by Linda Pophal
When I tell people what I do for a living, they often ask me how I like life as a social media manager and consultant. Because many of our website visitors and blog readers are engaged in the industry or considering becoming social media managers, I thought it might be of interest to them if I shared some of those personal reflections.
There are two things that I absolutely love about the work I do: (1) the variety and (2) the ability to experiment with various approaches and quickly determine what’s working and what’s not. The variety—both in terms of clients and the communication channels they use—provides a lot of insights and ongoing learning about best practices and different processes.
We leverage this learning in our own work and in our work with clients. I was one of those individuals who quickly became bored working in one organization. I really love the variety of the work we do, the variety in clients and the ability to try new things that we’re able to measure quantitatively.
A reporter asked me recently to share what I hate about being involved in content marketing and social media; I found that to be a pretty tough question.
I honestly don’t think that there’s anything that I hate about what I do. There are, though, a few challenges, as with any position. One is that, because of the current size of my organization, I’m not able to take on and do more. It’s gotten to the point where I’ve had to turn down some potential new clients or decide not to go after certain accounts or opportunities. I’m currently in a position where I need to decide whether I want to remain at the size I am or grow—potentially with the addition of staff members, which I currently do not have on a full-time basis, as I currently work with interns, contractors and freelancers.
Another personal challenge for me—and one that I thought would go away once I started my own business—is working with clients who aren’t interested in taking a strategic approach to their marketing communication efforts, but who just want to “chase tactics.” In some cases, we’re able to dissuade them from that path, and we’re fortunate that all of our long-term clients are very strategically minded. But, in other cases, we’ve been asked to simply implement a certain tactic that may or may not be the best approach, either because the client doesn’t want to consider other alternatives, or because he or she doesn’t feel there’s time to take a strategic approach to planning his or her communication efforts.
Those are relatively minor challenges, though. Overall, this is exciting work—and work that is very measurable, which is extremely rewarding. Many aspects of my personal background have led me to the place I am today; it’s an exciting time to be in communications!
Recommended Reading:
The Everything Guide to Customer Engagement
Tags: communicating strategically, communication planning, communications, strategic communications