What Does a Social Media Strategist Do? 2024 Career Guide

Social media strategists play a role in marketing a business online and communicating with consumers on behalf of that business. As a social media strategist, you are well-versed and knowledgeable about different kinds of social media platforms and their current trends.

With the rise of social media use among companies and consumers, social media strategists are more critical than ever. Social media strategists promote a business or organization’s brand, product, and service to the digital sphere. In this role, you can connect directly with potential consumers by answering their questions and speaking to them through direct messaging. Read further to explore the education and skills needed to start your career as a social media strategist.

Read more: Social Media Jobs: 6 Roles to Explore

What is a social media strategist?

Social media strategists develop and execute a company’s online presence through its social media platforms. In this role, you will develop content strategies, track analytics, and attempt to identify and reach your employer's target audience. The role requires performing many functions in collaboration with multiple departments, such as sales and finance. Unlike social media managers who focus on day-to-day tasks, as a social media strategist, you'll take a broad view and consider the long-term picture.

Read more: What Is a Social Media Marketer? And How to Become One

What does a social media strategist do?

Social media strategists have various responsibilities, from creating content to monitoring social media metrics. One of the most significant is developing social media campaigns that promote your business’s brand. You'll most likely spend some time analyzing data to determine how your audience behaves and how to best reach them. Once you uncover this information, you can design strategies to connect with this audience. That might include determining which social media platform to use and finding the best ways to keep customers engaged with the company and its products online.  

Social media strategist tasks and responsibilities 

The main goal of a social media strategist is to get consumers to engage with your company or organization via social media channels, as well as to create content that keeps your employer ahead of its competition.   

Other tasks and responsibilities that a social media strategist may have include:

• Building a social media campaign: Building a social media campaign involves defining your goals, determining which platforms to use, creating a content calendar, and determining which metrics you'll use to measure its success. 

• Analyzing data: You'll spend much time analyzing data in this role before, during, and after a campaign. Before a campaign, you might use data mining to determine which customers you want to reach. Engagement analytics track how many users viewed your content and if they interacted with it directly by clicking, liking, or tagging. Once you analyze this data and bring it to your employer, you can begin to strategize what to do differently for the next campaign.

• Scheduling content: Part of your job as a social media strategist is scheduling the content you create for release.  This allows your content to go live, even when you're not available to post it, so that you reach your audience, no matter when they're online. It can also help you lay out your posts so that you can see how they look for your audience and whether they fit within the narrative of your campaign. 

• Watching for trends: In addition to developing and managing the brand's social media content, you must be knowledgeable of current social media trends, such as hashtags or popular keywords, so you can incorporate them into your campaigns.  

Read more: Facebook Marketing: Strategy Guide

Social media strategist skills

As a social media strategist, you must be familiar with social media platforms and how to use them, often including X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. That's just one of the skills that will benefit you in your career. Others include:

• Creativity: Creativity is essential in making a business stand out from another company that sells or does the same thing. As a social media strategist, your ideas need to be new and unique so the business can experience social media growth and have a distinct voice that matches the brand.

• Copywriting: Social media strategists may write copy to connect with certain audiences and need to be able to do so on multiple platforms. Social media copywriting includes writing in the business brand’s voice and using hashtags and other keywords to promote the product on social media sites that utilize different mediums, such as images or videos.

• Communication: Communication is essential for social media strategists when working with their colleagues and users who interact with content online. Communicating with users by responding to their comments is a great way to build a community among your customer base, resulting in a more personal experience.

Social media strategist salary and job outlook

According to Glassdoor, the average base salary for a social media strategist in the US is $61,839 [1]. Keep in mind that factors that influence your salary include location, years of experience, and education level.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that public relations specialists, who play a similar role to social media strategists, will grow 6 percent between 2022 and 2032, with approximately 25,800 job openings each year [2]. Similarly, advertising, promotions, and marketing managers will grow by about 6 percent from 2022 to 2032, with approximately 34,000 job openings annually in those fields [3].

Read more: What Is a Good Salary?

How to become a social media strategist

While your job requirements will vary depending on your employer, you'll likely need some education and training before working as a social media strategist. This could include earning a bachelor's degree in marketing or a related field, as well as building a portfolio of your work.

Education and training

To become a social media strategist, you'll typically need a relevant bachelor’s degree in communications, business, or marketing. An internship is a good way to begin working in the field and enhance your skills before starting your career as a social media strategist.

Do I need a portfolio?

In addition to a bachelor’s degree and internship, it’s important to build a portfolio with examples of your work for a potential employer. A portfolio will show employers you have experience and knowledge in your desired career path and may help them determine if you’re a good fit for their company.

Getting started with Coursera

As a social media strategist, you're the human behind an organization's social media accounts. Your ultimate goal is customer engagement, which means keeping up with social media trends, creating new marketing campaigns, and creating content. 

If you want to start your career in the digital marketing field, consider completing the Meta Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate on Coursera. Another option to help you develop your social media marketing skills on the path to becoming a social media strategist is Identifying, Attracting, and Growing Your Digital Audience, offered by the University of California, Irvine, on Coursera.