The 7 Levels Of Social Media Mastery

Social media mastery: Have you figured out how to use social media to grow your business or rally your supporters around an important cause? Find out how you can become a social media expert here!

In this article:

1. How to Become a Social Media Expert
2. The 7 Levels of Social Media Mastery
3. Social Media Mastery in More Detail

Go Up These 7 Levels To Become A Social Media Expert

How to Become a Social Media Expert

If you have not figured social media strategies yet, you’re definitely not alone. Social media has become such a hot topic in the digital marketing word that everybody’s talking about it, but most people still don’t really know how to leverage it effectively.

XANT President and Founder Ken Krogue spent years researching and testing social media strategies for businesses. He has identified seven levels of social media mastery that will help you increase awareness and inspire others to take action.

Krogue describes these seven levels in an article titled “How to Be a Social Media Missionary” on Forbes. In his article, he likens true social media success to evangelism, citing high-profile evangelists such as Guy Kawasaki, Lindsey Stirling, and LinkedIn’s Koka Sexton.

The 7 Levels of Social Media Mastery

Level 1: Core

Krogue outlines seven steps you can take to create a solid social media core to build on, including defining your purpose, forming a plan, and completing your profile. He also offers tips for sharing real content on your social media accounts – on your Instagram stories, YouTube channel, live videos, and more – that will resonate with your audience as well as build engagement by making thought-provoking comments.

Level 2: Coach

Once you and your team understand the required social media skills, it’s time to practice them until you perfect them. Krogue says a coach sticks with something until it is mastered, no matter how many times the learning process must be repeated.

Level 3: Curate

Organize other people’s content in a way that allows your audience to gain maximum benefit from it. Shape the story so that it’s easy to follow and people remain eager to see what happens next.

Level 4: Contribute

Create your own original content based on your expertise. This is how you establish yourself as a thought leader.

Level 5: Campaign

Pull everything together in a way that inspires people to take action. You can use Krogue’s famous CLOSERS model to design effective campaigns.

Level 6: Collaborate

Entertainers often collaborate on projects, like YouTube videos, to leverage one another’s brands and reach larger audiences than they could reach on their own. Steal a page from the entertainer’s playbook and team up with somebody who has a bigger — or different — audience than you do. It’s a win-win.

Level 7: Consult

Once you have proven that you can perform the first six levels of social media mastery, it’s time to help others succeed with social media, too. It also helps to know the do’s and don’ts of social media marketing to reach level 7 mastery.

Social Media Mastery in More Detail

As most people struggle to get past the 6 core skills, let’s look in more detail at level 1: (Core) for more social media mastery insight.

The 6 core skills and basics of social media mastery are: –

1. Complete (7 P’s)
2. Content (6 B’s)
3. Community
4. Connect
5. Comment
6. Call to Action

Skill 1: Complete.

Use the 7 P’s to ensure you master this skill.

1. Purpose – outline your purpose and ask yourself why you use social media.
2. Platform – select your platform, for example, Facebook for personal use, and LinkedIn for business.
3. Plan – do some research and find how-to guides, top tricks, etc. for more social media mastery.
4. Prepare – gain knowledge and experience from experts to prepare your resources.
5. Prioritize – prioritize your resources and categorize connections, for example, groups to follow on Facebook.
6. Profile – Match your profile with your purpose and combine your plans so far.
7. Persist – continually work on your plan daily or at least weekly.

Skill 2: Content.

Create content for your profile, which can be done by following the 6 B’s:

1. Bio – let everyone know who you are.
2. Background – why should people believe in you?
3. Backstory – this is the deeper content of your history.
4. Beliefs – why are you unique and what are your opinions?
5. Bridge – provide common links to make new connections.
6. Benefits – why should people follow you?

Skill 3: Community.

What is a community? A community is a group of people with common experiences or interests.

Consider joining communities from as far back as you can remember and move to your present, then you can plan for your future. For example, family, friends, work, school friends etc. What common interests do you have with these communities that can support your social media?

Skill 4: Connect.

Connect using existing relationships, and don’t connect to people everywhere just ‘for the sake of it’.

Skill 5: Comment.

Make thoughtful comments to interact, using open questions or requesting feedback.

Skill 6: Call to Action.

The easiest way to do this is to ask a question or provoke a response.

This blog post provides a brief summary of the ideas Krogue discusses in his Forbes article. Read the full article now.

Do these seven levels of mastery help your aim to become a social media master? How are you planning to use your social media channels in your business? Share your thoughts below!

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on September 30, 2014, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.