Have you ever wondered what a day in the life of a social media manager looks like? Maybe you’re thinking about becoming a social media manager and are curious about your schedule, or perhaps you need to ensure that this job involves much more than just posting content on social platforms. Either way, you are in the right place!
But let’s start with the question: who is a social media manager? We don’t have a simple definition here. It’s someone who manages a business’s social media channels and presence through strategy, does content production, manages community and encourages engagement, reports, and analyzes performance. Maybe the most challenging but also fun part of this job is that every day is entirely different and there are many day-to-day activities.
What does a social media manager do daily?
Being a social media manager often implies a really busy day with many different tasks. In every Social Media Team, everything happens really fast and you don’t have much time to seize the opportunity. Although their days are never predictable, there are a few tasks that you always need to adhere to. Here’s what the social media manager job description involves in Degordian.
If you are impatient or just in a hurry, you can watch the video here!
Look around you: everything is a source of inspiration!
Our days usually begin with a quick check on what’s happening worldwide. The most important duty for social media managers is to be aware of current news trends. However, it is not just to be aware of it but also to relate it to your channels and seize the opportunity and inspiration for new upcoming campaigns and React marketing ideas.
Check social channels: You are the CEO here!
On our daily checklist are always community management responsibilities – liking, sharing posts and checking what’s going on with all of the client’s social channels. There will always be comments and inquiries that require immediate response and the best time to answer them is in the morning because you don’t want drama in your life.
Other times, our job is to pitch brands other communication channels, such as TikTok, that might suit their brand and elevate their online presence.
This also involves checking the scheduled posts or publishing them in real-time following the publishing schedule. We prepared a downloadable content scheduling table. Fill out the form at the bottom and get it for free.
Meeting, emails, meeting, emails – This is our magic formula!
As a Social Media Manager, you will have a scheduled calendar for weeks and an inbox full of emails, we won’t lie to you. Social Media Managers also collaborate daily with their teams and other teams, so communication is crucial. For us, it is also vital that every team has weekly team meetings. For example, every Wednesday we have a Social Media gathering to discuss trending topics, review quick learnings from the previous week and announce upcoming tasks. We also spend a good amount of every working day communicating with clients.
A little bit of everything – We call it a creative mess!
After the everyday defined task, here is the scope of work we do daily, but only some days.
Very often, you will find us over the head in tables and numbers, meaning it is time for the monthly report or that we are analyzing the campaign results.
Sometimes, you find us in packages with tape and scissors on the floor. That means we have to send the creative contest prizes to the winners.
Each month we have a photo shoot for our brands or internal projects. It is the time of the month when everybody runs from us because it means only one thing: it is time for you to say cheeeeese!
And is all of this easy?
Of course, it’s not. Social media is unpredictable, rapid and sometimes unhinged which is why anyone who wants to be a successful social media manager needs different skills in their resume in order to succeed. Each person is different and every social media manager is different, and that’s why it’s up to the person building the team to pair up people who balance the team out. However, what is common to all of them is versatility, adaptability and understanding of different processes and other people’s tasks.
It’s important for any (aspiring) social media manager to understand the design process as well as the copy process while also keeping in mind the possibilities and limitations of social media channels and clients themselves. And when you have all this understanding and knowledge, the pressure of your own and client’s expectations can turn you into a real diamond because you’ll know how to approach any situation.
That being said, what are the five main duties of a social media marketer?
If we had to list 5 main duties of a SMM, they would be being up to date with current trends and world (and local!) events, understanding the whole social media management process from client brief to content reporting, knowing the audience and interacting accordingly, doing everything on time (and being early means on time) and just having fun because those who can’t find anything to love about their job or clients will most probably not do it well.
Do you have to do it all by yourself?
Of course, all of the above can be a lot for one person, but that doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to find help where you can. Most people forget that the things we hold in our hands every day, our phones are powerful tools and can help us when we need something done immediately and in many different situations.
Need something quickly fixed on your photo and the dedicated designer is busy? Apps like Snapseed, Canva, Peachy or even Facetune are readily available. There’s a problem with your video? Just install Capcut or Videoleap.
Also, don’t forget Meta Business Suite which can help you with quite a lot, such as scheduling Facebook and Instagram posts and stories. Whatever problem you encounter, a simple Google search will probably help you find a lot of social media management tools that have a solution for that.
So, who needs a social media manager? AKA a very simple conclusion.
The benefits of hiring a social media manager (after reading this blog) are quite clear: you’ll have a person who’ll be dedicated to keeping your brand alive and well and who will always work on growing your online presence.
That being said, maybe you’ll want to hire someone in-house or have an agency do it, but that’s a topic for another time. In any case, a social media manager will help you communicate with your target audience, and with the right strategic approach, they can help you reach your business goals faster.
