What does a social media manager do?

Jul 12

If you’re trying to start your career in social media or looking to hire one for your business, you might have asked yourself, what does a social media manager do?

The short answer is a little bit of everything. A social media manager is a jack of all trades and a master of problem-solving. While the day-to-day tasks can change based on different campaigns, business needs, and changes with social sites, there are several core aspects of a social media manager’s job that are the base of what they do.

Content

Before we begin, I want to clarify: social media managers are NOT content creators, however social media managers can edit and create content. Below is a breakdown of some general definitions, but think of content creators as the bakers and social media managers as the cake decorators.

Content Creator:

Content Creators produce content in various formats and deliver content in multiple stages. Think videographers, photographers, bloggers, and graphic designers; they create the content from nothing and can deliver it as a fully edited Reel, or a folder of raw video clips.

Social Media Manager:

A social media manager takes content produced by the content creators and fits it within the social media strategy. They schedule the content, write the post captions, and occasionally edit the content and format it correctly for each social media site.

Other aspects of how social media managers interact with content include:

Creating templates and inserting branded photos into the content

Working and collaborating on the brand's photo and video shoots

Concepting new types of content and repurposing different forms of content that already exist such as blogs or website information

Working with in-house designers and editors to format content for social

Scheduling

The one thing to keep in mind about scheduling content is that it is very time-consuming. Content can be uploaded to a social media scheduling tool like Social Sprout or Buffer, or directly on the social site itself. While there can be many aspects to the process, below are the main points that go into scheduling.

Copywriting:

This includes writing the social post caption and any other written content around the post including descriptions and alt text.

Uploading:

This is where the social media manager manually uploads the video, photo, graphic, and written content to a social media scheduling tool or to the site itself.

Hashtags:

After hashtag research and hashtag list creation, the social media manager decides which hashtags will best fit the type and purpose of the content.

Optimal Times:

Once the content is assembled, the social media manager makes sure it's scheduled for the optimal time on each site, either through research or through the help of social tools.

Engagement

Social media engagement varies greatly depending on the brand or client's tone of voice and overall personality. Engagement can happen directly on social sites themselves, or through social management tools. Below are different forms of engagement that social media managers can do.

Branded engagement:

These are comments from the brand's handle in reply to the user or customer comments on posted content. This kind of engagement is where the brand directly builds a relationship with its core social media user base.

Prospective Engagement:

This kind of engagement is posting comments through the brand's social media handle on trending or culturally relevant posts. These engagements take more forethought but are where the brand's personality should come out. Prospective engagement gets your social handle in front of a larger audience.

Customer Service Engagement:

This is where the social media manager navigates angry or dissatisfied customers. One important thing to keep in mind, social media managers are not customer service agents. They should be handling the public comments professionally, directing users to DMs, private messages, or offline where customer service agents can handle the rest and create a brand advocate through a resolution.

Reporting and Analytics

The last aspect of what a social media manager does revolves around reporting on the success of the content and monitoring the social site analytics. Below are some ways a social media manager will structure both aspects.

Reporting

Reports are created on a repeating basis and shared externally, whether it's weekly, monthly, or quarterly. These reports will track KPIs (key performance indicators) over time.

Social media reports can also include highlights of successful content, changes in strategy, and recommendations on where to pivot.

Analytics

High-level analytic data helps guide what should be included in a social media report. While each social media site has an array of metrics, not every metric is necessary.

A social media manager will also use analytic data to track how users respond to different types of content. This data is helpful when testing new forms of content, or determining the success of current content.

Other Tasks

The above list is the core of a social media manager's role. However, each role is different, and depending on the business or client's needs, the additional tasks below can fall to the social media manager.

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Managing social aspects of partnerships
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Influencer Management
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Strategy and Planning
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Crisis Management 
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Presenting to management
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Video creation
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Budgeting
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Paid social
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Customer service solving
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Social media giveaways
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Drafting influencer or creator contracts

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Process invoices
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Graphic design
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Photography
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To say the very least, social media managers do a lot. If you do freelance work, it's important to make sure clear boundaries are set before the work begins. Working on the brand side is a little more tricky, but be sure to work with your manager to set expectations and manage your overall workload.

illumi_shawty .