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Advice: In House SMM, 16 hours a week, 3 brands, not enough time
Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice. I’m in a split full time role role, with 2 days a week (16 hours) dedicated to in-house social media management for (now) three account sets either distinct brand identity & content. I am struggling and would like some input on the expectations I’m facing right now. Details below:
SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS
Set 1:
2 main social accounts
* Captive audience
* 5 distinct departments including a restaurant, rentals, captive audience events, open to the public event bookings, and general business information
* Expected to post once or once every other day
* Expected to post multiple (3-5 minimum) stories a day
* Has been my primary focus
* Consistent engagement.
* Paid advertising.Set 2:
2 main social accounts (auto post)
* Open to the public, with a large portion of the captive audience using it
* 1 department, quick service cafe
* Originally posted once a week, with no prescheduled stories. Was not a priority for postings and due to unforeseen circumstances with other business needs, I haven’t posted on this account in a month.
* [new] expected to post 3-4 times a week
* Historically minimal engagement.
* No paid advertising.Set 3:
1 social account
* Open to the public
* 1 department, event space rentals & catering
* A team member started this up earlier in the year and it got forgotten about. Has not been used in months.
* [new] Now expected to post 2 times a week with once every other day stories.
* No data on engagement.
* Paid Advertising done through other accounts/non-social media platforms.RESPONSIBILITIES:
I am also:
* the primary content creator (photographer, videographer, copywriter).
* Secondary graphic designer (I get a few designs but majority are mine).
* In charge of poster and physical media management within our building
* In charge of Digital ads design, set up, and monitoring for Meta (when we have campaigns)
* In charge of the social media calendar and (new) weekly reports.
* Additional asks like photography for e-commerce, company wide projects (recently had one that pulled me away from my job for 2 weeks with no time spent on social media duties).
* Managing our digital events calendar.
* + other one-offs that may come upHOURS
I was previously at 20-24 hours a week for a few months and was doing great with focusing on set 1 and the once per week on Set 2, before dropping back to 16 due to team needs for the other side of my job and struggled, with things admittedly getting missed. I’ve voiced previously to my manager about not being happy with my cut in hours and she agrees, but it’s out of both of our hands. And there is no potential for me to become full time in this role in the near future.NEW DEVELOPMENTS
I came out of a really bad meeting yesterday with not good feedback, where someone who I have not previously worked with indirectly blamed me for Set 2s business having the lowest summer sales ever. I was provided with a list of accounts to take inspo from, content creation ideas, etc. Essentially, the vibe was “it’s not that hard [to do what you’re being asked]”MY THOUGHTS
I can admit that I can do better— I’m entry level and been in this role for around a year, and tasks take me longer than someone with more experience would, and I’m still developing my skills. but with all of these new expectations I feel embarrassed and ashamed and just childlike.I’ve begun tracking my time through clockify to illustrate where every minute goes. I’m fantasizing about working a ton of overtime to get all of this completed and at the next check-in when they say “see, look how much progress you’ve made!” I just drop the time tracking and go “no actually, I just had more time,” but we’re not allowed to work OT and I’m pretty sure I’ll get in trouble for doing that. I really like my job and the job market I’m in is DRY, even for entry level, and leaving for a different company is not an option.
YOUR HELP:
Basically: am I being unreasonable? How do I handle the balance of expectations and what’s realistic? Anyone have a pep talk they can share? -
1 Reply
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Of course you are feeling overwhelmed, I would too.
You are not only doing the job of a social media manager but of an analyst, a community manager, a designer, a photographer, a project manager, paid media and probably a lot more. All on part time!
This is probably something someone even with 40 hours would have struggles with. And they even cut your hours? It‘s unreasonable.
It feels unsolvable because the problem is not with you but with upper management not grasping the workload.
You mentioned the rough job market, therefore quitting may not be an option. Continue to do your job. Do what is asked of you but not more. Bring up resources in every meeting. If they blame you for something say: as mentioned before, having extra resources in [Time consuming task] would certainly help.
It is NOT your responsibility that a store has low sales. That is not how sales funnels work.
I don’t see this going well for too long. Stay strong and remember: you are not doing brain surgery or rocket science. If you don’t do your job a meme is not getting posted. It‘s just a job.
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