Many business gurus advise hiring a professional SEO expert to increase a company’s online revenue, but apart from affordable SEO expert marketing, there’s another online guru that companies should. I’m speaking of course about a social media marketing expert.

As social networks continue to increase their influence on individuals’ personal and professional lives, the need for social media marketing experts increases. Yet, as it’s such a new profession, there are too few social media marketing experts out there. If interested in such a career, here’s a short list on how to become a social media expert!

1. What Do They Do?

Before one can become a social media marketing expert, it’s important to have a firm grasp on what exactly they do. Basically, they utilize traditional marketing tenets and online media to drive traffic, promote content, use social analytics, engage and interact with audiences, and then develop relationships with them. This is all done to enhance the visibility of a brand, identify existing audience bases, and then grow this base.

2. What Should the Resume Look Like?

Being a social media marketing expert requires certain background education and experience. They should have earned a degree in marketing, communications, English, public relations, journalism, or another related field. Relevant experience includes past jobs or internships that dealt with marketing or PR concepts in both new media, and traditional media. Now, a master’s degree isn’t necessary, but it can be a huge help. Such possible master’s include: public relations, communications, marketing, and (of course) social media.

3. Know the Industry.

Every industry has trends in flux. However, social media trends adapt and change much more rapidly than any other industry. While it’s important for a social media marketing expert to have skills and experience working with such mainstays as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, these experts should also have an eye out for the way that these mediums are changing. For instance, LinkedIn once was a strictly professional social network, but it now has become a must-visit destination because of its social news reader, LinkedIn Today.

If you follow these three steps, or have already completed them, then you can consider yourself a social media marketing expert. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments. Find out more at this site.