Although from the outside, it may look like social media managers are just having fun scrolling through TikTok all day, they’re actually doing lots of different tasks and are an essential part of building a stronger online brand.
A social media manager is a vital part of a business' marketing team and is responsible for creating, managing, and publishing content for a brand's social media accounts. In practice, this means creating written, video, and visual content, maintaining a content calendar and coordinating across teams, engaging with online social media communities, developing strategies to increase engagement and reach, and much more.
If you’re curious about how social media managers split up these tasks during their day, read our latest article that delves into how our very own social media manager breaks up her day to get the most out of social media.
Social media management is naturally a broad role, with tasks varying slightly from one company to another. Generally, social media managers are responsible for the upkeep of the brand’s presence on social media, which includes creating social media content, owning the social media content calendar, developing strategies to increase engagement and reach, and engaging with the online community.
Here are some of the most common tasks that are expected of a social media manager:
To start building a career as a social media manager, gaining relevant experience is most important. Some will say it requires a combination of education and experience, but it really depends on the company’s requirements. Here are a few things you can do to get started on gaining relevant experience in social media:
Social media managers are quite skillful in a wide range of areas, from the more analytical type of skills to the more creative ones. Some of the main skills a social media manager should master are:
The salary of a social media manager varies depending on location, experience, and company size.
As of April 2023, the average salary for a social media manager in the United States is around $73,000 annually, according to BuiltIn.
The above is an average salary, which means that the pay will vary a bit depending on location, years of experience, and title. As an example, the graph below depicts the pay based on time spent working in social media, with social media managers working for over 7 years earning around $90,000 annually in the US.
Social media is often glamorized, especially in the media — but what does it really take to kick off a career? Here’s everything you need to know about how to become a social media manager.
A complete list of social media tasks and projects, placed onto a downloadable checklist for daily, weekly, monthly schedules.
See how a typical social media manager keeps a schedule and follows a checklist to achieve the many different tasks and to-dos of a typical workday
