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A Day In The Life Of A Social Media Manager

By April 9, 2019June 23rd, 2022No Comments

Alex McCann - Altrincham HQ

“Oh you just mess around on Facebook all day”


That is what my mum thinks I do on Social Media all day

So what does a social media manager do all day long inbetween messing around on Facebook all day

Here’s an average day in the life of a social media manager

6.45am ::: Check Breaking News & Trending Subjects

Before you’ve even left bed you check the news and trending subjects which can suddenly change the sentiment of your posts and your clients post

A lot of what will trend early in the morning will be content that is planned months in advance – often content for national awareness days

But it’s unplanned stuff you’re looking out for

You don’t want a cheerful jokey post going out when overnight a national treasure has died or a terrorist attack has happened

Similarly it could be a positive news story or subject that it feels right for a client to be involved in

It’s important that you glance at social media within minutes of waking up – even it is a 2 minute glance

7am ::: Breakfast, Emails and 1st Social Media Updates of The Day

If this sounds like a list of how not to have a healthy work life balance you’ll start to realise that being a social media manager is actual work rather than messing around on social media

Breakfast is had at the PC and is usually a pot of fruit and a couple of slices of toast whilst staring at a screen

It’s at this point you clear out the spam emails that have come in overnight and look at any serious emails that need replying to along with the handful of mailing lists you’ve stuck with post GDPR because they actually add value to your life

It’s usually around this time a client will send you photos or news around the national awareness days. They were asked for 2 months ago, but often it lands on the actual day of the national awareness days and the posts need to go out by 8am

8am ::: Gym & Podcast

The gym isn’t something that happens every day, but it something that sets me up for the day

I’ve never been one of those people who is going to be in the gym at 5.30am – it just isn’t going to happen

But that release of endorphins from pushing myself to the limits each morning believe it or not is a pleasurable experience

I like to leverage my time so whilst I’m at the gym I put the headphones on and listen to a podcast which usually inspires a piece of social media content for later that day as well as fundamentally helps grow my business

Health and education are vital

9.15am ::: Engagement

I know some social media managers will avoid this part of the day – but it’s the most important part of social media

If you’re not taking time out of your day for social media engagement, you’re either not being proactive on engagement or the content you’re putting out isn’t attracting engagement

I honestly think our levels of engagement is one of the major reasons our business has grown so much – we genuinely care about people and want to talk to them

Whatever else happens in the day in my business life or personal life there is always time for engagement

10am ::: Social Media Training

I train about 2000 business owners, marketing managers and members of staff each year

When I’m not managing other people’s social media it’s Social Media Training that I do the rest of the day

If you have the knowledge you should pass it on and I do believe that social media training is the best option for some businesses

The only way we can deliver social media training effectively is by being involved deep in the social media trenches for social media management

It means the content we deliver in training is updated like a fluid document based on the changes we witness in real time

1pm ::: Lunch & Engagement

It’s ironic that for our foodie clients the message is often “Get away from your office and come and dine with us” – whereas as a social media manager it’s lunch at my desk most days

Dropping back into our clients accounts it’s engagement engagement engagement time

Engagement is one of the reasons clients often outsource their social media to a company like us. Between family time, business time they simply don’t have the spare time to take away from the business to see what is going on in the outside world and to chat to people on a smart phone

Time can often be an excuse for businesses, but I 100% understand that when you have customers stood in front of you, you can’t simply say “Hang on 2 minutes I’m just sending a tweet”

2pm ::: Content Production
Graphic Design, Blogs, Photos, Videos

For at least 2 hours a day we spend time producing content for ourselves and for our clients

Even when clients provide the content to us it often requires and element of editing so that the content hits home

To be a Social Media Marketer is be a sexy creative geek and it’s these 2 hours that we get sexy and creative and liaise with our partners to finalise the best content possible

4pm ::: Social Media Education

By 4pm America has well and truly woken up and it’s usually by late afternoon that any social media changes have filtered through to the UK

Social Media never stays still and the platform changes keep a social media manager on our toes

The average member of the public simply rolls with the changes and doesn’t overthink it

A social media marketer looks at the changes and thinks how is this beneficial to ourselves and our clients and could there be any detrimental impact

At this stage of the day we also look at great viral posts and social media faux pas brands have made so we have a catalogue of examples of best practice and what not to do on social media

5pm ::: Social Media Analytics

Remember how we mentioned being a social media marketer is being a Sexy Creative Geek

Social Media Analytics is 100% in the geek camp

We have indepth analytics sections at least once a month, but we’re looking at the results each day so that we can further optimise our posts and analyse why posts performed well or not as well as expected

6pm ::: Break

I’ll let you into a little secret here I still watch Neighbours and Home & Away and it’s been a long time since I was a student

It’s my one little switch off and my escape from reality

It’s also the only meal of the day where I actually have food and I’m not working at my PC at the same time

We all have our guilty pleasures – what’s yours?

8pm ::: Schedule Social Media Updates

Towards the end of the day we sit down and schedule clients social media updates for the next day

Don’t worry scheduling updates on social media is absolutely fine as long as your present in real time and are adaptable to any last minute changes / trend jacking and so on

Scheduling allows us to get updates out for multiple clients at the optimum time for each of the individual clients

10.30pm ::: To Do List

You get more done when you plan ahead so at the end of the day I write a to do list for the next day

It’s kept very simple in bullet points

It’s therapeutic and allows me to fully switch off when I go to bed later rather than running ideas through my head

11pm ::: Reading

20-30 minutes of reading a physical book before bed is key

The most successful business owners read every day

Often the books I read are related to business, health or music and I tend to alternate between each of the 3 subjects to give a little variety in my life

11.30pm ::: Client Checks
And one last check of clients before bed and it’s lights out

Disclaimer: I do actually have a life outside work and if you follow us on social media you’ll realise as well as all the above I run, go to gigs about 10 times a month and enjoy dining out often

NEED HELP WITH YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA?

Chat to us about Social Media Marketing for YOUR organisation , so we can better understand YOU and what will grow your organisation

We can only find out what is unique to your business by chatting with you

Look at our Social Media Training and Social Media Management services Or Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk Download banner

Alex McCann

Author Alex McCann

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