SMM is a profession. Moreover, in a general form. As an engineer, businessman, office worker. This word is a little suitable for segmentation, but extremely poorly suited to describe a profession :)

Imagine if they wrote in your resume - you need an office employee ...

And in the job description: work in the office, perform office tasks in the office, develop a work plan in the office, others :) Does this sound like nonsense?

But with an SMM specialist, the situation is similar, because:

there are a lot of social networks.
they are different and with different approaches and algorithms.
different tasks.
and posting is not the main job of the smm-boxer. This is generally an occupation that is solved by a service or automation such as IFTTT.
Let's see who can be called an smm-boxer:

Target specialist in social networks - launches advertising through advertising accounts facebook, vkontakte and so on.
Video creator and editor - records videos for YouTube or Stories
Content manager - posts your news or articles in social media. networks.
Influencer marketer - buys ads and integrates with bloggers.
Copywriter - creates useful or selling content
A mask maker and even a VR engineer creates augmented reality creatives.
Organizer of contests - conducts contests, purchases advertising contests, attracts sponsors.
Blogger's manager - prevents advertisers, strikethrough removes the blogger's routine of communicating with advertisers (simple agreements, time, formats, technical specifications, price lists).
Massfollower (although they don't call themselves that). It was really a profession when, using services, a person promotes an account by mass subscription to other accounts.
Little offtopic: blogger is totally different :)

For me, a blogger is a person who knows how to create content that attracts subscribers. This includes almost everything that was above, but ... For me, most celebrities are not bloggers. For example, Cristiano Ronaldo is not a blogger. Yes, he has a ton of Instagram followers, but he's not a blogger. Like most instam with lifestyle content and promotion through contests.

What's the difference?
If the task is to tell the grandmother her profession, then none.

But I assume that you have several different tasks:

Hire an employee
Develop social networks
Sell ​​via social media
Master the profession
Hire an employee
An SMM specialist, like a marketer, is a profession, so such vacancies are suitable only for junior positions.

How would we say: “We need a man, bring it, give it. What he learns, so he will do. "

My personal opinion: if a vacancy is written in the most general terms, then this is disrespect, both to the person who is looking for a job and to the recruiter.

As if the recruiter writes: “I will not delve into the vacancy. I will not ask the director what to do either. Send me a larger resume so that I throw away half, but show that I work. "

Who do you need, let's figure it out in practice.

Develop social networks
Just develop ... Because the competitor has, because the director's wife is on Instagram, because ... Come up with a reason for yourself.

Hire a smaller agency, set them a KPI to gain a certain number of subscribers, and let something spin somehow.

It seems to me that a mistake in this case would be to hire an inexperienced girl who will post news and stocks of your company on Instagram and VK:

It will not bring subscribers.
This is a content routine that a content manager must do and automate.
Nobody needs news and stocks of your company at all (except the director's wife).
You can automate this yourself. There are automation services like Integromat, Zapier, IFTTT. For example, I automated “If a blog post is posted on Twitter” and “If an Instagram post is posted on twitter”. It doesn't give any subscriber growth, but the accounts don't look abandoned.

You can schedule posts yourself. There are services like SMMPlanner and Amplifr. I know that there are publications like Cossa or TheVillage that post 3-4 posts + stories a day in 6 different social networks. This is what the content manager does - as for me it's more of a technical job.

For mass following, just an Android phone is enough, because there is SocialBridge from Instazood and Jesica from Instaplus.me.

The problem is not in the posting, but in where to get the content. To be liked and subscribed for. An inexperienced SMM girl simply won't be able to make such content. And an experienced one cannot. Here you need to clearly understand that the audience has a request for a topic and engage in promotion ... But this is expensive if there is no understanding of how it will pay off.

Growing subscribers without a goal, so-so idea. More on that later.

And if they write to Instagram?

Then I will ask you: "What if they call by phone?" Do you need a telephonist or do you still need prescribed processes, how do we communicate with clients? More on that later.

Sell ​​via social media
Here it is necessary to answer the question - how exactly.

If the business is separate from social networks
Online store, dentistry, cafe ...

There are 2 options that you need:

Site orders
An account that will generate a loyal audience and sell your products to them
There is an option to receive for 

kazy with Instagram through advertising. Then you need a targeting expert (and posting is optional).

An alternative is advertising from bloggers. Then you need an influencer marketer.

If there is an option to get traffic from your Instagram account, then you need to make interesting and useful content. Here you need a copywriter with experience in Instagram. Or maybe a telegram channel is better? Unfortunately, there are completely different rules of promotion. Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok ... A good expert delves into one topic. It is very rare to find a tough bricklayer who is also a super plumber. Here is the same situation.

At the same time, if we are talking about content, then you need to approach the project.

I do not know the situations "let's hire this cool specialist and together with him we will think what to post", but I suppose that such a situation is possible. It will be much easier for you if you yourself already have a concept of what needs to be done. For example, a series of themed tips from a tech store, reviews of cheese and wine for a gourmet store, health food recipes for a chain of eco-shops ... Or short funny sketches that will make your potential customers laugh.

Although…

Cool agencies and cool specialists can do everything for you, but I strongly doubt that it will cost less than $ 2k per month and will be done in less than 4-6 months.

Can you do it yourself?

You can do everything yourself. There are people on YouTube who build houses with clay and sticks.

I believe that each of these tasks, at a basic level, can be done by a business owner.

Targeted advertising on social networks is launched through services from this social network. For advertising, bloggers have HypeAuditor, trendHERO, Storiesgain. For posting at a basic level, a camera, Canva or Crello and a text editor are enough. It will be the same as an unknown freelancer for a couple of thousand rubles.

The specialist will most likely also use the same set of services + supplement his + experience. But it will also cost more :)

If the business is connected with social networks
Media distribute their content through social media. networks. Psychologists, info-gypsies, marketing agencies, copywriters pretend to be successful on social media so that there is more trust. In addition, there are shops and beauty salons that exist mainly on Instagram or Facebook.

They certainly need to know exactly who to hire. They have a standard delegation scheme - and the more accurately you understand what part of the work you want to give, the better.

By the way, the problem here is typical - I want someone to do everything like me. But not me.

It won't be that way;)

Who should answer on social media?
Someone who responds to your customers.

I am frustrated by the situation when shops play "spoiled phone" with the help of an SMM-box. If you understand, then they write on the social network:

Jokes in comments
Questions about a product or service in the comments
Questions about a product or service in a personal
Questions about the status of the order.
All sorts of pluses in the contests.
And the comment "Price?" Also pisses me off.

Moreover, on both sides - it infuriates when you have to ask, and when you write the price in a post, but people still ask. They taught me, damn it.

How do I make sure that private messages are processed by those who are in charge of orders? There are services like Smartsender, where you can connect Facebook, VK, Telegram, Whatsapp, Viber. Put it on the site in the form of a chat, as well as ask to write there on social networks.

If you have one social network, then you can use the bloggers' approach - we allocate an account for a manager and write it in bio. For example, your bio says: by order status, write @shop_status_zakaza.

Master the profession
Are there courses for smm-scholars?

The problem with them is that they are either too superficial, or the specialization is incomprehensible.

Let's estimate - for a lesson on Instagram, Telegram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn Viber, Whatsapp, Twitter, VK, Odnoklassniki. 11 lessons? Or is it somehow skinny? Or will we go on tasks? Targeting in all networks, advertising with bloggers, writing text, processing photos, videos.

In general, the smm-specialists course is such a substitute for a higher education diploma. In principle, not so important, but it shows the employer that you are not a moron and can perform simple tasks on an ongoing basis.

Therefore, if you just want to do this, then try the courses of smm-specialists to get a "diploma".

If you are already doing this, then look for more specialized courses. For example, a course on hashtags on Instagram.

Or try it like me - get an account and try everything you can on it. I already have 90k followers on Instagram. You will have both practice and a business card. But this will only work if you really do it, and it’s creepy to experiment on work accounts.