Like them or hate them, Social Media Managers have become essential to running a 21st-century business. If your organisation does any type of business online, then a Social Media Manager is indispensable. Yet, some business owners in Nigeria still think their Social Media Managers basically play online all day. However, others are genuinely interested in learning why they need a dedicated Social Media Manager and not just assigning staff to “post pictures online”. So if you are wondering what a Social Media Manager does, we are here to help.
What A Social Media Manager Does
A Social Media Manager’s role is dependent on the work environment. Their tasks would be different depending on where they work, whether in an agency, part of a larger organisation selling a single product or service. Their role would also differ depending on whether they are working alone or are part of a larger content team.
In all instances though, the Social Media Manager must research and understand their clients, prospects, brand, industry, and competitors. And then develop comprehensive guidelines to effectively communicate with their brand’s target market through social platforms.
No matter their level of experience in the industry, they will spend the first few weeks on a new job understudying the environment, learning, listening, and asking questions to understand its overall content strategy before creating a content schedule. The content schedule is dependent on what the brand’s clients/customers want to know about and the time they will most likely be online to see it.
Let’s now take a look at a typical Social Media Manager’s checklist.
Check Platforms
Social media runs on a 24-hour cycle, but Social Media Managers don’t. So, most begin their workday by assessing all of the company’s social channels to attend to questions, comments and enquiries that might have come in while they were away.
Appraise What’s Trending
Yeah! This counts as a task for Social Media Managers. They need to get notification on the latest events around them to see if there’s anything related to the clients, brand, competitors or audience on the trend list. If there is, then they must quickly create content that will work for it.
Creating Posts
Sometimes, posts will be inspired by the information from trending issues or social media platforms’ assessments. At other times, they could schedule content based on the content calendar/schedule. In smaller businesses, they may be required to create all kinds of content, including graphics and videos.
Analyse Pages
What Social Media Managers do and when they do it are just as important as what they don’t do. For instance, a post by 8am on Monday morning could get minimal engagement. The engagement level of the same content by 6pm on Sunday evening may be off the charts. Page analytics helps them to measure the content’s performance so that they can optimise their strategy.
Planning
Remember when we talked about scheduling content in your calendar? Yeah, this is when it happens. A Social Media Manager works alone or with a team to brainstorm ideas for improving content for ongoing and future campaigns. The Social Media Manager’s mind is in a constant state of “think”.
Meetings
In smaller organisations, the Social Media Manager should ideally participate in management meetings. This should not be surprising as the SMM serves as the conduit of the company’s overall media strategy. There needs to be frequent reviews of each aspect of a company’s digital infrastructure to ensure the brand’s messages stay consistent across all of its channels. However, this might not be the case in larger groups or agencies.
Slvr Wlf Social Media Manager Task List
You didn’t really think we would end this without sharing a sample and example of what the Slvr Wlf Social Media Manager’s daily schedule looks like, did you? Well, here are the must-do items on our SMM’s daily schedule in no particular order.
- Check all social media platforms
- Post/Schedule content for the day and ensure that all scheduled posts are up.
- Meet with the team
- Respond and engage with the community
- Check the trend list and do social listening
- Curate and create content
- Drop everything and read
- Write as the mind leads
- Have Lunch 🙂
- Measure social results and add to Airtable
Social media management is a full-time job. So, hiring a social media manager is best for your business. If you need guidance to find the right fit for your business, we’re here to help.