“Social Media? Wow I bet that’s a fun job!”… Well yes it is, but like any job you have to take the good with the bad. As someone who works 50 hours a week in Social Media I reveal the 11 Soul destroying moments when you work in Social Media:
- “So what exactly is your job? Do you just go on Facebook?”
Trying to explain the complexities of being a Social Media manager to someone who can barely update their Facebook status is one of my biggest peeves of the job! It’s the schedules, algorithms, content creation, follower building, engagement and analytics… to name a few!
- Tweeting from the wrong account
Sounds like a stupid mistake but when you manage 35 Twitter accounts from your desktop / Hootsuite / iPhone it only takes one slip to do it! Luckily it only takes one mistake (believe me a drunken tweet to your friend about dinosaurs from your company Twitter ought to do it) to stop you from EVER making it again!
- Your battery is always dying
Not so bad if you’re in the office, but managing multiple Social Media accounts from an iPhone with an already underwhelming battery life is a nightmare. I mean all I did was check 14 Facebook pages, 5 twitter accounts, Google +, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram and my emails and I’m on 72%? The struggle is real…
- You get constant notifications
Don’t get me wrong I love notifications… on my personal Facebook! They’re usually someone tagging me in a hilarious video of a dog riding a bike or pictures from a fun Saturday night! It’s usually ‘John’ tweeting about a .Net role they saw 19 weeks ago or a million generic notifications from a retweeted retweet favourite blah blah blah.
- You start to care about the mundane notifications
I take back number 4… I had a retweet from BBC radio 1 last week and my tweet was viewed nearly 50,000 times! Basically the highlight of my year so far.
- You look at your personal accounts less and less
50+ hours a week on your client’s / company’s social media is enough to make you bury your iPhone under a rock for the weekend. However a digital detox can be good for you too!
- You feel genuinely annoyed if you miss a national ‘something’ day
It feels like everyday is #NationalSomethingPointlessDay. This week it has been national Watermelon Day… because Watermelons deserve a day too. But you often miss these days if they don’t trend on twitter until US time (I know… it’s a nightmare). Think of all the witty content you could have tailored to your company on Hot Dog day or Sibling Day?!
- You struggle to find new images / memes of dogs saying Happy Friday
I mean this speaks for itself.
- You have to make everything fit to 140 characters
You just can’t say some things as brief as this.
- Accounts start to stop you following people
“What do you mean I can’t follow more than 2000 people? I NEED to! Sandra the PHP Developer in Rotherham has to be followed!” – Luckily your ability to follow increases as your following increases… panic over!
- You are ALWAYS on call
Unfortunately news doesn’t understand the Monday to Friday schedule so you have to be ready at all times to tweet about something big in the news. As long as it’s relative though, not sure how interested Web Developer’s are that Zayn from One Direction has split up with his fiancée.
Sophie Heaton (Digital Campaign Manager)
