Social media managers are a relatively recent career path ever since the rise of social media became a boom. By now, an active social media presence is a necessity for most businesses. But it also takes a skillful creative mind to yield results, especially in a sea of nearly 5 billion social media users. That’s why so many businesses hire social media managers to handle their social media accounts.
What Do Social Media Managers Do?
Social media managers do so much more than just posting to your social media accounts when a big sale happens. They plan social media posts and optimize them for each social media account that you have. They research the relevant trending hashtags and the best ways to make your social media posts seen by your target audience. Then, they schedule those posts to come out at the right time so that you get the most engagement possible. They also handle your images on social media platforms, including your avatar and banner.
Some social media managers use tools to crosspost to necessary platforms. These tools can be costly, but if they aren’t in the budget, social media managers may make a Google Doc or a spreadsheet in order to create their own calendar. Then they can just copy and paste into the proper platforms at the right times.
A Week in the Life of a Social Media Manager
Whether you’re interested in becoming a social media manager or you’re a business owner who wants to understand the social media aspect of your marketing, it can be helpful to know what social media management actually looks like. Let’s break down a week in the life of a social media manager.
Monday
On Monday, it’s time to open the calendar and start planning social media posts. If the social media manager is skilled and well-prepared, the social media posts for the current week will already be scheduled. Instead of working on this week, they will schedule social posts for next week.
They may look through any special events the business has planned next week, as well as any major or minor holidays that they can highlight. They will draft those posts and potentially send them over to the client for approval if that is the nature of the relationship. Some clients trust their social media managers to approve the social media posts themselves.
Tuesday
On Tuesday, it’s time to get those social media posts scheduled. Make any necessary edits and then schedule them for the specific date and time that will likely get the most engagement. This takes some research on the part of the social media manager, based on both the userbase on a particular social media platform as well as the activities of your target audience.
For scheduling, it can help to use a tool like Hootsuite or Sprout Social that will allow them to schedule and cross-post from one central location. Without those tools, they may have to schedule the posts on each social media platform — as long as those platforms allow scheduled posts.
Wednesday
Wednesday is a good day to focus on outreach and engagement with followers. Any social media manager worth their salt will check notifications daily and respond to replies or questions so that your target audience isn’t waiting too long for a response. For anything more, however, Wednesday tends to be the dedicated day. Social media managers will reach out to potential influencers to work out a partnership, search for potential customers who are looking for something that your brand offers, and other more proactive methods of social media marketing.
Thursday
On Thursday, it’s time to start preparing for next week. If you foresee needing any graphic images for your social media posts going up in the next couple of weeks, the social media manager will coordinate with a graphic designer to get those started. That way, on Monday, when the time comes to draft those posts, they’ll have the graphics. They may also meet with clients to discuss any potential direction they want their social media to take in the next couple of weeks.
Friday
Friday is the best day of the week to review. Look at social media analytics. Which posts did the best on which platform and which posts struggled? What can be gleaned from those insights? The social media manager will review these reports, communicate their findings to their client, and take that knowledge into the next weeks.
Of course, every social media manager’s schedule will vary depending on the work they have to tackle. This schedule gives an approximate insight into what you can expect.
