Social media managers and the tyranny of opinions
One of the most anxiety-inducing parts of my job is dealing with non-marketers giving me their opinion about the social media strategy I’m trying to implement.
I would be working for weeks on planning, creating the content, coming up with an editorial calendar that makes sense; only to be criticised by an accountant, or my manager’s daughter.
There isn’t much that can describe the frustration and anger these comments make me feel.
It seems like these people have good intentions. Social media is mainstream - almost everyone has a few social media profiles.
But that doesn’t make everyone an expert at creating content, finding ways to captivate attention, and spreading a message in a clear and non-confusing way. In fact, acquiring these skills takes (lots of) time, effort, humility, and persistence.
But that’s hard to understand for someone who can post ‘whatever’ on their social wall and have all their boomer friends love/react and wish them a great day.
Social media is everywhere
Almost everyone has social media apps on their phone. Almost everyone knows that social media has a massive influence on people’s opinions and behaviours.
Because of how ubiquitous social media is today, everyone seems to have a strong opinion about it, making them think that they’re experts.
I now see people that can spend half an hour explaining to me how advertisers can target people very precisely through Facebook and how immoral that is. People explain what Twitter should do when some politicians are spreading misinformation online as if Jack Dorsey couldn’t figure it out himself.
Some tell me that ads don’t work on them, yet they just bought a $60 kitchen gadget from a dropshipping website created by a 17-year-old.
Some ask me if I’ve heard of TikTok.
As social media managers, we often forget how little people actually know about social media. The reality is that most people are quite impressively ignorant about social, but act like the most arrogant know-it-alls.
Social media is oversimplified
To make any topic like social media mainstream, you have to overly simplify it. That doesn’t mean that you have to make it incorrect. But to make a topic more understandable by the masses, you have to get rid of a fair amount of complexity.
That’s why everything about social media in mainstream media is borderline inaccurate and oversimplified.
With phrases such as “Facebook sells your personal data to make money” or “Instagram is where the kids are” in day-to-day circulation, there’s no wonder why most people have lots of misconceptions about the reach and importance of social media.
This oversimplification of social media pushes managers and generalist marketers to believe that social media is an easy to master medium; full of kids that can’t wait to buy new trendy products.
“Make this content viral”
“Drive more traffic to our site”
“Post the commercial on Instagram”
These are just a few examples of the absurd requests we can get as social media managers that just prove how misunderstood the platforms (and our jobs) are.
Social media is undervalued
Because of the apparent (and misconceived) simplicity of social media, the job and the person doing the job both get undervalued. How can anyone have respect for someone who manages something that seems so simple and easy?
As everyone uses these tools - and as they seem so easy to use - it can become logical and natural for most people to develop some kind of superiority complex.
That’s where the criticism and suggestions come from.
So as a response, I started doing the same thing. I mean, I file my taxes and manage my expenses as a freelancer, so I should have my word to say about accounting, shouldn’t I? I had to persuade my sister to help me with something a few weeks ago, which probably makes me an expert at persuasion - making me as competent and qualified as a regular salesman, right?
Usually, even if it’s a little rough, people get the hint.
Here is what you can say if you want to be taken more seriously:
When your input is bypassed because someone has a “good feeling” about a stupid move, remind them that you are precisely hired for your knowledge so that they don’t have to gamble on feelings.
When they ask you to make a piece of content viral, say that only the perceived quality of the content can make it go viral and that the performance of a post is not your job.
When they tell you about their kids’ feedback, ask them why they aren’t running a social media marketing agency (SMMA)
When they ask you to come up with a strategy on the spot, ask them what their exact budget is and how many units of a product they want to sell - or any other precise element they won’t be able to provide right away.
When they ask you to replicate their outbound marketing campaigns to social media, ask them to duplicate your Tweets in a TV commercial.
Metaphors and analogies help people understand that social media is a little more complicated than it seems, and that it requires quite more skills than just having a hunch about it.
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