Things Nobody Tell You About Being A Social Media Manager
It’s more than just getting paid to scroll through social media.
The most common statement I get whenever I tell someone I’m a social media manager is “You get paid to scroll Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. That’s so cool!”. Darling, that’s not really what the job entails. While scrolling through social media platforms is something I have to do on a daily basis, it actually make up only around 10% of my job responsibilities. The other 90% are the things nobody tell you.
Social media managers’ job scope varies according to the nature of the company. Some companies may have a huge social media team made up of multiple social media specialists, some may just have one person handling all the platforms and community management. I’m the latter. And running the one-man show can be extremely demanding and exhausting.
According to LinkedIn, there has been a 1357% increase in social media positions listed on the platform since 2010. Coupled with the pandemic which resulted in an increase in digital-focused advertisings, social media manager has become an in-demand job role in today’s marketing industry. Here are some behind the scenes you should know if you’re thinking of becoming a social media manager.
- Strategic planning is very important
Every post you see, every image you come across, and every caption you read are not published at random. They’re all carefully planned to post at that particular date and time, to have such captions, and to consist certain elements in the visuals. To do that, the SMMs need a sound knowledge of the latest trends and changes on social media which can change very drastically by the minute. One minute, people are talking about avocado toasts and the next, it’s all about dalgona coffees. We often plan our content calendars ahead of time but there will always be last-minute changes. Speed and great teamwork are crucial to becoming a successful SMM.
2. It’s heavy on customer service
When I say it’s heavy, it’s really REALLY heavy. Nowadays, nobody ever picks up the phone to call a help desk (except selected industries like banking and official matters). Everybody turns to the internet first to check if there’s a live chat or social media page. As managers, our job responsibility of “handling social media queries and community management” literally translates to “providing customer service”.
If you work in an e-commerce company like me, this includes attending to nasty comments on social media pages and answering questions like “How to use your service?” “Why can’t I select a delivery slot?” “Your service sucks!” “Where is my refund you f**king scammers!”. It is definitely an unexpected part of the job and in my opinion, the toughest one of all my responsibilities because SMMs are not part of customer service, which means that our assistance is extremely limited and almost nobody understands it.
While some companies assign customer service agents to handle queries on social medias directly, some have SMMs handling the social media pages. This means that if a customer makes a fuss about refunds or shitty services, the most we can do is to escalate the issue to the respective teams such as customer service or tech support to assist further. Yet, many people will just lash out at person behind the social media pages (aka SMMs) for their “incompetency” and “lack of support”.
If you’re the kind of customers who’d cuss at customer service agents or any support agents, I’d like to unapologetically say, “F**k you :).”.
3. You’re the company’s very first brand ambassador
Social media marketing is becoming more important and strategic than ever, all thanks to the pandemic. People spent a year at home, which means that the majority of media and advertisement they consume are from the internet. Not to mention that the world population currently stands at 7.9 billion and there are 3.8 billion social media users recorded in January 2020.
SMMs is the front line to anyone who comes in contact with the brand and so what we write and communicate with every user matter a lot. This includes the selection of words, tone and support you provide. One small mistake can greatly affect the brand’s reputation. For example, a poor choice of visual can be taken wrongly by the customers to assume the brand is racist, or a promise to “look into the matter” without any updates or obvious changes can paint the brand as “all talk and no action”.
4. You need more skills than you think
Working as a SMM requires more than good copywriting skills, having a sound knowledge of social media trends and strategies, and having a good eye for attractive visuals. Some companies expect the SMM to create visuals as well and more often than not, the demand will be more than a good knowledge in using Canva. For starters, I had to self-learn Photoshop to improve my visual editing skills and when audiences started showing more interest in video content, I had to rely on YouTube tutorials to learn how to use Premiere Pro. It’s all about the self motivation to keep learning and improving.
5. Data analysis is a huge part of the job
Say hello to big numbers and calculators again. Knowing how to read and interpret datas is a crucial skill every SMM needs to know. If mathematics is your least favourite subject in school, you’re probably gonna dread this part of the job. SMMs work with analytics on a daily basis to track social performance and evaluate the success of their social media strategies. If you’re working for a large brand, the numbers aren’t gonna be small. You’ll be analysing datas in millions digit.
Those who are working in e-commerce may also be involved in paid advertisements which include marketing datas such as Click Through Rate (CTR), Cost Per Click (CTC), Conversion Rate (CVR) and Cost Per Action (CPA). You’ll also need a deep understanding of how your strategies affect these datas, and how these datas relate to your social media post performance benchmarks (Reach, Engagement, Impressions etc).
6. The measurement for success is always changing
I’ve had friends and clients who want to create social media pages for their newly launched business coming to me for advice on how to gain followers quick. Many people have the assumption that a large number of followers equals more business and better success. A knowledgeable SMM will tell you otherwise.
I often get questions from clients and bosses regarding competitors’ number of followers on social media, not much about other performances.
“Why can’t our followers numbers catch up to our competitors?”
A simple answer? They’re probably spending a huge amount of money in advertisements or purchasing followers and engagement. What you see is the outermost shiny display that encapsulates the dark truths behind the scenes.
SMMs’ measurement of success is always changing according to the goals at that point of time. Your competitors may define success differently. Some may be aiming for stronger online presence, some may want higher ROIs. You can have 100,000 followers on social media but only 0.1% are paying customers, or 10,000 followers with 10% paying customers.
7. You really need to understand how social media works
As mentioned above, a shift towards digital-focused advertisement strategies have resulted in a surge in demand for social media experts. Yet, being a social media specialist/manager is not as easy as it seems.
As a SMM, I have interviewed and recruited many budding social media specialists. Many of them possess degrees in communication, media and marketing but their understanding of the job scope of a social media specialist is often very shallow.
More often than not, employers want to see significant works that display your knowledge in curating and executing social media strategies, as well as the strength of your creativity and analytical skills. This means that you’ll need more than “I’m an avid social media user” “I’m always spending time on TikTok” “I use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest & YouTube on a daily basis to connect with my friends and other people” to portray your abilities to take on the role.
Think about it. Almost everybody we know use social media. That doesn’t mean everybody qualifies to become a social media specialist/manager. What makes your understanding of social media better than theirs?
The good news is, you don’t need to break the bank to improve your skills sets and grow your portfolio. Taking the initiative to volunteer with social media management for a small start-up, building a credible online presence (think launching and maintaining a public page/profile of any category), and doing freelance social media management works can all strengthen your portfolio and make you stand out in the crowd. An employer will more likely prefer someone who has hands-on experience in social media management compared to someone who has taken 20 online courses on social media management with zero hands-on experience.
The job scope of a social media manager can be very demanding and challenging. Social media fatigue is a real challenge for many social media managers and it can be tough to navigate through it when your job literally requires you to use social media heavily.
As with many other jobs, it can be fun and rewarding to those who are avid social media users and enjoy the fast-paced industry that’s ever-changing.
