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What Social Media Managers Do For You
02/06/2017
admin@michigancreative
During one of many occupational crises I’ve experienced in college as I frantically tried to figure out what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, one potential career path I came upon was social media. This seemed like a good way to go, standard work hours spending my day on Facebook and Twitter and no one would yell at me for doing so. I found a social media internship and started on my way toward a career in social media. In my experience, there was one huge main takeaway: social media managers deserve way more credit than they get.
There’s more to being a social media manager.
Social media managers do spend their day on Facebook and Instagram, etc. but their job is more than putting out one or two posts an hour. The social media strategists and managers are the ones who maintain a company’s entire online presence, responding to customer comments and complaints, answering questions, and getting the most reach as possible. We can all relate to posting on social media purely to get likes at least once, but that’s what social media managers do all day. They have to figure out what time of day posts have the most engagement on which pages, as well as tailor each post to the target audience. One aspect of my social media internship that I found particularly challenging was coming up with twenty different ways to say the same thing, in 140 characters or less, while still remaining engaging. If this comes easily to you, you may want to consider a career in social media. From time to time they make video content because visual posts get more reach than text posts. In addition to writing and scheduling posts, they add video composition and editing to the list of things to do.
What other roles do social media managers play?
Social media workers also are responsible for the company’s or organization’s online branding. They have to be clear in the goals of the company, as well as properly represent the company online. It’s no secret that one bad review of a company can ruin its business; especially online reviews, where negative feedback is easily shared and spread. To be a good social media manager also means you have to be good in customer service. You have to be able to deal with unhappy customers and reviews as quickly, by simply acknowledging their complaints or referring them to someone who can help them. The social media manager is responsible for going the extra mile and trying to ensure mostly positive reviews. As a barista, I have dealt with some difficult people, but if they were given the benefit of online anonymity, they would have been ten times worse.
In other words, social media managers and strategists are not to be underestimated or brushed aside. A good online presence can make or break a company’s success, and social media is at the forefront of online presence. A good social media manager not only spreads awareness of an organization’s existence, but also good word of mouth. They perform public relations duties like composing press releases, and come up with endless ways to say the same thing and still make it sound interesting. So yes, social media managers and strategists do spend their day on social media, but they are one of the most crucial components of a business’s success in the 21st century.
