Essential Social Media Skills

Unfortunately, social media is often a small part of many professionals' jobs in higher education, as they may be expected to manage college or department accounts without much experience.

I've learned that patience is an important skill needed to thrive as a social media professional in higher education if advising campus stakeholders is part of your position. As the only professional working specifically in social media at UNMC, educating others on campus about social best practices is part of my job. This responsibility can call for a significant amount of patience, as others' prior experience with social media can greatly vary. Many individual may not use social media in their personal lives, so the idea of social content development and management does not come as naturally as it does for others who use it frequently. It's crucial that these smaller social accounts still adhere to your brand's social guidelines in order to project a consistent image for your university, so your patience and guidance as their mentor is very important.

Time management is also a crucial professional skill needed to thrive in this industry. It's easy to be pulled in several different directions at once when working in social media at a higher education institution, especially if you are on a small team. Many tasks in social media are brief compared to long-form projects like video editing. It is so important to have a strategy in place as to how you will tackle these tasks effectively and efficiently, as they are all key to your university's social media plan, but easy to lose track of.