What Does A Social Media Manager Do (including Their Typical Day at Work)

Alyssa OmandacCareer, Overview

Salary, Job Description, How To Become One, and Quiz

Social Media Managers

Social Media Managers are responsible for managing the overall social media presence for their employers or clients. They manage the release of new social media content and may respond to customer comments.

Salary
$50500
Education
No degree required
Personality


Social Media Managers plan, manage, and monitor social media strategies. People often assume that Social Media Managers get to spend their days browsing Facebook and Twitter. The truth is that this job involves detailed market research and requires an understanding of SEO.

Social Media Management is a relatively new role, developed in the past decade to help businesses grow their online presence. Social Media Managers may work within a company’s marketing department or with a marketing agency serving multiple clients. They create buyer personas and may manage a team of writers to generate new social media content.

What they do

Social Media Managers are responsible for managing the overall social media presence for their employers or clients. They manage the release of new social media content and may respond to customer comments.

Develop and implement social media strategies

Social Media Managers develop social media strategies based on the goals of their employers or clients. You may develop campaigns for specific products or services. You may also develop an overall strategy for daily postings, such as setting the tone and topics for daily social media posts.

After developing a strategy, you are responsible for implementing it. You will likely work with others in the marketing department to create new social media posts, blog articles, podcasts, or other forms of content that can be distributed online and promoted on social media.

Manage and oversee the creation of social media content

Social Media Managers are often responsible for developing schedules for the release of new content on social media platforms. This typically involves working with content creators to create new social media posts or video content. When developing new content, the Social Media Manager often acts as an editor. They may assign topics to writers and review their work.

Along with managing the creation of content, Social Media Managers oversee its release. They typically need to maintain a consistent schedule. For example, you may need to ensure that new content is released on Facebook and Twitter each day or specific days of the week.

Develop reputation management strategies

Social Media Managers are often employed to manage social media accounts for businesses to help maintain a certain image. This includes managing the overall reputation of the business in the public eye.

As a Social Media Manager, you may review customer comments and complaints. You may also develop policies for dealing with complaints to ensure that the business delivers a consistent response.

Analyze the success of social media campaigns

Social Media Managers need to analyze the outcomes of their social media campaigns. You may need to track specific metrics, such as the number of times that a post is liked or shared by other social media users.

Analyzing the campaign allows you to adjust your strategies to produce better results. It also helps you evaluate the return on investment of the social media campaign for your employer or client.

What is the job like

Pros

You get paid to spend time on social media platforms

Social Media Managers need to constantly monitor activity on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. While you have many other tasks, you still get paid to use social media.

Your social media campaigns may have a positive social impact

Some social media campaigns are designed to raise awareness of specific issues. If your campaign goes viral, you may bring positive change to the world.

You get to develop creative social media campaigns

Social Media Managers tend to use their creativity to develop original social media campaigns that help their employer or client stand out.

You get instant feedback on the results of your work

Social media provides instant gratification in the form of positive comments and reactions to your campaigns. This can make the job highly rewarding.

Cons

You may need to deal with frequent complaints or negative comments

When managing a social media account, you are likely to encounter frequent complaints and negative comments, which some Social Media Managers may take personally.

Social Media Managers have a lot of responsibility

Social Media Managers represent the voice of an entire company or brand, which can be a lot of responsibility for one person. The importance of this role can be a little stressful at times.

Where they work

Large Organizations and Marketing Departments
Marketing and Advertising Agencies
Public Relations Firms
Freelancers


Social Media Managers are often employed at large companies as part of the marketing department. They may work with other marketing staff to coordinate campaigns across social media and other marketing channels.

Social Media Managers are also employed by marketing agencies, advertising agencies, and public relations firms. These companies often handle social media activities for their clients and may employ someone who specializes in this area of marketing.

Some Social Media Managers work for themselves, offering their services as freelance contractors. They may work from home and serve clients across the globe using remote technologies.

How to become one

Step 1: Learn the tools of the trade

Social Media Managers use a variety of tools to complete their job, including software for scheduling social media posts and analytics software. Start experimenting with these tools in high school by managing your own social media account.

Step 2: Earn a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field of study

While it is not a requirement, most employers prefer to hire candidates with Bachelor’s Degrees. Common fields of study include Marketing, Advertising, Communications, and Journalism. Relevant courses may cover Marketing, Consumer Behavior, Sales, Market Research, Communication Methods, and Visual Arts.

Step 3: Gain relevant work experience

Many employers look for Social Media Managers with relevant work experience managing social media campaigns such as Facebook pages, Instagram profiles, etc.

You can start by building your own personal social media following or take on clients as a freelancer.

Should you become one

Best personality type for this career

The Leader

People with this personality likes to start and work on projects. They also like leading people and making many decisions.

You can read more about these career personality types here.

Social Media Managers need to be level-headed as they are often responsible for representing the voice of a company or brand. Responding to negative comments with hostility may not promote the image that a client or employer wants, which requires a certain level of self-control.

Cultural sensitivity is also useful for Social Media Managers due to their interactions with a diverse audience. Social Media Managers who are not sensitive to the attitudes of other cultures may inadvertently harm the company’s reputation.

Depending on the industry, Social Media Managers may also need to showcase their humor. Humorous posts and responses to customer comments have become a common marketing strategy.

Find out if Social Media Manager is the right career for you by taking this one minute quiz.

Take this quiz to see if this is the right career for you.

FAQ


Don’t know which career to pursue?

Take the career quiz to find careers that match your personality type.

Take The Career Quiz