A Day in the Life of… a Social Media Manager

What does a Blueclaw Social Media Manager do?

Being a Social Media Manager comes down to relationship building. Customers are now looking to social media as the first port of call to an organisation, so it is imperative that businesses are accessible on these channels.

We help our clients build valuable relationships with customers and key influencers in their industry by communicating effectively through social media. Creating connections with bloggers, writers and appropriate industry bodies means we can implement an integrated and creative marketing campaign. This supports our SEO team’s efforts, whilst enhancing the company’s PR, advertising, customer services and brand management.

Working on audits, competitor analysis, reporting, editorial planning, training, monitoring and building relationships is what it’s all about!

What is a typical working day like?

The first morning activity is to do a run through emails and catch up on digital news through social sites and blog posts. Keeping up-to-date with industry developments is very important in this role as it is such a changing and fast-paced landscape. Knowing what challenges or opportunities are round the corner means you can advise clients about what direction they should take next.

Then it’s time to confront the to-do list! Typically this is filled with client strategies, creating and monitoring editorial calendars and generally ensuring everything is running smoothly for my clients. At the beginning of the month, there is usually more focus towards analysis, reporting and client meetings.

Throughout the day I continually work on the community management for my clients. This consists of monitoring conversations, researching relevant news for the industry to share, creating interesting content and building relationships with key influencers on relevant social channels for the brand.

Usually there are some meetings to attend during the day too, which can range from training sessions for new tools, pitches, team catch-up sessions, strategy meetings to generate ideas together, and client training sessions.

What are the best tools for the job?

There are a few tools which make the day-to-day things a bit easier!

• Hootsuite – This dashboard is a godsend for monitoring multiple social media accounts and tracking conversations. It makes managing channels a lot simpler with the ability to schedule posts and track analytics. It also enables you to invite collaborators to projects so your team can manage the channels together.

• Google Drive – Personally I am a big fan of this, it makes document creation so easy with its collaborative features, making it perfect to share within the team or with clients. It’s also great if you need to pick up some work away from your desk as you can access the documents anywhere.

• Crowdbooster – This is a nice social media measurement dashboard. It provides analytics to help you understand the exact performance metrics of your engagement; you can see how many retweets a tweet had, and how many potential impressions there could be. It also monitors influential social users that may be worth engaging with for a specific account.

Any advice for people wanting to work in this industry?

You’ve got to enjoy what you do! Working in the digital industry can mean long hours, as it’s quite challenging and is very fast paced. You’ve got to be adaptable, show initiative and have the ability to think on your feet - everything is always changing and you’ve got to be ahead of the game.

Make sure you’re reading the latest news and have a real passion for what you do. Be seen talking to the right people through social media or attend free conferences and events to make sure your knowledge is fresh and make yourself known. Extra brownie points go to those that have their own side projects such as a website or blog, it’s always a good idea to showcase your thoughts and it means you get to test out your digital skills!