By Melanie Torres
Brands, whether big or small all have something special to offer. It’s the job of a Community Manager to capture the very essence of the brand and translate that into a unique voice that will resonate well with the brand’s target audience. However, finding what makes a brand special is only the beginning of a Community Manager’s responsibilities. One of our biggest pet peeves is when we tell someone what we do for a living and their response is “Wait, you get to play on Facebook all day? That sounds so easy! I could do that.” (Can those of you in social media management relate?) While yes, as Community Managers a large portion of what we do is post on Facebook, that’s definitely only the tip of the iceberg. For those of you who are a little unfamiliar with what it’s like to be a CM, we invite you to take a little glimpse into our daily life…
First- you may want to begin with a large cup of coffee, or if you’re anything like NetWeave CEO Kevin McNulty, a large cup of diet coke. Caffeine is crucial to get through a day of creative thinking, problem solving, client facing and brainstorming. Once you have your caffeine of choice sit down at your computer and begin to open up all the necessary tabs. For us this usually includes:
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn
Gmail
Google Docs
Hootsuite
Buffer
Salesforce
(Just to name a few)
Once you have everything open you begin by responding to emails. Usually LOTS of emails. Keep in mind as an agency each CM is responsible for maintaining the accounts of several clients, which means keeping up with what’s going on in each of their businesses is crucial. Once emails are out of the way you can begin with the daily tasks of content curation for each client. That means figuring out what to post across all platforms (FB, TW, LI, PIN, IG, etc.) making sure to tailor each message to fit the platform it will be posted on, and of course using a unique voice that matches the client’s overall culture and image. Sometimes you need to follow a strict editorial calendar and other times it’s all about what’s currently trending. If a client of yours happens to have weekly blog posts, you’ll need to sit down and write those too.
Now that content curation is out of the way it’s time for daily upkeep. This entails responding to messages, comments, tweets and posts by fans across all client pages. Removing spammers, dealing with problematic users and blocking inappropriate behavior is all essential to maintaining a strong presence on social media. It’s also important to review the analytics, create or review current social advertising, and make sure everything across all platforms is up to date.
Alright, at this point you’ve done the bulk of today’s work but there’s usually still a few big things left on the agenda. Conference calls with clients and face-to-face meetings pop up on the calendar pretty regularly. In fact, if you have more than five clients then you can plan on speaking or meeting with at least one each day. These client facing opportunities are extremely important in maintaining a thorough knowledge of their business, current marketing campaigns, and any new products, services, or promotions they are offering. It also provides an opportunity to discuss the current data and trends from their own social sites and strategize for ways to continue improving their online presence.
Think you’re done now? Think again. One of the keys to being a good CM is that you’re ALWAYS paying attention to what’s happening on your client’s social platforms. Meaning now it’s time to go back and review the posts you created earlier in the day and respond accordingly to fan comments. Yep, it’s a never ending cycle of posting and checking… tis the fun of social media.
At some point though, you’ll send some more emails and sign off for the day. Only to return bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning to repeat the process all over again. Still think our job is easy? 😉 To be fair, when you work with an excellent team and have an array of interesting clients the job suddenly doesn’t seem so much like, well, a job. Instead you’ll find that establishing those client relationships and having creative liberties makes a CM position pretty darn fun.
If a Community Management position sounds like something you’re interested in, we’re always looking for talented people to join our team! Please email your resume to Kevin McNulty at kevin@netweavonline.com