Here’s The Scoop: My Experience As A Social Media Manager
By: Ally Garofalo
Tags: Career Advice, Mental Health, Social Media Management, Millennials, Social Media

This is why I’m no longer a social media manager and why I don’t recommend it as a career. Your thoughts may differ from my opinion, and that’s okay. This is based on my experience and this is my story.

So, here’s the scoop. While being a social media manager may seem like a glamorous, and interesting job, it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be. Trust me, it was actually a bit of a nightmare. Yeah, seriously.

How did I become a social media manager and how long was I in this profession?

While obtaining an advanced diploma in journalism, I did not think that I would fall into an interesting rabbit hole of marketing gigs following my graduation. I was grateful to be finding work within a relative field, however, it was never my first choice. My heart was set on being a writer, and a writer I was going to be even if it killed me.

But life sometimes has other plans for you, and sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches. After a couple of years of being exposed to the marketing world, I found an interesting opportunity to become a social media manager. Essentially, I would be paid to create content and help elevate businesses and brands with their digital presence. I was immediately intrigued and dove into the deep end. What could go wrong? How could something like this be so stressful?

From 2015 until 2020, I was able to expand my expertise and experience with marketing agencies, in-house positions in companies, and even take on freelance clients. In saying that, I was exposed to a multitude of industries and I was able to be successful. Within those five years, I was fortunate enough to have managed well over 100 accounts spanning across all social platforms and target specific audiences accordingly.

So, what happened?

I realized after a while that this is no ordinary job. In fact, the demand was certainly there and then some. With that being said, you’re expected to always be on call and at the ready with your phone in case you need to post something, respond to an Instagram comment or handle damage control, and that may mean working around the clock, even on a Saturday evening. When all you want to do is either kick back and relax or hang with your friends, work is the last thing on your mind. However, it’s what I signed up for and I had to commit.

On the flip side of things, while working for agencies or clients as a freelancer, I also found that this kind of work has an expiry date. If a client signs on for you to manage their social and they don’t see the ROI they were hoping for immediately (aka in the form of vanity likes) they get impatient or think after a while that they can, in fact, do this themselves. And so the clients drop off eventually with almost no hope of retention. This put tons of stress on myself and my employers while we struggled immensely with this very prominent issue.

Even though I was successful, it was a long road of hopping from different jobs just so I’d be secure and earn an honest cash flow. It was exhausting and I was getting burnt out very quickly. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to grow within a company and be a part of office culture, and because of that, I started to have a lot of self-doubts, even though the situation I found myself in was out of my control. But alas, I persisted and was able to find work.

But the straw that finally broke this camel’s back? The 2020 pandemic, of course.

When shit really hit the fan earlier this year, and I saw my colleagues being laid off, I was spared and I was allowed to work — from home. But it was not the experience I was anticipating. Again, late nights and weekends were plagued by work-related tasks and they were enforced by my management at the time. I know I’m going to suffer from this PTSD for a while. I would get a huge knot in my stomach when they would send me very nasty texts. I would get calls after hours only to be berated time and time again. I was being mentally abused. Enough was enough.

As a millennial woman, I made a commitment to my little family that I would have a successful and flourishing career. But ultimately, they come first. I may be a writer, but I’m a wife first. I may be a great asset to any company I work for. But one day, I will have children, and I no matter how successful I will be, I will be a mother first. My career is a supplement to how I support my family. If I’m working more than I live, how fulfilling is my life, especially when I’ve made a commitment to be the best wife — and eventually mother — I can be?

I was mentally drained and I wasn’t able to show up for the people in my life as a result of these frustrations. And because of that reason alone, I came to the conclusion that this career path was not the one for me. For anyone who is in a similar pair of shoes, I can predict that it would be rather difficult to juggle this profession while having a work-life balance that is easy on you.

If you’re a social media manager or thinking about jumping into the career without trepidation (don’t say I didn’t warn you), think long and hard about having a chat with whomever you work with or work for. By setting clear boundaries on when you are working or how you can create a more balanced, healthy, and stress-free lifestyle, you’re setting yourself up for a better foundation for success.