So you want to work in Social Media?
There’s some misconceptions about working within the social media space. Sometimes this can come from brands who think that it doesn’t involve a lot of work and “if I had the time, I could do it myself.” Sometimes it can come from peers who look at people working remotely in this space and say “wow, that must be so much fun, traveling around and playing on Instagram.”
Now both of these points have validity but also largely ignore a lot about the experience, commitment, work, and time that goes into successfully managing social media accounts.
If you’re interested in becoming a Social Media Manager, or maybe just want to understand more about the space the below points give a bit more of an honest deep dive into this type of work.
As a personal note, I would like to say that I’ve been working within social media for over twelve years, and have no desire to stop. But it’s always better to go into a career change with open eyes and a clear understanding of what you’re taking on.
Social Media Managers don’t often get a full day offline. When you’re taking a national holiday off, most social media managers have to either post something manually (as the APIs aren’t perfect when it comes to scheduling), have to keep an eye on messages, respond to comments, etc. This doesn’t always happen and as long as you have the right team supporting you, you can take time off. For example, at the EdgE Agency, we have a Collective of people working across accounts so that if you need to take some down days, a team member has your back. But it will happen at some point, make sure that you’re willing to go the extra mile.
It’s not all creative work. Don’t get me wrong, writing posts, creating Reels and TikTok videos is creative time (and is some of the work that keeps me so inspired in this space) but there’s a lot of admin. This can include account management, planning calendars, responding to comments, resolving customer issues, writing reports, emailing clients, etc. All of this work is hugely important alongside the creative work. A good Social Media Manager knows that without the admin, without fully understanding the community, and without receiving the feedback - you can’t be truly creative in the right way.
Find a way to work with brands you’re passionate about. As a long time Social Media Manager I can tell you that working with brands that inspire you is a completely different experience to working with brands where you don’t have a connection. This is one of our Agency’s principles, we believe in pairing brands with passionate people. When you care about the work, you’re interested, invested, understand the customers (because you are one), and are motivated to start each day. Life is too short to work with brands that don’t speak your truth.
However, be prepared to work on accounts that have different personality approaches. This is one that can be a real challenge for some people. Even if you’re working with brands you’re passionate about, they will have different voices. Make sure that you understand the differences between each one, or your writing may end up merging across the accounts. When The EdgE Agency brings a new client on board we put almost a full month aside to build out their social media strategy, including their tone of voice, beliefs, identity, visual direction, etc. This helps set clear lines for each brand's voice.
Remote work is still work. While you can have more adventures and more freedom with your schedule… you still need reliable internet connections to get work done, and doing the work still takes time. Plan accordingly.
You have to care. This should hopefully be true of everything you do in your life; however, as we all know this isn’t always the case. Being a Social Media Manager can be incredibly rewarding. A lot of the time you’re able to work remotely which means (like the EdgE Collective) that you’re able to adventure through the world and have experiences that enrich your life. You also get daily feedback on your work which can inspire you to improve your performance. You can see real life results for how your marketing is helping brands that you care about. But if you don’t care, you won’t take that feedback on, you won’t use it as fuel to push yourself forward, and your work and the brand will suffer because of it. I’m not sure you can teach someone to care… so make sure you do before you start down this path.
Social Media can be challenging, inspiring, frustrating, and fun. I hope that I continue to work within this space for the foreseeable future and if the above sounds like the right fit for you, I hope we get to work together.
If you’re interested in learning more about being a Social Media Manager you can download our guide, which is a part of the comprehensive training we provide to our team: the EdgE Collective, it’s based on over a decade of experience in the social media space and has been proven over the last five years - as we’ve trained our team to become some of the best social media managers in the world.
At the EdgE Agency we’re always looking for people to join the Collective, bring their passions and discover new brands who align with our team.
See you on the gram!