confessions of a social media manager - The Simply Measured Blog

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Social media marketing is an interesting space. As social marketers, we work in an industry that our co-workers don’t always “get” and we do things on a daily basis that they might not understand, or even be aware of. On some levels, this autonomy is great. On others, it can be what’s keeping us from being successful. If your boss doesn’t know what you do all day, how is he or she supposed to know

Confessions of a Social Media Manager

when you’re doing it well? If you can’t prove your value now, how can you expect to get to the next level in your career? We asked several social marketers what secrets they have about their job that their co-workers might not know. In this guide, we’ll share those confessions, and some tips for those of you who feel the same way. We’ve hidden their identities, but the confessions are 100% real. Enjoy!

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My boss might not know what I do all day, but I’m not sure what the other people on our marketing team do either. I’m too intimidated to ask them because I’m worried that I won’t understand.

not really sure what they do or how they do it.

I know the basics of what “email marketing” and “SEO” are, but I don’t know what they do on a day to day basis, or how our media We sit in our all-hands meetings and team decides which ads to buy. We I try to follow along, but they use all all have our specialties, but I wish I sorts of acronyms and conversion had a better understanding so we rates that mean nothing to me. I’m could work together closer.

Y T I T N IDE D E L A E CONC


PRO TIP: Have conversations. This will only make you more comfortable with your role on the team, and your role as an expert. You’ll get insight into what they do. You may potentially get ideas of how you can do your job better by having those conversations, or even partner with them to create a more integrated program.

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I have my colleagues convinced that I spend hours each day crafting Tweets and Facebook posts, and editing photos for the perfect Instagram post.

a ton of time identifying areas that I can get involved in, developing campaign plans, and analyzing results to see where we can get better.

Really though? That’s the easy part. Research, planning, strategy...That’s where it gets cumbersome. I spend

Posting is easy after all of that legwork.

PRO TIP: Have you considered letting them know that you’re doing all of that research and analysis? It can only make you look better. Also, it could help them out. You have access to a ton of data that they don’t and if you become the person that they turn to for insight, you become indispensable.

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Sometimes, I let my 14-year-old daughter write our Facebook posts.



PRO TIP: How is she at writing guides? We’ve got some contract work if she’s interested...

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I hate when my colleagues come to me with news or events that we have to get involved in. Newsjacking can be a ton of work to get right, and even if you do get it right, there’s a good chance it won’t get the attention you’re looking for.



Brands get in a lot of trouble trying to jump into conversations about trending events, and it can backfire so easily, but when it works, it’s all over the news. My boss only sees those stories, apparently.

PRO TIP: Share horror stories about how this can go wrong. A quick Google search can show how a poorly thought-out Tweet or Facebook post can negatively impact a brand in real ways.

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I pretend to be an expert at data analysis, but I’m 100% not. I lean pretty heavily on tools like Simply Measured to help me with that. I have scheduled reports that run every week, and I share charts and stats with my boss. I also optimize based on my top performing



content, types, and time-of-day. This has worked pretty well until now, but I’m starting to get some questions about ROI that I have no clue how to answer. I know I’m not alone, but I’m clueless about this and didn’t get into social marketing to spend my whole day doing math.

PRO TIP: Short of “Keep using Simply Measured” my only advice is to focus on that ROI issue. Attribution on social is a huge challenge, so make sure your boss knows that, and then partner with the right technology vendors (like Simply Measured) to work on a solution. You’ll get there.

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I spend all day putting together social content, and I hate most of the social content on the internet. There is so much useless trash out there



that doesn’t add any value, and it’s hurting our performance because it’s cluttering up feeds. I want the trash to go away.

PRO TIP: This is where analysis and optimization can save your life. Find ways of creating the content your audience cares about, and surfacing that for them. What types, topics, and time of day is going to give you the most bang for your buck.

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ABOUT SIMPLY MEASURED Simply Measured is the most complete social analytics solution, empowering marketers with unmatched access to their social data to more clearly define their social strategy and to optimize their tactics for maximum impact. Our goal is to put the tools to understand business data in the hands of business users. We think reporting should be simple, attractive, and accessible for everyone – not just data scientists. Our software streamlines the process from data to deliverables and eliminates the countless hours spent on everyday reporting tasks. We do this by putting cloud data sources at your fingertips, providing a marketplace of best practice reports, and allowing you to generate beautiful solutions on the web, in Excel, and in PowerPoint with a couple of clicks. Want to try Simply Measured?

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