7 answers
Allison
Student
Frankfort, Kentucky
2
Questions
Updated
818 views
How did you get your job as a social media manager and what type of brands did you start working with?
I really want to know what it is like doing social media for a big brand compared to a smaller hometown like brand.
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7 answers
Alexandra Carr
Sr. Manager, Community Engagement
4
Answers
Tacoma, Washington
Updated
Alexandra’s Answer
If you're doing social media marketing for a larger brand, you not only need to be creative but also strategic and data-driven. You need to be able to tie what you're doing on social media for the brand back to business goals and performance, whether that's brand awareness, traffic, sales, etc. And you need to be able to communicate that effectively to leadership. Social media can often get questioned by leadership who want to understand how it's actually helping the business, so you need to be able to speak to that. You also need backbone in social media marketing. So many people think they know how to create content for social media, and people outside of marketing will come to you asking you to post things for the brand that are not a good fit/could hurt actually hurt channel performance. You need to be prepared to say "no," but back that "no" up with guardrails, strategy, and alternative tactics.
Aml Omar
Marketing & Business Development Consultant
26
Answers
Egypt
Updated
Aml’s Answer
If you’re trying to get your first clients as a Social Media Manager, I wouldn’t focus only on applying for “Social Media Manager” jobs.
Start by targeting small businesses, startups, e-commerce brands, restaurants, clinics, beauty brands, real estate companies, coaches, consultants, and personal brands. Look for businesses that already have social media accounts but have inconsistent content, weak branding, low engagement, or no clear content strategy.
You can find opportunities through:
• Upwork — apply for Social Media Management, Content Management, and Social Media Strategy projects.
• Fiverr — create specific services instead of a generic “Social Media Manager” gig, such as content calendars, Instagram management, or social media audits.
• LinkedIn — search for founders, startups, marketing agencies, and companies hiring freelancers or part-time social media support.
• Contra — useful for freelance creative and marketing services.
• PeoplePerHour — another option for finding freelance projects.
• Facebook Groups — especially local business, startup, entrepreneur, and freelance communities.
• Direct Outreach — probably the most underrated option. Build a list of 30–50 relevant businesses, audit their social media, identify 1–2 clear problems, and contact the owner with a short, personalized message.
I’d also recommend approaching marketing agencies. Many agencies outsource social media management, content creation, community management, and design work, so you can become a white-label/freelance resource without having to acquire every end client yourself.
Most importantly, don’t wait until you have “years of experience.” Create 2–3 sample case studies for real or hypothetical brands, show your thinking, content strategy, sample posts, and expected KPIs, and use them as your portfolio.
Your first goal shouldn’t be to work with big brands. It should be to get 2–3 solid clients + measurable results + case studies. Those will make it much easier to move toward bigger clients later.
Start by targeting small businesses, startups, e-commerce brands, restaurants, clinics, beauty brands, real estate companies, coaches, consultants, and personal brands. Look for businesses that already have social media accounts but have inconsistent content, weak branding, low engagement, or no clear content strategy.
You can find opportunities through:
• Upwork — apply for Social Media Management, Content Management, and Social Media Strategy projects.
• Fiverr — create specific services instead of a generic “Social Media Manager” gig, such as content calendars, Instagram management, or social media audits.
• LinkedIn — search for founders, startups, marketing agencies, and companies hiring freelancers or part-time social media support.
• Contra — useful for freelance creative and marketing services.
• PeoplePerHour — another option for finding freelance projects.
• Facebook Groups — especially local business, startup, entrepreneur, and freelance communities.
• Direct Outreach — probably the most underrated option. Build a list of 30–50 relevant businesses, audit their social media, identify 1–2 clear problems, and contact the owner with a short, personalized message.
I’d also recommend approaching marketing agencies. Many agencies outsource social media management, content creation, community management, and design work, so you can become a white-label/freelance resource without having to acquire every end client yourself.
Most importantly, don’t wait until you have “years of experience.” Create 2–3 sample case studies for real or hypothetical brands, show your thinking, content strategy, sample posts, and expected KPIs, and use them as your portfolio.
Your first goal shouldn’t be to work with big brands. It should be to get 2–3 solid clients + measurable results + case studies. Those will make it much easier to move toward bigger clients later.
Janna McLaurin
Web Marketing
3
Answers
Burke, Virginia
Updated
Janna’s Answer
If you’re interested in social media management, I wouldn’t discourage you from pursuing it. Social media is still an important way for brands to connect with customers, build communities, and tell their stories.
However, I would encourage you to think beyond simply becoming a “social media manager.” AI has made it much easier for companies to create posts, write captions, generate images, and manage content. That means some of the more basic tasks associated with social media management are becoming easier to automate.
The skill that I think will make you much more valuable is understanding the brand.
A strong social media professional needs to understand what a brand stands for, who its customers are, what makes the brand different, and how the brand should sound and behave online. From there, you can create a social media experience that feels authentic to that brand and gets people to engage with it.
So, when you’re looking for opportunities, don’t worry as much about finding the biggest or most famous brands. Look for brands where you can really learn how the business works and take ownership of its social presence. A small business, startup, nonprofit, or growing consumer brand can actually be a great place to start because you may have more opportunities to experiment and see the impact of your work.
Try to develop skills in areas such as:
- Understanding a brand’s voice, personality, and positioning
- Identifying and understanding its target audience
- Creating content that people genuinely want to engage with
- Understanding why certain content resonates and other content doesn’t
- Developing a consistent social media strategy rather than just creating individual posts
- Using analytics and audience feedback to improve your approach
- Learning how social media connects to the larger marketing and business strategy
The best social media managers aren’t just good at making content. They understand why a particular piece of content should exist, who it is for, and how it reinforces the brand.
So yes, pursue social media if that’s what interests you. Just make sure you’re building the deeper skill of brand thinking and audience understanding alongside your social media skills. That combination will help you stand out as AI continues to make content creation easier.
However, I would encourage you to think beyond simply becoming a “social media manager.” AI has made it much easier for companies to create posts, write captions, generate images, and manage content. That means some of the more basic tasks associated with social media management are becoming easier to automate.
The skill that I think will make you much more valuable is understanding the brand.
A strong social media professional needs to understand what a brand stands for, who its customers are, what makes the brand different, and how the brand should sound and behave online. From there, you can create a social media experience that feels authentic to that brand and gets people to engage with it.
So, when you’re looking for opportunities, don’t worry as much about finding the biggest or most famous brands. Look for brands where you can really learn how the business works and take ownership of its social presence. A small business, startup, nonprofit, or growing consumer brand can actually be a great place to start because you may have more opportunities to experiment and see the impact of your work.
Try to develop skills in areas such as:
- Understanding a brand’s voice, personality, and positioning
- Identifying and understanding its target audience
- Creating content that people genuinely want to engage with
- Understanding why certain content resonates and other content doesn’t
- Developing a consistent social media strategy rather than just creating individual posts
- Using analytics and audience feedback to improve your approach
- Learning how social media connects to the larger marketing and business strategy
The best social media managers aren’t just good at making content. They understand why a particular piece of content should exist, who it is for, and how it reinforces the brand.
So yes, pursue social media if that’s what interests you. Just make sure you’re building the deeper skill of brand thinking and audience understanding alongside your social media skills. That combination will help you stand out as AI continues to make content creation easier.
Christopher Carroll
Marketing Manager
4
Answers
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Updated
Christopher’s Answer
My first major social media job was at a large university, with roughly 550k+ followers across the major social platforms when I started. I originally got the position through a co-op as a social media manager and managed to get the role full-time, partly by luck, when the current manager left for a new position while I was in the assistant role.
You'll hear similar stories to the above not just in social media, but in any field - many positions come from a lucky break or turn in circumstances, so it is always important to keep your mind open to new opportunities that may arise, even if they aren't your end-goal.
Day to day, the position fell into two key buckets: social media content strategizing and social media monitoring. The content strategizing was very similar to what you would expect from a marketing position: studying data, planning your content, connecting with different audiences to grow your followers, etc. The monitoring side of the job was much more active and changed every day - what are people saying about the brand? Are people asking us questions? Social media is truly a role that doesn't sleep, so it is important to keep your energy up and lean on others for support as needed.
You'll hear similar stories to the above not just in social media, but in any field - many positions come from a lucky break or turn in circumstances, so it is always important to keep your mind open to new opportunities that may arise, even if they aren't your end-goal.
Day to day, the position fell into two key buckets: social media content strategizing and social media monitoring. The content strategizing was very similar to what you would expect from a marketing position: studying data, planning your content, connecting with different audiences to grow your followers, etc. The monitoring side of the job was much more active and changed every day - what are people saying about the brand? Are people asking us questions? Social media is truly a role that doesn't sleep, so it is important to keep your energy up and lean on others for support as needed.
Aytek Yuksel
Marketing
13
Answers
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Updated
Aytek’s Answer
Great to see you are interested in a career in social media!
For large brands, social media has three main components:
1) Strategy: What is your intent/purpose to accomplish on social media. For example, one company can focus a lot on 'customer service' through social media (e.g., airlines do this a bunch) while another one could focus a lot more on 'employer brand' (e.g., why to work for this company). Additional focus areas could be brand building, establishing thought leadership, creating a sales pipeline, and more, and a company could decide to focus on multiple of these (but not all).
2) Planning and execution: Once strategy is set, then comes working with other teams to build content for social media. Large companies' marketing teams are much larger than social media teams; therefore, most social media content comes from collaborations with these marketing teams.
3) Performance management: Social media offers a lot of data that is used to measure the effort's performance.
A typical day for a social media professional at a large brand includes meetings with marketing teams to align on content, time with vendors to create content, and work with stakeholders to adjust the social media calendar. In addition, strategy and performance management tasks are more seasonal (i.e., weekly, monthly, quarterly).
In terms of 'how to get the social media manager job in a large brand '. A two-fold thought:
1) It is kind of 'easy' for anyone to have an opinion on social media just because they use it. In other words, people may develop a false sense of competency around social media because they use it as a user (and may not actually know much about it). One way you can differentiate yourself in finding these jobs is by completing training /courses that demonstrate you are not just a 'user.'
2) Find the social media managers of these companies on LinkedIn or META platforms, reach out to them, and share your intent/resume.
For large brands, social media has three main components:
1) Strategy: What is your intent/purpose to accomplish on social media. For example, one company can focus a lot on 'customer service' through social media (e.g., airlines do this a bunch) while another one could focus a lot more on 'employer brand' (e.g., why to work for this company). Additional focus areas could be brand building, establishing thought leadership, creating a sales pipeline, and more, and a company could decide to focus on multiple of these (but not all).
2) Planning and execution: Once strategy is set, then comes working with other teams to build content for social media. Large companies' marketing teams are much larger than social media teams; therefore, most social media content comes from collaborations with these marketing teams.
3) Performance management: Social media offers a lot of data that is used to measure the effort's performance.
A typical day for a social media professional at a large brand includes meetings with marketing teams to align on content, time with vendors to create content, and work with stakeholders to adjust the social media calendar. In addition, strategy and performance management tasks are more seasonal (i.e., weekly, monthly, quarterly).
In terms of 'how to get the social media manager job in a large brand '. A two-fold thought:
1) It is kind of 'easy' for anyone to have an opinion on social media just because they use it. In other words, people may develop a false sense of competency around social media because they use it as a user (and may not actually know much about it). One way you can differentiate yourself in finding these jobs is by completing training /courses that demonstrate you are not just a 'user.'
2) Find the social media managers of these companies on LinkedIn or META platforms, reach out to them, and share your intent/resume.
Thank you for sharing your perspective.
Allison
Jordan Burgoyne, MBA
Integrated Marketing Manager
7
Answers
Kansas City, Missouri
Updated
Jordan’s Answer
Doing social media marketing for a smaller brand was my preference when I was first starting off because there are more opportunities to wear multiple hats!
Abhishek Mehra
Dell Pan India Social Lead
10
Answers
New Delhi, Delhi, India
Updated
Abhishek’s Answer
Hi there! I got into social media management because I love marketing, creating content, and seeing how people connect with brands online. Before making it my job, I spent time on social platforms, keeping up with trends, and learning how different content grabs people's attention. This hands-on experience made me realize it was something I really enjoyed and wanted to do for a living.
In my career, I've worked with all kinds of brands and audiences. I've learned that the brand's size is less important than the chances it gives you to learn, contribute, and create. Big brands have a wider reach and more resources, while smaller ones let you experiment and make a direct impact. Both offer valuable lessons.
For me, the best brand to work with is one where you keep learning, your ideas matter, and you can create and influence results. It's important to be in a place where you can try new things, grow your skills, and show your value. The best part of a social media career is seeing the impact of your work and what you bring as a marketer.
In my career, I've worked with all kinds of brands and audiences. I've learned that the brand's size is less important than the chances it gives you to learn, contribute, and create. Big brands have a wider reach and more resources, while smaller ones let you experiment and make a direct impact. Both offer valuable lessons.
For me, the best brand to work with is one where you keep learning, your ideas matter, and you can create and influence results. It's important to be in a place where you can try new things, grow your skills, and show your value. The best part of a social media career is seeing the impact of your work and what you bring as a marketer.
I appreciate this, thank you for the advice.
Allison