The one thing all higher education social media managers wished their bosses knew

Illustration by Johanna Lambert

The social media profession isn’t exactly mysterious, nor are its practices a well-kept secret. But senior leadership teams tend to have a gap when it comes to understanding exactly what social media managers do. 

In collaboration with Brandwatch for Education we created The State of the Higher Education Social Media Marketing Profession in 2021 report.

For the report, we interviewed and surveyed higher education social media marketing professionals across the UK and gathered insights from Brandwatch’s tools.

You can read  the full report for free here: The State of the Higher Education Social Media Marketing Profession in 2021

Perception vs reality

The perception of social media management being something of a fluffy gig contrasts starkly with reality. The profession demands a vast skill set and an ever-updating library of knowledge about a huge number of topics. 

Emma Gilmartin, Head of Social Media and Student Communications at the University of Glasgow explains, ”the roles in the profession have changed so much. It's hard to be a graphic designer, a video editor, a data analyst, a customer service representative and a people networker that brings everyone together.

I think we need to be clear about what we want those roles to be and how we break them down. It's hard to be all those things and I think it's unfair to ask one individual to be amazing at all of those things.”

Jon-Stephen Stansel, social media manager, summed it up by saying, “asking a single social media manager to oversee ALL these things is like asking a single musician to play ALL the instruments in a band AT THE SAME TIME. it's like you're playing every single instrument in the band and you're expected to do well.”

Tweet with one person band GIF

Informed expectations 

It’s critical to equip senior leadership teams with the knowledge of the many skills and responsibilities the profession demands.

Additionally, as Alistair Beech, Senior Social Media Coordinator at The University of Manchester says, “[it’s important for senior leadership to] understand the rules of engagement. Such as when the social media team responds, why we don’t respond...” 

This could help relieve some of the pressure experienced by social media professionals.

Further reading

Find out what else was on the minds of higher ed social media marketing professionals from our new report.

Access The State of the Higher Education Social Media Marketing Profession in 2021 report here.