Curating Content for the Social Web: The Role of a Social Media Manager

My friend Joe of Book of Joe fame, sent me a link to a story titled Social Media Managers Just Tweet All Day and Surf Facebook. The image to the left is from the post, which goes on to explain the role more thoroughly, and illustrates what is a pretty demanding schedule.

The title of the post is meant to annoy those of us in the social strategy business and  attract people who mistakenly think that social media doesn’t have anything to do with business, marketing or customer relations and that those of us who engage in it are just goofing around all day.

Consultants and thought leaders in the industry have been predicting for years the addition of an important employee role to companies large and small: that of the social media manager. Companies struggle to source the role with existing marketing managers or by outsourcing to firms that may or may not be qualified to manage the company’s social strategy. (The very phrase social strategy may be foreign).

It’s a role that is very quickly becoming necessary and one surrounded with misunderstanding and misdirection (or little direction at all). Companies are saying, “we know we need this, but we don’t know how to get it.” Often, (and this gives me THE CHILLS) companies are turning to their youngest team members (sometimes an intern) and saying, “hey, you’re young, you get this; YOU be our social media manager.”

Uh, no.

A good social media manager understands your business, is well-connected, influential, well-spoken, a clear and concise writer, a curious thinker, a good time manager and an avid consumer of content.

Who is your social media manager? If your company has yet to fill this role, how do you plan to source this position?