Social media marketing managers can work ‘in house’ promoting their own organisation’s brands or they can work with clients at a marketing agency.
What does a social media manager do? | Typical employers of social media managers | Qualifications and training for social media managers | Key skills for social media managers
Social media marketing managers work to promote and strengthen an organisation’s brand(s) using social media platforms. There are a number of creative, analytical and managerial aspects to this role. Social media marketing managers can share many of their responsibilities with marketing executives , multimedia specialists and marketing managers/producers (digital), especially in small- and medium-sized employers (SMEs) where there may not be a dedicated social media manager. Related and alternate job titles include: social media manager, social media marketer, social media executive, social media assistant and social media intern.
Key responsibilities for social media managers
Social media marketing managers’ responsibilities revolve around organising and running marketing campaigns over social media platforms (such as: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat). Typical responsibilities include:
- Creating content, including text posts, video and images for use on social media
- Promoting products, services and content over social media, in a way that is consistent with an organisation’s brand and social media strategy
- Scheduling social media posts using applications such as Hootsuite and TweetDeck
- Interacting with customers and dealing with customers’ enquiries
- Developing new social media strategies and campaigns
- Managing a budget to be spent on promoting social media posts and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
- Keeping track of data and analysing the performance of social media campaigns
- Collaborating with colleagues from across marketing departments to ensure branding is consistent
- Meeting with clients and other stakeholders (such as social media influencers). These meetings may involve pitching potential marketing campaigns.
Typical employers of social media managers
Social media marketing managers can work ‘in-house’ promoting their own organisation’s brands or they can work for a marketing agency, where they would manage the social media presence of their clients. These may be ‘full-service’ agencies or they may specialise solely in digital and social media marketing. There are also a number of opportunities to work as a freelance social media manager. Salaries for entry-level social media roles tend to range from £19,000–£25,000 a year, while experienced social media marketing managers can earn up to £50,000 a year.
The majority of job roles are based in London and other major UK cities. Marketing graduate jobs are advertised online (on sites such as targetjobs ), by recruitment agencies, in national newspapers and in publications such as Campaign , The Drum and Marketing Week .
- Roles may be unadvertised and you may only be able to apply through speculative applications. Find out more about applying speculatively for unadvertised roles here .
- Read about how to write a marketing CV and covering letter for either advertised or speculative opportunities
