Day in the Life (of a Social Media Manager): A #Bufferchat Recap
This week on #bufferchat, our community shared what their “day in the life” as social media marketers looks like! Everyone in the chat talked about how they structure their days, how long they really spend on social media, how much collaboration they do within their team, and much more.
Read on to check out the stories, advice and tips that were shared during the chat.
Catch our weekly Twitter chat, #bufferchat, at TWO times every Wednesday for valuable industry insights and to meet hundreds of other smart marketers and social media enthusiasts. Same topic, same place, just at different times – feel free to join in to whichever chat time works best for you!
4 pm AEST (Sydney time)
9 am PT (San Francisco time)
This week’s stats:
Bufferchat #1 (4 pm AEST): 39 participants
Bufferchat #2 (9 am PT): 126 participants
Q1: What is the first thing you do when you get started with work for the day?
From the community:
A1: Bullet Journal. Figure out my 3 largest tasks, then schedule my time. Keeps me on pace all day. #BufferChat
— Jack Appleby (@JuiceboxCA) September 27, 2017
A1: Look at what’s trending on Twitter and make sure I don’t have any scheduled tweets that would not gel with current events #bufferchat
— Justin Nava (@JustinNava) September 27, 2017
A1. Prepare recaps for the previous day, highlighting top content & indicating any trends observed day over day/week over week. #bufferchat
— Geoffrey Blosat (@GeoffTBlosat) September 27, 2017
A1: Check my email and follow up with all the customers. Happy customers = Happy Me! #bufferchat
— Udit Goenka (@iuditg) September 27, 2017
A1 Purposely do not start with email at that can often be a black hole #bufferchat
— Toby Metcalf (@Toby_Metcalf) September 27, 2017
See all the great answers to question 1 here!
Q2: What are your main areas of focus in your work as a social media manager?
From the community:
A2: Creating content (includes blog posts, graphics, social copy), curating content, social interaction, email marketing. #bufferchat -cw
— TheModernConnection (@TMCSocialMedia) September 27, 2017
A2: Relationships! I work in an industry that isn’t big on SM and I know this is helping our business. Plus it’s fun! #bufferchat
— Haylee Cornett (@Haylee_Cornett) September 27, 2017
A2. Setting channel strategies, building our audience, and upping engagement. ???? #bufferchat
— Laura Wilkinson (@solaurawaslike) September 27, 2017
A2: Big strategy and many individual micro campaigns targeted towards specific audiences #bufferchat
— Mr Kampmann ??? (@mrkampmann) September 27, 2017
A2: Engagement! I also remind my clients that SM is a story telling platform with ecommerce mixed in-not the other way around #bufferchat pic.twitter.com/FpG5Lyuo3x
— Dillon Pomeroy (@dillonpomeroy) September 27, 2017
See all the great answers to question 2 here!
Q3: How do you organize/structure your work day with tasks/projects?
From the community:
#bufferchat A3 : Eat the frog first! Start by doing the most painful and least looked forward to tasks, and then prioritize the rest.
— Suki Cuki (@sukiicukii) September 27, 2017
A3: Just started using the Pomodoro technique. Work sans distraction in chunks of 25 min, with variable break lengths in between #bufferchat
— Dera Luce (@DeraLuce) September 27, 2017
A3 Several chunks of tasks that will take my business forward, aligned to my current projects/goals, then other tasks #bufferchat
— LivingAbstracts (@LivingAbstracts) September 27, 2017
A3: Prioritise first. We hold morning ‘stand-up’ meetings to go through our daily tasks and discuss any roadblocks too! #bufferchat
— Dylan Macdonald (@Dylan_Mac95) September 27, 2017
A3: Morning:
Meetings, article reading, planning & data analysis.
Afternoon & sometimes nights:
Content production#bufferchat
— J. Pablo H3 (@HinoIII) September 27, 2017
See all the great answers to question 3 here!
Q4: Approximately how long do you spend directly on social media platforms throughout your work day?
From the community:
A4: Depends on the day (differs by chats like #BufferChat), but on average about two to three hours. We’re always working on efficiency! pic.twitter.com/IQ4o9jT9Z2
— e10 (@e10inc) September 27, 2017
A4: Depends on the day and the task list, but it’ll usually be anywhere from 20% to 50%. The best days are even higher! ? #BufferChat
— Josh Gallant (@joshgallantt) September 27, 2017
A4: More than expected. I think I’m *used* to checking it, therefore I just do out of habit. #bufferchat
— Kayley Robsham (@kayleyrobsham) September 27, 2017
A4 #bufferchat: Probably 1-3 hrs directly on platforms but most time is spent strategizing, planning, ad set up & @buffer-ing.
— Laura Bauman (@laura_bauman) September 27, 2017
A4: I spend a good deal of time on Twitter each day during the week for participating in chats. I join 12 a week, at least! #bufferchat
— Express Writers (@ExpWriters) September 27, 2017
See all the great answers to question 4 here!
Q5: As a social media manager, do you collaborate with a team or mainly work autonomously? Which do you prefer?
From the community:
A5: Both. But I much prefer having a team by my side to fill gaps in my expertise! #Bufferchat pic.twitter.com/WyAl4JiuDi
— Leilani Romer (@LeilaniRomer) September 27, 2017
A5: A mix of both. As a #SocialMediaManager, you need autonomy but you need to collaborate for content creation, curation & events.
Besides, you can’t do everything all by yourself.
It would be great to have a few junior CMs who can help to implement the strategy!#bufferchat
— Aswin Lutchanah (@aswinlutchanah) September 27, 2017
A5: Just me, myself and I #bufferchat pic.twitter.com/v41gKs2plm
— StacyZeal (@StacyZeal) September 27, 2017
A5: I mainly work on my own -we have a Slack channel called “shareable” where the entire team can contribute relevant articles ? #bufferchat
— Kayley Robsham (@kayleyrobsham) September 27, 2017
A5. Love working with a team! More brains = more ideas for creativity + problem solving. Can do head down bum up when need be. #bufferchat
— Arrow Digital (@ArrowDigitalAU) September 27, 2017
See all the great answers to question 5 here!
Q6: Which part of your work do you enjoy the most, and why?
From the community:
A6 #BufferChat When a post goes #unicorn status! Also, working with a variety of companies with AMAZING, INSPIRING stories to tell! pic.twitter.com/TWzdxXYSDT
— Firefli (@fireflimedia) September 27, 2017
A6: Scheduling posts in @buffer! Having everything lined up for the week helps me to focus on writing or learning to code. #bufferchat
— Brenda Sailsman (@BeeAllison_) September 27, 2017
A6 : I loveeeee twitter chats. Highlighting work we do in the office & content ideation. Im all about organic engagement. #bufferchat
— ?Codi? (@Codishaa) September 27, 2017
A6: Content creation! Specifically photos and videos. Those are my jam. #bufferchat
— Chaucee (@streets_stripes) September 27, 2017
A6: engaging with customers is the thing i enjoy the most! Being social is what i love! #bufferchat
— Ramakrishnan? (@RamkiJeyam) September 27, 2017
See all the great answers to question 6 here!
Q7: If you had more hours in the day to focus on new social-media-related skills or projects for your work, what would you focus on?
From the community:
A7: I would build out a strategy & implement a concrete #customeradvocacy / #customerappreciation program. #bufferchat
— Gabby (@the_fabgab) September 27, 2017
A7: Video, for sure! #VideoMarketing is the future of social media. We can’t wait to push more visual content out! #bufferchat #video #kc
— Lure Creative (@LureCreativeKC) September 27, 2017
#bufferchat A7: I would read a lot more than I do now. I would try to soak up as much knowledge on this emerging field as possible https://t.co/zpLcts9UJS
— Joe (@JoeCoadTwo) September 27, 2017
A7: Stories. I’m craving to find time off-work for them. I need to know if I’m good with them. ? #bufferchat
— Chandresh (@thisischandresh) September 27, 2017
A7. I love graphic design, so I would focus on learning new design skills on Photoshop to create new content. #BufferChat
— Dianna Albanese (@dialbanese) September 27, 2017
See all the great answers to question 7 here!
Thank you so much to our awesome community for sharing such great insights in this chat!
Do you have any comments or answers to these questions? Leave your thoughts in the comments! We’d love to hear from you!
Image sources: UnSplash