Social media managers, what tasks do you love, what tasks do you dread?
Social media managers are the connection between the brand, and their online audience. Social media managers are tasked with a variety of projects and daily tasks.
We like this definition we found on SproutSocial:
“Social media managers are in charge of representing a company across social channels as the sole voice of the brand. They respond to comments, compile campaigns and create content. These experts provide organizations with the guidance needed to enhance their online presence.”
One thing we know for sure: Not all social media managers have the same job description and not all social media tasks are created equal!
Tasks vary, as some social media managers work independently as contractors, while others work for agencies and others work with an in-house team.
We surveyed the members of our Facebook group to find out where they spend the most time and we came up with the 3 most important social media tasks to manage as a social media manager.
How to Explain the Job of a Social Media Manager
In this article, we had a blast hearing how social media managers described their job!
Of course, all of this was tongue in cheek! Social media managers, by far, love their job.
They find working with businesses is time well spent!
Daily Social Media Tasks
Here are the three most important daily social media tasks to manage as a social media professional, as told to us by our Facebook community members! Your day might look different based on your client’s needs.
1 Online Engagement
The number one task that social media professionals spend time on is engagement! This makes my social media manager heart happy! It’s fantastic to know those who are serious professionals in our industry value engagement AND get paid to communicate with an online audience!
It goes without saying that this means business owners are shifting from talking to and at their audience to talking with their audience. A much-needed pivot!
Just a few years ago, the number one task that social media managers reported spending time one was content creation. Now social media managers spend more time engaging than creating and it’s about time I think!
Examples of online engagement includes, but is not limited to, the following tasks
- Respond to public comments
- Answer DMs
- Send DMs
- Community engagement
- Seek out and engage with other people’s content
- Comment on other people’s content
- Share other people’s content
- Interact with brand influencers
- Reshare influencers posts
Engaging for and as a business online, allows you to give a voice to a logo, a brand. A previously anonymous entity, now has a voice, a personality and sometimes even a face!
That is powerful.
In the end, marketing is about talking Human2Human, not B2C or B2B.
2 Content Creation Tasks
After engagement, social media managers report spending quite a large portion of their time on the content creation process.
Social media managers might be responsible for content that includes creating video, copywriting and graphic design.
While we as social media professionals know the importance of outsourcing, reality is that some social media managers do it all: planning, execution and publishing of content!
In-house social media manager might spend less time on creation, more time on engagement, while freelancers and contractors often will spend the bulk of their time crafting the right messages for their clients in addition to doing administrative work for their business i.e finding new clients, invoicing and creating contracts!
Staying in the creative zone, and coming up with new, exciting content is a daily task for social media managers.
3 Research Tasks
Last but not least, social media managers report spending quite a bit of time on research.
They research, among other things:
- Trends
- Platforms
- Competitors
- Industries
- Content
- Tools
- Hashtags
- Keywords
- And more!
Social media management takes time, effort and… testing.
Research helps social media managers put the best content out, at the best time on the best platform to get maximum exposure for our clients.
Additional Social Media Management Tasks
There are various other tasks that go with managing the social media for a brand or business.
Engagement, content creations and research are just three of the main tasks social media managers are tasked with!
Additional tasks might include:
- Content editing
- Publishing
- Blogging
- Client meetings
- Calendar creation
- Strategy work
- Continuing Education
- Keeping up with trends
- Repurposing content
- Community management
- And more!
Time Management: How Do Social Media Managers Do It All?
While we’ve identified the three main tasks social media managers spend their time on and we’ve listed additional tasks, what we didn’t touch on in this article is how social media managers manage to ‘do it all’.
Time management is a skill that social media managers need. They bounce from client to client if they are freelancers or work for an agency, and perform task after task.
We certainly do not want anything to fall in between the cracks! Here is how we do it.
1 Delegate Tasks
Some social media managers, including myself, delegate tasks to a virtual assistant.
Delegation is the art of working smarter, not harder!
2 Productivity Tools
We can’t do our job without access to our favorite Saas tools.
Learn more about our favorite tools here.
3 Routines
Getting into a routine, and taking the time to understand time management are important as you grow and scale your business.
For example, I create content on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, leaving Tuesdays and Thursdays for meetings, live production and administrative tasks.
4 Batching Tasks
Last but not least, batching your content is an effective way to manage your time and be efficient.
Creating a series of 5 videos all in one day makes sense when you take into account the time spent on setting up the set, makeup and hair, for example!
Increase our Productivity in Social Media Management Today!
Learn 7 ways social media managers can increase productivity here.
Now it’s your turn! How do you do it? We’d love to know.
Come join our online community today!
I am a Certified Social Media Manager, Strategist, International Keynote Speaker, Organic Specialist and Agile marketer! Blogging is my creative outlet. Running, hiking and skiing are how I recharge. You’ll recognize me on stage and online by my always present orange glasses, a nod to my Dutch heritage.
