It seems like a pretty sweet gig to use your social media savvy to help businesses market their services and products. At first glance, a social media marketing manager's job looks like it is all about creating stylish content and positioning clients to look cool, turn heads, and build their followings. When we evaluate a job by looking at the final product, though, it's easy to underestimate all the behind the scenes work that goes into that role.
Being a social media marketing manager is a complex job that requires technical, marketing, and customer service skills. To get a sense of what life is really like for a professional in this role, we caught up with our own Erika Klein, Founder and Owner of Social Butterfly Social Media Management Services, to get a more profound sense of what the daily life of a social media marketing manager entails.
Where the creative meets the technical
Doing this job well requires well-honed soft skills. It takes a creative pro and a good communicator. The creative dimension of the job is one of the perks for Erika. She explains: "I love the creative side of the job. I enjoy creating content - writing the captions, designing the graphics, sharing our ideas with the clients. I also very much enjoy the customer service side of the job. I enjoy building relationships with our clients."
While this role is mostly about communication, it also requires a sound technical basis and the willingness to refresh that know-how continually. Erika points out: "I do enjoy that the social media world is ever-changing. I feel challenged in this line of work. I am always learning something new and growing my knowledge of the industry."
In addition to staying current in her industry knowledge, Erika also finds troubleshooting the oddities that crop up on social media a perennial challenge. She explains: "I spend a fair amount of time working around bugs and kinks on the social media platforms we manage. It can be extremely time-consuming to try to fix something that has 'broken' on Facebook or Instagram. We spend a lot of time chatting with Facebook Support and finding workarounds until they can correct the issues. It can be frustrating, and before you know it, you've spent your whole day on one issue."
Professionals who do this work need to have both a right and left-brain skillset. They are both creative and technical professionals.
The intricacy of managing content
A social media marketing campaign may play out to look whimsical, fun, and light-hearted. Social media users respond well to content to the latest Bernie Sanders' mittens meme or a cute and sassy Valentine's Day greeting. But as much as these sentiments may look off the cuff, they're usually part of a larger strategy that a social media marketing manager strategizes over intending to engage users via these communications.
Erika can attest to the depth of planning that goes into each client's campaign: "It is a full-time job creating content for social media campaigns. There is a lot of thought that goes into the content we produce. Our team spends 2-3 weeks working on a content calendar per client for the upcoming month. The job is so much more than just 'posting to Facebook'," she explains.
After all, social media marketing is a marketing initiative. It takes careful planning, crafting, and orchestration to create something that turns heads and engages new and existing friends and followers.
Bolstering small business
One of Social Butterfly's core values is about helping small businesses. We believe in small businesses, the cornerstones of our communities. Social Media Marketing is nimble, cost-effective and it works well for small business. Erika explains: "Social media marketing management is a great business to get into! Many small businesses and organizations do not have the time or knowledge to manage their own social media marketing. There is a wealth of opportunity to offer your services and expertise to help out small business owners."
Advice for future pros
If you or a recent or future grad in your network is considering a career in this field, consider Erika's advice for incoming social media marketing managers: "I advise to take notice of as many tutorials, webinars, newsletters, etc. that the different social networks offer as possible. Always be open to learning new things. As I said before, social networks are always changing. You need to stay on top of those changes so you can best serve your clients."
If you're ready to start working with us on meeting your business's social media marketing goals, give us a buzz. Let's get started!