Social media community manager – just what is your job, anyway?

Somewhere recently I read a blogger mention that he turned off the lights each night to the light of his smart phone display, and the first things he did each morning was check his email and browse his RSS feeds. Before ever setting foot into the bathroom or stumbling to the coffee maker.  It was interesting to read someone actually describe a behavior that’s probably typical of many professionals. I mean, we don’t talk about brushing our teeth, right? It’s just one of those routine things we do, a habit.  But reading him describe his habit – a perpetual state of busyness fed by the likes of 4G connectivity, Androids, apps, and (dare I say) the growing expectations of employers, gave me pause.

So I’ll ask you readers (plugged-in people yourself): Do you ever not feel overloaded with to-do items? Is your work day spent snuffing out campfire after blazing inferno after false alarm?

Let’s see if we can fix that.

If you’re a community or social media manager, or if the functions of either of those two positions are subsets of a broader role for you, then the best place to start getting a handle on your time and output is to start with your boss.

• Confirm that (at least in general terms), you’re spending your time in the areas he/she wants. It may sound simple, but don’t take this for granted, and definitely don’t wait until year-end review time. The boss may simply be wrapped up in his own calendar and not yet set aside the time necessary to go over things with you. Meanwhile, he’s making mental notes about how you’re off the mark.
• Take out your job description 3 to 4 times a year and force yourself to read the stuff written by someone in league with Charlie Brown’s teacher. Yes, job descriptions are usually full of stuffy language and lofty expectations. It’s those formal expectations you’ll be measured against come review time, when your uber cool boss takes a plumb job elsewhere, or when the suits take over. If the job description doesn’t mesh with A) what you do and B) what your boss has actually tasked you with, that should be a major Will Robinson moment for you. Back slowly away from the vehicle and call a meeting, pronto. Jot down changes or additions on a continual basis to keep the description current with reality, then get official sign off.

Okay, now that you and the boss man are copacetic about what he wants, what you’ll be measured against, and what you’re actually spending time on (mileage may vary), it’s time to crank up your effectiveness.

Time Management

• Citrix Online, the company that owns of GoToMeeting and other SaaS platforms, runs a blog called Workshifting. If you’re not familiar with this concept outright, chances are it’s something you do now, anyway, in one form or another. Workshifters are those who simply get work stuff done in one non-traditional (8 to 5) fashion or another. It may mean M-W-F in one office and Tu-Thur in the field; it may mean working remotely, away from headquarters. Take a look at the time management category of the blog to read up on some great lessons from their great stable of authors.
• Other tactical things I’ve tried include:
  • the Pomodoro technique
  • drawing detailed project/task grids on whiteboards (make use of colored markers to delineate between priorities or categories)
  • maintaining recurring status reports
  • Teuxdeux, a great little browser app (also available for the iPhone) that lets you make really flexible to-do lists that can be shared with other team mates
  • the oneforty SocialBase, a sweet tool that helps you schedule social media tasks so you free up some gray matter to do other things

The Pomodoro trick will require great discipline to master your own entrenched habits and environmental forces (we typically bite off way more than we can actually chew, plus we underestimate the time needed to get a unit of work done), but can be very effective even if you have to modify part of the format to suit your own personal situation. I’m a visual person, so the colored white boards keep me centered because I can glance up over my computer anytime and know definitively what’s to be done (it helps that others can see it, too – another measure of accountability). Status reports may seem “junior,” but fact is, once you develop a format you like the process of completing the report each week brings into sharp relief your tangible progress and outputs.

Efficiency

• Spend a week or two doing what you do while keeping a detailed notebook of where each 15-minute increment is spent (meetings, routine tasks, pulling reports, synthesizing raw data, writing, tweeting, reading blog posts, etc.) This list can serve as your baseline, what it currently takes you to complete things. Then start using a tool like e.ggtimer to monitor your speed on those same tasks moving forward.

• The point isn’t to develop a “race” mentality (although the gaming aspect of trying to beat the timer an be fun), but rather to raise your consciousness about how long you’re spending on things. If you’re anything like me, two hours can go by and you’re still writing that blog post… Do good work, but remember you gotta ship things too.

What do you do to ensure you keep a finger on the pulse of the community without losing sight of the bigger picture?

Author’s note:  I first published this post, titled “How to be a more efficient social media manager,” on the Oneforty blog June 3, 2011 as a contributing author. I’m cross-posting here so that Insights & Ingenuity readers might also learn and enjoy.

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