Higher ed social media managers aren’t alright
Social media managers, you okay?
According to Sprout Social, 42% of marketers plan to stop working in social media in the next 2 years.
TBH I think major “social media” companies feel the same:
Snap wants to be a camera company
Meta wants (bless) to be an AI company
TikTok wants to be an entertainment company
The reason 63% of social media professionals are either experiencing burnout or have experienced it within the last one to three months, is because “social media” as a category is now too broad.
What even is “social media” in 2023?
I don’t have a definition 🤷
But what I do know is that the skills required to grow a YouTube channel, LinkedIn company page and a TikTok account… are all highly differentiated.
We should hire as such.
“But we have 7+ channels!”
According to GWI, you reach the same unique audience on 2 platforms as you do on 7.
Put differently, be great in a few places rather than average everywhere.
Of course, there is value to meeting the same audience in multiple channels.
But if you’ve got 1 person managing 7 accounts… something’s got to give and it shouldn’t be your social media manager’s sanity.
Want to grow your TikTok audience?
Hire someone who specialises in that and/or has done it themselves.
It’s a skill.
You wouldn’t hire a paid search specialist to manage your content marketing.
We need the same nuance when it comes to social media.
Ask yourself:
What position are you really hiring for?
Further reading...
Marketers say “I’m out” of social media (within two years.) Read
GWI sharing data on unique audiences across platforms (p.171.) Read
