I remember when the “social media manager” role first cropping up years ago but boy has the role changed and evolved overtime. In fact I think it has changed so much that the title no longer describes the actual function that the “social media manager” performs. A few years ago the social media manager was the person that monitored various social sites and responded to relevant conversations. Then the social media manager was the person who did all of that plus figure out how to run marketing promotions and service customers. Then it was on to developing policies, education employees internally, developing communities, and on and on it went.
When you look at what most “social media managers” do today it goes far and beyond managing a particular channel. Here are just some of the common functions that these managers are now tasked with doing:
- running campaigns and promotions
- developing loyalty programs
- developing strategies for other departments such as marketing, sales, pr, product, hr, and others
- education employees internally on how to engage with customers and with each other
- create content
- improve the user experience both on-site and offline
- attend events and speak at conferences
- measure and report performance
- learn, understand, and integrate back end systems (such as CRM)
- demo products and services
- host webinars and briefings with bloggers, press, and analysts
- come up with product ideas, usually around “social” integration
- provide insight on future trends and their organizational impact
I realize the social media manager thing has stuck over the years and now it’s the popular role to hire for, but these guys and gals do much more than manage social channels. These social media managers are helping change their organizations into social businesses from the inside out. These people are true “customer and employee engagement strategists” not “social media managers.” I know a lot of great social media and marketing managers out there and here’s a big thanks to all you who are doing such a great job (whether or not you always have support is another question). You guys are really helping move organizations forward and I know there’s a lot that everyone can learn from you guys!
Here are just a few of the great social media managers out there and the companies they belong to:
- Maria Ogneva (Attensity)
- Blake Landau (Blue Kiwi)
- Lauren Vargas (Radian 6)
- Lauren-Hall Stigerts (nGenera)
- Sonny Gil (DeVry University)
- Amber Naslund (Radian 6)
- Jon Ferrara (Nimble, is also the CEO)
- Ric Pratte (Jitterjam, who is also CEO and I believe largely running their social efforts)
Again I know there are many many others, if you are a social media manager or help run social media for your company I’d love it you left your name, the company you manage social for, and perhaps a little tidbit about yourself.
What do you think about social media managers and how their role is evolving? What do you see happening with social media managers in the future?
I know. I was hired to be the social media person but I have ended up building websites, doing SEO, PPC, email marketing, helping staff using their email, doing online PR, creating all the content for all my sites…tiring.
Problem is support as the rest of the organisation rarely understand what we do. or think that content and conversations are second – tier objectives compared with sales. sales bonus don’t help a bit.
I work for Arrows group, a group of recruitment companies in the UK.
Marketing as an organization over the last 18 months has started a radical digital transformation and the social media manager is at the heart of it. The SMM started as passive monitoring, almost big brother-ish but what I see is that our conversations are more tailored and more personal, and in this world the SMM is now on the front lines of proactively representing the company/brand/product. Since SMM is no longer fringe, it has started to blend into the core marketing campaign strategies which is why I think you’ve seen the scope expand. That and the fact that marketing budgets have not been expanding in proporation with revenues. More and more employees are moving into jack-off-all-trades type roles out of fiscal necessity.
I actually manage all the social media channels and do all the extra tasks you described above, but my company (Backupify) appropriately titled me ‘Inbound Marketing Analyst.’ Not only do I manage Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube messages, but I also blog twice a day every day for the company, use a very metrics-driven approach to all activities, developed an entire marketing plan along with a presentation to show to our board, work on screencasts and upcoming webinars, among many other activities.
Before joining Backupify I built up my own personal brand using these exact same channels, proving to my company that I knew how to do this and could transfer my skills over to the company. It’s a very exciting place to be, as social media is evolving, and all ‘social media managers’ alike are learning this niche job at the same time.
Great article, thanks for inviting comments!
Kristin Dziadul
Inbound Marketing Analyst
Backupify
Great article Jacob! I am a social media coordinator for a t-shirt embroidery/custom screen printing company called C.C. Creations. This is my second week here and have learned so much! I do have one question. In your opinion, what is the most effective location-based app for promoting a small/mid-sized business?
Thanks!