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Nothing says anyone can become a social media manager like Buffer’s resident music major turned SMM, Mitra Mehvar. However, the question is less can you become a social media manager and more should you pursue this career?Social media is often glamorized, especially in the media — but what does it really take to kick off a career? Is it as fun as that one girl on The Bold Type makes it look?Here’s everything you need to know about how to become a social media manager.What is a social media manager?A social media manager is responsible for creating and managing content for an organization’s social media accounts. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Buffer (@buffer) This includes developing strategies to increase engagement and reach, analyzing metrics to measure success, and staying current with the latest social media trends and technologies.While a lot of people on the outside assume that social media managers are interns but in fact, owning a company’s social media profiles in today’s age is actually a very important role. At many companies, it has to be someone senior who is posting to those channels.What do social media managers do?Social media management is naturally a pretty broad role. At the same time, it is, but it’s a red flag when the social media manager role description spans several teams and is too widespread.Pulling from the most commonly repeated tasks across different job descriptions, here are some expectations of a social media manager with about three to five years of experience:Own creating social media content. Coming up with ideas for ways to promote upcoming content pieces, product launches, and any other announcements ensuring content resonates with the customer and the brand. This includes creating written content, graphics, and videos ranging from several seconds to several minutes.Own the social media content calendar and planning process. Planning, managing, and coordinating the content calendar, researching upcoming relevant news, events, or holidays. Leading weekly or biweekly social content brainstorming sessions.Own community management. Responding to and engaging with our community across social media platforms, primarily Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.Experiment and use data to inform strategy. Extract insights and learnings from each social channel and from your time engaging with our community, use these insights to inform our social strategy.Keep up to date with industry trends. Ensuring to keep on top of changes and new features across platforms and easily share those updates with Buffer’s audience on social media and within the company.Be a strong brand voice: Adopt a brand’s voice and tone across content work and ensure that anything published on any social channel fits the brand well.You must avoid any job that packs the role of five people into one. You can’t be expected to create professional videos, post content, head a team of other social media managers, go viral and keep your sanity. What skills do you need to become a social media manager?Social media managers require many skills to be effective in their role.As Mitra says, “I feel like a lot of people don’t get how hard of a job it is to be a social media manager. It seems fun because you use it every day, so how hard can it be? You get into it and there are so many little things you need to know and understand — it’s a lot of work.”More than understanding a platform or creating witty content, successful SMMs have a blend of soft and hard skills. Soft skills include communication, creativity, collaboration, and adaptability.Hard skills also come into play for social media managers. Community management is a major one – Mitra’s day-to-day routine involves a lot of community management. “A lot of my day is spent checking our notifications and replying to people. I usually do this on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, with Mastodon and Discord being recent additions,” she says.Social media managers also need a deep understanding of analytics and how they connect to broader marketing strategy. Everyone loves viral videos, but it’s not a sustainable metric — experienced SMMs understand this. @bufferapp Mid day Target runs are worth the risk #CapCut #targetrunsarethebest #remotework #remoteworklife #wfh #wfhproblems #workfromhome #targettok #targetrunsbelike #targetruns ♬ original sound – Buffer Mitra thinks of social media growth and success in terms of consistency, rather than through viral videos., “I would say that most of our videos are not getting tons of views, but the views we are getting are higher than it was when I started, which is a sign that our work is producing results. My main goal is zooming out to see the progress from our work is growing our social media in increments.”Broad content creation skills, including taking good photos, filming videos, editing, and graphic design, are just some of the skills a successful social media manager needs to have at least working knowledge of.Staying updated with the latest social media trends and technologies is also important. Mitra emphasizes, “It’s very important to participate on social media platforms to understand what’s happening. You need to immerse yourself in the online spaces that matter to your work.”Getting this proficient understanding takes time, but you can speed up the process with the right resources. Check out the Social Media Today website or Geekout and Future Social newsletters to build your knowledge of social media.How to get started as a social media managerTo get started as a social media manager, gaining experience is most important. It’s hard for someone who relies on social media for anything, be it audience engagement or direct revenue, to trust someone lacking in it.Build your personal social media to kickstart your portfolioLuckily, social media management is a unique role because you can show your skills with social media just by working on your personal brand.To showcase your skills, you can start your own social accounts and focus on creating content to show you know what you’re doing. That’s what creators like Jayde Powell did to build trust with their employers. @jaydeipowell @Chipotle understood their assignment. 👏🏾🌽 #itscorn #chipotle #cornkid #creatoreconomy ♬ original sound – J A Y D E Work with people in less popular industries to build a portfolio quicklyYou should also be willing to work on accounts that may seem more boring when it comes to their branding and overall strategy. As social media expert Dynamitri Nawrot-Syreda pointed out, in his experience, they won’t have as many people clamoring to work for them. It can be a great way to build experience and your portfolio.Prioritize building a strong networkNetworking is also a great way to kick off your social media career. By connecting with potential employers and other social media managers, you can gain more knowledge about your industry and build trust and a good reputation. Anjana Palepu, a marketing consultant at Experienzing put it beautifully, “Conversations are the lifeline of creativity and perspectives. You’ll never know where inspiration can strike.”There are many online communities to facilitate your networking – Matt Navarra’s Geekout PRO group on Whatsapp and Facebook, Buffer’s community, and even the Substack comments of newsletters like Link in Bio. You never know where the right connection will surface.Where to find jobs as a social media managerYou can find social media manager positions on job search websites like LinkedIn, Indeed, and FlexJobs. It’s also important to network and build connections within the industry to find job opportunities.You can use search queries to look for jobs. Paste this in Google:site:lever.co | site:greenhouse.io | site:jobs.ashbyhq.com | site:app.dover.io (social media manager | social media marketer | content creator | head of social media) after:2023-01-01 (or your preferred date)You can also use job boards to find roles, like Link In Bio’s Pallet or Otta to aid your search.How much do social media managers make?The salary of a social media manager can vary depending on factors such as location, experience, and company size.According to BuiltIn, the average salary for a social media manager in the United States is around $72,000 annually.This graph from a survey run by Link in Bio also shows some of the common titles social media managers can expect to hold and the associated average pay for them.SourceHere’s another graph that depicts the pay ranges based on years of experience, so you can tell how much you can expect from a role based on that.One of the conclusions from the survey pointed out that more “traditional” marketers are far ahead of their social media manager peers when it comes to income. The same also rings true regarding how far SMMs can expect to rise within their roles.Social media manager career growth opportunitiesCareer opportunities abound for anyone in marketing. For some social media managers, those opportunities might look like climbing one straight ladder, going from intern to Head/Director of Social Media (a role you’ll typically find at bigger companies).Some open Head/Director of Social Media rolesOthers might pursue a broader approach, taking on roles ranging from social media manager to marketing manager to copywriter. Sometimes social media managers grow by taking on new channels in their work (growing “out” instead of just “up”).Instead of focusing solely on posting, moving to a role like social media strategist can allow for more room to explore technical marketing roles like digital or product marketer. Social media managers are well-positioned to be digital marketing leads as well.However, it often goes unsaid that there’s a ceiling on how far social media managers can go in terms of title.To paraphrase an insight from Rachel Karten of Link In Bio, social media professionals often have a deep understanding of their audience and a wide range of skills, but they aren’t taken nearly as seriously as their peers.You can always make more money, but roles like VP of Marketing are more likely given to people with a broad understanding of Marketing. This leads to low retention rates of social media managers, with up to 41 percent of respondents to the aforementioned Link in Bio survey saying they aren’t sure if they want to make a career out of social media as they don’t see a future in the role.That doesn’t mean you can’t reach that point if it’s your goal to grow as a social media – but you’ll have to work even harder than your peers. Continuous learning and staying updated with the latest social media trends and technologies are essential to advance in the field. Taking courses, pursuing degrees, and exploring other marketing roles are great ways to get a head start on breaking the ceiling.Maintain healthy boundaries with social media to avoid burnoutIt’s easy to get burned out trying to keep up with everything required of you as a social media manager. Consider building break time into your social media use, professionally and personally, so you don’t get overwhelmed.Also, as social media strategist Guy Sie points out, any negative feedback on your accounts is not personal, and you shouldn’t take it to heart. You have stewardship, not ownership when it comes to the accounts you work on, and you should be ready to let go ofSocial media managers need to manage their relationships with platforms differently from other people. Advocate for clear boundaries and time to step away from your accounts to your bosses to maintain a healthy relationship with social media.📱Check out this article for more advice about avoiding burnout as a social media manager: Avoiding Burnout as a Social Media Manager (With Advice From Our Very Own Social Media Manager).

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In my dream world, I’d be a content creator full-time. I’ve been an influencer at heart since 2009, before that was even a thing you could be, and have spent my career looking for ways to make a sustainable living from sharing my passions and expertise with the world. As the face of Period Nirvana—the most comprehensive website and educational resource on the topics of menstrual cups and other reusable menstrual products—I spend a good portion of my time making fake blood and sitting on a toilet filming myself, and I love every second of it.But I’ve also been in the online content world long enough to know that making a living from content alone is a grind. You can have a million views on your Instagram Reels or YouTube videos and still not make nearly enough money to support yourself. Your income can also be wildly inconsistent month to month. I’m not saying it’s impossible to make a living as a content creator, but I found it challenging to make the math add up based on my previous experiences in the industry. When I started brainstorming the launch of my new brand, I realized that if I wanted to be able to consistently provide free, educational content that makes millions of peoples’ lives easier, I needed to find another way to monetize it.So, alongside my educational brand, I decided to launch an e-commerce store dedicated to reusable menstrual products: Period.Shop. Thanks to this unique hybrid business model, I’ve been able to reach multi-six figures in revenue within just two years of launching the brand. This year, I anticipate that I could reach $1 million in sales. Whether you’re a business owner looking to use content to grow your brand, or a content creator wondering about launching another stream of income, here is why this approach works so well, plus some of my advice for marrying content and retail in a way that can lead to incredible results.I use my content to advertise for my own productsThe content I create on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and my blog serves as marketing for my shop. Not only does it help me build thought leadership and a following of potential customers who trust me, I can use every single video I create as an advertisement for the products I stock. For me, this is more effective than trying to get other brands to pay me to advertise their products in my content, especially considering companies in my niche don’t tend to have huge ad budgets. My retail store also allows me to earn money from the products I’d be recommending anyway—instead of sharing an affiliate link and making a small 1-5% commission, I can push viewers toward my store that has higher margins (40% on average). Though these higher margins also come with the higher overhead costs of operating a retail store, I still find I’m able to turn a better profit than I would be able to via ad revenue, affiliate links, and sponsored posts.In April 2021, our content strategy paid off with our first viral TikTok that netted Period.Shop an $8,000 day. One video instantly boosted awareness of our account and brand. Multiple viral videos on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube have fueled continued success and growth while gaining our brand global recognition as the top source of menstrual cup and disc education.   @periodnirvana Is this a world record? #periodtiktok #menstrualcup #periodstories ♬ Steven Universe – L.Dre The income I make from the store gives me the freedom to create the content I want to, without juggling other brands’ demands or stretching myself too thin doing something else on the side to make money. The content itself is also monetized through programs that pay creators for the eyeballs they receive—such website ads, Reels Bonus, TikTok Creator Fund, and YouTube ads—though I see that more as bonus income each month rather than having to rely on it to support myself and my family.I’ve kept my content more educational than promotionalThat said, the biggest mistake I see people make when trying to grow content channels to support their business is focusing too much on selling their products. A far more engaging approach is to educate your audience on your niche. Yes, I talk about and demo the products I sell, but I also answer questions about products I don’t stock and menstruation in general. Why? Because I want my community to feel like I’ll provide value whether they buy something from me or not. When they feel like I’m really here to help them and am not just out for the sale, it helps people connect with the brand. Plus, it builds trust: when I share information about my products or recommend something I do sell, my followers know it’s coming from a place of true expertise. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kim Rosas (@periodnirvana) Think about what you’re the expert on, or what you’re passionate about, related to the products you sell, and lean into sharing that. It will help you create content that really resonates instead of content that comes across as disingenuous and salesy.I created a strong lead magnet to tie everything togetherOf course, you don’t want the content you create to be completely disconnected from the products you’re selling, either. A strong lead magnet—or a free resource you offer customers, typically in exchange for their email address—can be a great way to drive people to your site without it feeling like you’re pushing a sale. My primary source of sales is our quiz funnel. My videos on TikTok or YouTube primarily point to further content on my educational site (rather than pointing directly to my shop), where our quiz will help people find the right product (even if that’s not a product we stock!) and encourage them to join our mailing list. We also have other resources on the site that provide value while also driving toward some of our products, like our comprehensive menstrual cup chart and our filterable cup and disc finder. If I ended all of my videos by pushing people directly to buy my products, they could start sounding too marketing-heavy, fast. Instead, a compelling lead magnet allows me to have a gentler call to action, directing viewers to a resource where I can help them find the best products for their needs and further build trust.I didn’t put all my eggs in one content basketAnother mistake I see businesses and content creators make is going all-in on one channel. Maybe they had a video go viral on TikTok so decided to double down there, or they feel most comfortable on Instagram. I get it: Creating content takes time, so you don’t want to stretch yourself too thin over multiple channels. But I always remind people that you don’t own your audience on social channels, and they can change the algorithm and take away your growth at any moment. That’s what’s happening for me on TikTok right now: I used to get 30,000-100,000 views even on my lowest-performing content, and now I’m seeing 1,000 views or fewer. Thankfully, YouTube is on an upswing right now, so I’m not losing traffic on the whole—which is exactly why businesses need to make sure they’re putting out content on multiple channels. You don’t even have to start from scratch each time: I will regularly reformat videos from my YouTube into shorter-form clips for Instagram and TikTok. (I also know business owners who hire virtual assistants to take on the work of reformatting.) Yes, it’s a little more time-consuming to add this step, but it’s so worth it in helping protect me from the whims of social media.I streamlined business operations to leave time for contentI won’t lie: Running a content brand and a retail store simultaneously is a lot of work. And transitioning from a solo content creator to a business owner having to deal with customers and complex logistics was a huge adjustment.But I’ve found ways to streamline my business operations to ensure I still have plenty of time and brain space to be creative and make content. For instance, I’ve worked with a local 3PL (third-party logistics) fulfillment center from the start, which means I don’t have to spend time shipping out orders. I do customer service myself, but try to time-block it, starting and ending my day answering emails so I can have large swaths of content creation time in between. But there’s so much to do when running a shop—from managing vendors to creating listings and product photography—and I’m still the one doing most of it myself.When I have to take time away from my first love (creating content) to work on building the retail side of my business, I try to remind myself that I’m investing in financial stability, both now and for the future. One of the other challenges of making a living as a content creator is that when you stop creating content, you stop making money. I love that I’m building a foundation so that, if I ever decide to step away as a public figure, I can still have a thriving business.