A Day in the Life of a Social Media Marketer

What do you think social media marketers do all day?

Are you wondering what skills you should have and what you should be doing if you want to become a better social media marketer?

All these answers is available today as we speak with Kieran S-Lawler. Senior Social Media Strategist at Hallam as an expert guest in our series of "A Day In the Life of A Social Media Marketer".

Let's dive in.

Can you please introduce yourself to your audience? 

Hi, my name is Kieran S-Lawler and I’m the Senior Social Media Strategist at Hallam. I have over 6 years of experience in social media marketing and worked with over 50 brands on their social media activity and strategy. I believe that understanding your customers' needs, expectations and requirements are essential to a successful social media marketing strategy.

In the past, I have utilized social media to increase brand revenue by 35% within 12 months by understanding the product users needs, win an award for an integrated campaign focusing heavily on social media, and champion the successful launch of the world's first cheese advent calendar utilizing current trends online.

How did you start your career as a social media marketer?

It all started when I was studying marketing at university, and although my course didn't have a specific module on digital marketing, I always tailored my projects around social media, concluding my university degree with a marketing internship and a dissertation on how users form a relationship with their preferred social media channels. Once my studies where over, I relocated to London for a Social Media Graduate Scheme.

What is one mistake you think most companies are making when it comes to driving value from social media marketing?

So many marketers stop at implementation, and although the initial research and a strong strategy are important, stopping at this point won’t allow you to make the most of your budget and achieve great results. During the optimization stage, you’ll find that data is key to getting the best from your social media campaigns, it allows you to utilize your best performing platforms, adjust your ads, and ultimately move your campaign in a stronger direction.

If I was to start a career as a social media expert, what advice would you give to me that can make me successful?

Social Media is a fast-moving sector, to be successful at any stage of your career you must fully immerse yourself in social media, a few tips on how you can do this below:

• Follow thought leaders on Twitter and engage in their conversations
• Follow social media agencies on LinkedIn and read and share their articles.
• Be social. Jump into your preferred platform and engage with other social media marketers.
• Visit digital marketing events and seek out social media speakers for a chat.
• Follow the companies online who you think do social well, and learn from them. 

What skills or traits do you think someone needs to have if they want to excel as a social media marketer? 

To be a successful social media marketer, you need to have tough skin, as everyone within your company will think they’re a ‘social media expert’ as they have a Facebook account, you’ll need to be able to justify your actions online with best practice in these situations.

Being creative is a must, social media has moved in recent years to a visual storytelling platform, it’s therefore important that you can understand what resonates with your audience and frame it in an entertaining way to achieve your goals.

An analytical approach is needed, as you’ll have to learn what works best on each platform to achieve the specific marketing goals. Understanding data from split testing, audience insights, and current trends will allow your campaigns to exceed expectations.

Can you run us through your daily routine? What do you do when you get to work till when you close for the day? 

I offer around ten social media services to a broad range of sectors, so each campaign is different, therefore my days are truly never the same.

  Today for example:

• I worked from home in the morning to plan the month ahead.
• Engaged with my clients who seek consultancy advice over the weekend.
• Reviewed the local universities social media marketing module, which I’ll be delivering next month.
• Finished a presentation which I’ll be using for one of my upcoming public speaking gigs on social media.
• Headed into the office at lunch to write this for you lovely people.
• This brings me to now, where I’ll go grab a coffee.
• This afternoon I have a client call to discuss the upcoming paid social strategy.
• Before a few internal meetings
• Then conclude my working day creating an organic content plan.
• I’ll also make time once I finish jumping into Twitter and LinkedIn to promote some of my upcoming events.
• I may also go to the pub after work with some of my colleagues, as the weather is glorious.

What is your favorite social media app and what do you like about it?

I would argue that the best app I currently use for social media is Sprout Social. It’s cost-effective and allows me to keep all of my clients activities in one place, it also allows client access so I can tag them in things when needed.

There you go. Now you know what social media marketers do, what motivates them and how a typical day in their work-life is.

Thank you Kieran for sharing your insights with us.

Now over to you, if you are thinking of getting started a social media career, then you can check out this article for insights on how to become a social media marketer.

Staff Writer

This article was written and edited by a staff writer.