What Should a Social Media Director Do?

My Social Media Google Alerts have been bringing me some interesting articles that really seem to want to dig into the true role of a Social Media Director. It’s a valid question, although admittedly a relatively new one in the marketing scene. So, what exactly is a day in the life of a Social Media Director like? I’m going to do my best to break it down, but in one word, it’s informative.

Reputation Management

I spend many fragments of my day keeping an eye on the way my clients are talked about on the internet. I keep an eye on customer feedback, customer questions, and customer experiences (positive and negative alike), and do my best to respond within 24 hours – most times falling closer toward a 6 or 8 hour window at the latest. Everything is hooked up to my phone so I can respond immediately on the go or deal with sudden troll issues or other internet dramas that may pop up. I don’t necessarily set time “aside” for this part of my job, because it comprises more observation than action in most cases. So, this is kind of the large pot simmering on the backburner – checked often, stirred when needed, and sampled to make sure things are in good taste.

Hey, Client! Tell Me Stuff!

I contact my clients on a reasonably regular basis. Depending on how active their social campaign is, I relay news from the social end, pass on customer inquiries, share leads, and get the other side of the story when customers are unhappy. When I set up a fresh account for a client, I like to chat with the client and get to know a little bit about the business, the goals of the business and the mission or purpose of the brand. I love meeting my clients in person so I can really get a feel for their voice – are they elegant, funny, relaxed, serious or maybe totally uncertain about how social media even works? Clients trust me to put my own personality aside and speak on their accounts with a voice that represents the whole feel of the company and team. Knowing these voices is one of the most important parts of my job. I have a unique voice for each customer, and a unique set of personas I am focused on marketing to. When my clients give me their goals, I sit down and assess their demographics, sales goals and other data so I start strong and work hard to maintain this strength in the campaign.

News! Viral Content! Everything Happening All At Once!

This is the part where I tell you the secret to getting all the information in the world filtered into one space – except that I don’t have a secret, and what really helps me is a deeply ingrained speed reading ethic, an understanding of basic article structure to help sift through the “gist” of articles, and a strange ability to spot every single typo I come across so I deliver quality content. In other words, your typical Social Media Director is probably an internet nerd, born and raised in the Nintendo generation. There are dabblers, and there are those of us who literally geeked out over the web as it was being born, setting up our Geocities websites using old fashioned HTML and connecting on forums and IRC. We’ve been social since social existed online, and understand the cultures creator community of each social medium. I scour, listen to my friends to get the latest viral content in case I’m looking for specific topics, and most importantly, I know each and every target demographic of my clients. This helps me recognize which viral content or news article fits best for which client. It’s like being a meme matchmaker.

Content. So Much Content.

So I share a lot of content from great sources, but I also have to generate my own unique content to share that is from my clients’ online “voices” as well. I change this up on the regular because I’m into keeping my view fresh and trying to find new ways to look at my approach so I don’t get content burnout. Folks, content burnout is real, and happens to even the best writers who let their content get stale with the same routines day in and day out. Each week, I try a new content approach. I pick certain clients to focus on for certain days, or give everyone an effort all in one sitting. Sometimes I just like to browse networks of clients and interact as part of their content production to create a more authentic voice and networking approach. It’s great to just listen to others who are business owners in the same community – you learn so much from your fellow business owners just by interacting. If your Social Media Director lacks this as a part of their role, I recommend finding one who does network this way – it’s real, insightful, and a great way to create strong connections with fellow local businesses in the area. For enterprise businesses, it’s a great way to actually let people know someone is listening and considering their view. My key piece of advice for generating content? Think about creating content that you would genuinely enjoy reading or interacting with. If it’s not something you or your friends would enjoy, why would you make others read it? Social is for creating more friendships, not alienating people with boring content!