Social Media Manager resume skills. The words recruiters search for.
The 18 skills, tools and credentials that come up in social media manager job posts, sorted by type, and how to put them in bullets a recruiter believes.
By Nazir Elmurodov, Founder, LaunchCV · Updated
/ The list
Keywords by type. Use only the ones that are true for you.
Hard skills · 14
- Social media strategy (used in Tasha's sample resume)
- Social media marketing (used in Tasha's sample resume)
- Content calendar (used in Tasha's sample resume)
- Short-form video (used in Tasha's sample resume)
- Instagram (used in Tasha's sample resume)
- TikTok (used in Tasha's sample resume)
- LinkedIn (used in Tasha's sample resume)
- Paid social (used in Tasha's sample resume)
- Influencer marketing (used in Tasha's sample resume)
- Community management (used in Tasha's sample resume)
- Social listening (used in Tasha's sample resume)
- Engagement rate (used in Tasha's sample resume)
- Analytics and reporting (used in Tasha's sample resume)
- Copywriting (used in Tasha's sample resume)
Tools & software · 3
- Meta Ads Manager (used in Tasha's sample resume)
- Sprout Social (used in Tasha's sample resume)
- Canva (used in Tasha's sample resume)
Licenses & certifications · 1
- HubSpot Academy Social Media Marketing Certification (used in Tasha's sample resume)
18 of 18 appear in Tasha's sample resume. See where
/ How to use them
Put keywords in bullets, not just in a skills list.
A skills list tells the software you have a skill. A bullet shows a recruiter what you did with it.
Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Paid social
Weak: Skills: Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Paid social
Strong: Own organic and paid social across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn for a home goods brand with 650,000 followers
Short-form video, Instagram, TikTok, Engagement rate
Weak: Skills: Short-form video, Instagram, TikTok, Engagement rate
Strong: Launched a short-form video program on TikTok and Instagram Reels; average engagement rate rose from 1.8% to 4.6% in 12 months
TikTok, Paid social, Meta Ads Manager
Weak: Skills: TikTok, Paid social, Meta Ads Manager
Strong: Manage a $25K monthly paid social budget in Meta Ads Manager and TikTok Ads Manager, lowering cost per purchase by 31%
Influencer marketing
Weak: Skills: Influencer marketing
Strong: Built an influencer marketing program with 40 micro-creators whose content now supplies about a third of our ad creative
Strong bullets come from Tasha's sample resume and our social media manager bullet examples. Names and figures are illustrative.
/ Use them honestly
Keywords get you found. Proof gets you hired.
Mirror the job post's wording for skills you really have. If a social media manager post asks for Social media strategy and you've used it, say Social media strategy, in the post's spelling, and show where.
Mirror the job post's wording
If a social media manager post says "Social media marketing", write "Social media marketing", not a near-synonym — as long as it's accurate. Recruiters search for the post's exact term.
Only claim what you can back up
Expect to be asked about every term you list. If you couldn't spend two minutes on Social media strategy — what you did and what changed — leave it out.
Show it in a bullet
A skills list says you know Instagram. A bullet like the one under Social Media Manager in the example above shows what you did with it.
No stuffing, no hidden text
Repeating a word or hiding keywords in white text doesn't make you a better match. A person reads the resume in the end.
Which of these does your resume say?
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Applying to one post? Scan its keywords against your resume.
Keep going
/ Questions
Social Media Manager keywords, answered.
Something else? support@launch-cv.com
How many keywords should a social media manager resume have?
There's no magic number. Tasha's sample resume uses all 18 terms on this page, because each one fit that job. Cover what your post asks for that you can back up, each where it fits; repeating a keyword doesn't help.
Should I copy keywords exactly from the job post?
Use the post's wording for skills you really have. If a social media manager post says "Social media strategy", write "Social media strategy" rather than a synonym, so a recruiter searching for that term finds you. Don't add skills you don't have just because the post lists them.
Where should keywords go on my resume?
In your summary, a short skills section and, above all, the bullets under each job, where you show what you did with the skill. In Tasha's sample, Social media strategy, Social media marketing and Short-form video are in the summary and Instagram shows up in a bullet under Social Media Manager. Plain text in the body of the page is easiest for applicant tracking systems to read.
Which tools should I list on a social media manager resume?
The ones you've used and the post mentions. Common ones in social media manager posts include Meta Ads Manager, Sprout Social and Canva. Name the tool in the bullet where you used it, not only in the skills list.
How should I list HubSpot Academy Social Media Marketing Certification on my resume?
Spell it the way the job post does, and include both the abbreviation and the full name if you have room. Put licenses and certifications in their own section or next to your education, and only list ones that are current.
Keywords for related roles
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