A day in the life of a social media manager

When I say I provide social media marketing services for real estate agents I’m often met with a blank stare followed by “Oh right, that sounds interesting”.

What I do for a living is especially hard to describe to people who don’t use Facebook and Twitter. Often these people just blink twice before changing subject.

There are plenty of times I just say “I get paid to play on Facebook all day”. It’s often easier.

But for the sake of those who really want to know, here’s one of my typical days.

4:30am Sleep rudely interrupted by alarm. Have a glass of water. Check Facebook red notifications and Twitter @replies while pulling on the running shorts. Quickly scan emails for anything urgent.

5:15am Climb stairs

7:15am Coffee. Catch up with the latest social media news using Flipboard and Zite apps on my iPad. Tweet out interesting articles.

8:00am Breakfast and get ready for “work”.

9:00am Update clients’ Facebook business pages. Respond to questions, delete spam comments.

9:30am Send tweets and @replies

10:00am Blog customisation including posting new content, theme customisation

11:00am Respond to Facebook comments, more @replies

12:30pm Lunch, usually at 868 Gourmet, in East Victoria Park. That’s where I’m writing this.

1:30pm Reading and research. Tweet interesting articles.

3:00pm Blog writing including image search and editing

5:00 Check back on Facebook pages. Respond to comments.

There are some things that get done throughout the course of the day.

• Responding to @replies on Twitter
• Responding to Facebook comments
• Using Facebook as a Page to Like and comment on other Pages
• Liaise with my VA
• Work on new projects
• Try new social media software
• Experiment with new WordPress plugins

And for those who still don’t understand what I do, here’s a pretty picture that does the job of explaining pretty well. Click on the image to see a larger version.