28 Jun 2018

What It's Really Like To Work In Social Media

Whenever someone asks what I do for a living I can’t help but slightly hesitate. Telling someone you’re a Social Media Manager can produce a number of different opinions, mainly confused ones. Unfortunately everyone has their own views on social media and how it impacts the world and many of these views can be negative. Yes, I agree we kind of live in a world obsessed with selfies and follower numbers but social media plays a much deeper role than that for me. I thought I’d give you a quick rundown of my day to day working life….

beauty social media manager job
5.30am - Wake up 

I’m quite an early riser (plus my cat wakes me up). As soon as I wake up, I obviously check my phone but only for a couple of minutes. Shower, get ready, feed the cat and out the door I go! All in 30 mins may I add.

6.15am - Train to London

Oh the commuting life. I much prefer to wake up earlier and catch a quieter train so I get a seat and I’m not running around London trying to make my connecting trains and tubes. On the train I usually catch up on the overnight social news, check social pages for any comments, get back to some direct messages and engage with other content the brand I'm working with has been tagged in. Oh, and a little nap obvs.

8.30am - Arrive at work

First things first, coffee. I’ll also use this time to continue to catch up with last nights posts and get back to any comments that we might have on our social channels. Then I’ll usually work through my emails and make a ‘priority to-do list’ so I can kind of plan my day ahead.

9am - Schedule Content

When it comes to scheduling content, I obviously have a social media plan and strategy in place. I like to plan the next week ahead on the Friday so I know exactly what’s going out over the weekend and then for the next week too. I’ll double check all my content and to see if it's still relevant and make room for some ‘organic’ ad hoc content too! It’s important to be able to jump on trends as they happen on social e.g all the Love Island banter.

11.30am - More coffee

A little coffee break and it’s time to do some networking with bloggers on social (both personally and through the brand’s social channels).

10.30am - Create Content

Creating content! This is my fave part of the day. I’ll work with the rest of the marketing team to come up with mini campaigns and ways to promote our products. This might be planning photoshoots, storyboarding and filming videos - it all varies day to day. It’s important to keep content fresh on social, therefore continuous creation is needed. I’ll also commission photographers and influencers to create content for me, which is so much fun and I love seeing my ideas come to life!

beauty social media photography content
12pm - Meetings 

As a Social Media Manager you have to be thinking outside of the box for ways to grow not only a social channel, but also ab rand online. I’ll meet with external partners, agencies and bloggers to discuss opportunities, build relationships and plan some fun things to collaborate on.

1pm - Lunch

Admittedly, usually a working lunch for me. I’ll munch at my desk and browse through social websites, read some blogs and make sure I’m up to date on current industry trends and developments.

2pm - Content strategy

It’s all very well having lovely content to post on social media, but when and where should we be posting it? I’ll create campaign timelines, product launch strategies, create visual mood boards and reflect on previous campaigns to decides how best to push our new content out.

4pm - Reporting

Creating and posting content is so much fun, but it’s about looking at the results and data afterwards, which plays a huge part in a social and digital role. Each month I present social media reports to my directors which is a break down of all the social media activity that’s happened in the last month. I’ll need to pull conversion data, track website traffic from social, measure campaigns, report on paid social ads and translate this all into a bite sized presentation.

6pm - Events or drinks with friends

I’m lucky enough to be invited to events around London from time to time. This is an amazing way to get yourself out there within the industry and network with influencers, agencies and other brands. I usually get invited to these through my personal blog but occasionally there will be industry events or even ones that my company are throwing to attend.

social beauty event manager sleek makeup ouai hair

8pm - Train Home

On the way home I’ll usually check over all social media channels along with my own. I’m currently reading ‘The Secret’ so I’ll read some of that and probably nod off after I’ve asked my boyfriend what’s for dinner.

9pm - Home

Literally drive as fast as I can home to catch the start of Love Island, crack open a bottle of wine and get the dinner on.

10pm - Chill

Off goes the phone, and on goes that face mask. I’ll spend some time in the evening just chilling without being on my phone, whether that means painting my toenails, watching a bit of a film, or even just playing with Mimi (my cat). I’ll also take a look at my personal blog on my computer and write anything down that’s on my mind (usually with another glass of wine).

11.30pm - Sleep! Zzz

And that’s about it. Obviously each day varies and that’s what I love about my job, but generally this is how my day usually rolls out. Any questions, happy to answer!

Em x
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