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Being a social media manager is exciting, exhausting, and ever-evolving. It’s a weird world of opportunities and connectivity and comparison and self-loathing and after working in it for the last decade, I’ve got some thoughts.

Confessions, really. Some juicy. Some… surprising? I hope so.

So without further ado, here are 9 confessions of a (really rather tired) social media manager.

1. I find it hard to post consistently on my own accounts

This is probably my most embarrassing confession but the truth is, I find consistency very difficult. Spending almost all of my time creating and posting content for other people leaves my @bellafoxwell social media cup pretty empty. I wish this wasn’t the case. Fortunately, writing this newsletter is like contemplating dessert. I always have room for it. No matter how full (depleted?!) I am.

2. Some clients think I can fix their business

Social media is not the be-all and end-all. It’s not a golden ticket to overnight sales and leads—especially for businesses that are already struggling. I’ve worked with people in the past who didn’t have clearly defined values, didn’t really really know their brand’s USP or ideal client/market, and didn’t have recent testimonials or work to talk about… and yet they expected me to build their brand and save their business. That’s not a social media manager’s job. We can amplify a business. We can’t resuscitate it.

3. If I never have to discuss hashtags again it will be too soon

I’ll say what I say in my Instagram workshops:

“Great hashtags cannot save crappy content.”

+

“If you spent as much time worrying about your content as you do hashtags, you’d have 100k followers + a 10% engagement rate.”

My theory? It’s a lot easier to think about hashtags than it is to accept the fact that your photos/Reels/carousels may not be as good as they could be. But seriously, you actually don’t need #s. In 2024, short-form video with a juicy hook and a well-written* caption is the quickest way to grow on Instagram. No #s necessary.

*well-written doesn’t mean long (though there’s nothing wrong with that!)

4. I wish more people knew that VAs + SMMs aren’t the same thing

Virtual Assistants are worth their weight in gold. I should know—I have one. But VAs are not the same as Social Media Managers. They have different skill sets. A VA can (typically) turn their hand to any number of administrative tasks and while some specialise in social media, most don’t. If a business is serious about growth on social, it should hire a specialist.

5. I never make content based around ‘Days Of The Year’

This approach is still favoured by some digital marketing agencies and PR companies and it 👏 is 👏 not 👏 a 👏 strategy 👏. Unless you have a big budget and/or the ability to do something TRULY attention-grabbing that could genuinely go viral, do not—I repeat, do NOT—make generic social media content because it’s Wear Your Pink Pants To Work Day. No-one cares.

6. I’m scared of TikTok

I know I should be on it. I know it’s ‘the future’. I know I’m already 5 years too late to the party. And yet absolutely no part of me wants anything to do with TikTok. The few times I’ve had the app on my phone I’ve lost literal h-o-u-r-s of my life to it. There’s no such thing as a quick 5 minutes on TikTok. It’s physically impossible.

As for using it as a marketing channel for my clients? I can advise on it and have done so for several clients. But as for actually managing a TikTok account? Honestly, it’s an insatiable beast I don’t have the strength to feed. Talk about posting consistently. You have to post at least 1x per day on TikTok to grow. Ideally 2-3x. I just can’t hack it. I take my hat off to anyone who can.

I’m also genuinely quite scared of what that app is doing to the brains of the Gen Z…

7. Most of the advice I share falls on deaf ears

The reason I started offering social media management as a service was because I got completely disillusioned with how few people implemented the advice I shared in 1:1 sessions and my (now retired) online course.

I know, I know. Doing your own social media marketing can be hard work (my job wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t… and see above my own struggle to be consistent 😂), but there are also some really easy ways to create content that performs well.

I share these kinds of tips and tricks all the time in my newsletters and on social media and in 1:1 strategy sessions and most people ignore them. This I know because I see students/followers/former clients posting content that’s the wrong size, uses illegible font, is poorly lit etc. Then they tell me Instagram/LinkedIn doesn’t work for them 😭

8. It annoys me when people complain about Instagram

Yes, Instagram is flawed. Yes, it can be incredibly frustrating, especially as a business owner. But it’s also a free tool that has the potential to connect you to thousands of people. Thousands of people who would never have heard of you otherwise. Did I mention that it’s free?

9. Sometimes I wish I’d specialised in paid social

Paid advertising (aka Facebook/Instagram ads) is expensive. It can be incredibly effective, but it costs a lot of $$$. That being said, I sometimes wish I’d specialised in paid social rather than organic social for the simple fact that it’s so much easier to measure. I’m being crude, but broadly speaking…

Spend X, get Y.

Money in, sales/subscribers out.

If only organic social was as simple as that…

👋 What are your social media confessions?

You don’t have to be a social media manager to take part.

You could be a creative or business owner who uses social media and has ~thoughts~.

What do you want to get off your chest?

Hit reply or let me know. I’d love to hear!

Until next week,

Bella

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