint Meta Certification (formerly Facebook)

• Hootsuite Enterprise Certification 

When listing certifications, include the certification name, awarding organization, and date of completion or year of expiration, all on one line of text if possible. Use bullet points to list your certifications. 

For example:

• HubSpot Content Marketing Certification, HubSpot Academy, 2024

Top skills and keywords

Among the critical skills employers seek when hiring a social media manager are expertise, collaboration, and marketing. As a job seeker, when you create your social media manager resume, it’s vital to have tangible experiences that illustrate your expertise in these highly sought-after skills. 

While you should list skills alongside professional experiences within a dedicated skills section of your resume, it’s also important to use keywords throughout your resume that point to your skills as a social media manager. 

Relevant keywords make finding your resume easier for applicant tracking systems (ATS), recruiters, and hiring managers. Research social media marketing job descriptions and job postings to choose what keywords to include in your resume. Identify valuable skills, keywords, and phrases that frequently appear. Try mixing things up rather than relying on a limited set of keywords. Combine dynamic action verbs with these keywords to enhance your resume where appropriate.

What type of experience is applicable?

Include relevant work experience on your social media manager resume that showcases your skills in the context of the social media marketing strategies you’ve developed or been a part of. Highlight jobs and professional experiences demonstrating your social media management abilities and proficiencies. 

Consider including experience that illustrates your knowledge of multiple social media platforms, not just one. Relevant experience demonstrating your ability to use data analytics tools and identify trends can also be helpful. Any experience that provides real and tangible evidence of your social media skills and expertise can be a helpful inclusion on your resume. You can even have a separate social media marketing work history section.

Requirements to apply for a social media manager position

To apply for a social media manager position, earn a bachelor’s degree, and build in-demand technical and interpersonal skills in digital and social media marketing. Since a social media manager is not usually entry-level, employers typically seek candidates with at least a bachelor’s degree and professional experience. Luckily, working in social media is a position in which many industries are hiring.  

Building relevant experience is critical to help you learn interpersonal skills such as leadership—essential skills when applying for a management position. Be sure to add any internships if they benefit the position you are applying for. Internships are just as important as past jobs, so be sure they are congruent with your experience section to round out your resume and knowledge. Create a resume with screenshots, analytics, and other visuals demonstrating your social media skills. 

Sample resume

A quality social media manager resume includes the key components of a well-formatted resume. It should communicate to employers the qualifications and skills that make you the best candidate for the position. Consider using the sample below as a guide to help you create your well-crafted social media marketing manager resume.

First Name Last Name 

Phone number 

Email address 

Links to professional social media profiles or website 

Home City, State, Zip Code

Profile

A highly experienced social media manager expert with [X] years of experience creating social media content and supervising social media accounts for brands. Improve customer interaction by creating unique brands. 

Professional Experience

Social Media Specialist, Sample Corporation, San Diego, CA

January 2015-Present

• Increased followers for Instagram and Facebook accounts by 80 percent 

• Provided data-driven content for the marketing department’s digital marketing style guide

• Achieved 150 percent ROI for social media marketing initiatives 

Key Skills 

• Develops strategies for brand promotion 

• Monitors customer engagement using analytical tools 

• Proficient in visual and written content creation and curation

• Creates and optimizes social media profiles to match brand goals 

Education 

Bachelor of Science (BS) Marketing

University of California, San Diego, CA, September 2010- June 2014

Related Coursework: Intro to Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization 101, Digital Marketing, Social Media Advertising 

Certifications 

• Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate, Google, 2016 

• Social Media Marketing Certificate, HootSuite, 2015

Read more: 10 Ways to Improve Your Resume 

Next steps

Ready to gain experience collecting and analyzing the results of your social media campaigns? Consider learning to develop an effective social media brand presence with the Meta Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate.

Or, focus more heavily on the strategic content aspect of this role using Adobe's Content Creator Professional Certificate program to master foundational concepts like visual design and professional content production.