When I tell people what I do for a living, they smile, laugh and tell me how lucky I am to get paid to stay on Facebook and Twitter all day. They often ask, What is it that you really do? That’s why I thought, I should put down what my day really looks like.

Social Media Manager may seem quite an exotic term for everyone, but if you think I chat with my friends’ on Facebook, I don’t really.

Here’s what my typical work day looks like

My day is divided into three parts, The Morning Schedule, the Mid-afternoon and Late evening. My tasks are scheduled according to the time of the day and if I am lucky, there won’t be a new product launch or a flash sale being promoted.

The Morning Schedule (5.30 am – 12.00 pm)

My day starts as early as 5.30 am where I plan what gets posted on the company social media pages, check what’s happening on other social media channels and making a list of what needs to be done even before I have set foot in the office.

My task list looks something like this

• Check my email for any last minute updates
• Look up Twitter for tweets, reply back and Retweet posts that are of interest to us
• Put up posts or videos on social media channels like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and others
• Publish an interesting blog post or news update from the industry
• Look up what others are writing, check for trends  and curate content and look for blogs and posts to share
• Discuss and brainstorm on various ideas for social media with internal teams and Follow-up on any pending tasks  with the other teams, like the sales team.

The Mid-Afternoon Schedule (12.30 pm – 6.30pm)

After lunch, it’s time to sit down and put into practice what we discussed at our brainstorming session. It’s not like I can just post something randomly, there is a lot of strategies that goes into our posts and promotions before it is published.

Analyzing the traffic to the website, thinking of catch social headline, trying to understand why a specific post or blog is getting the most views or clicks. I am also responsible for social partnerships where we exchange blogs and posts during the week. I send out emails every day of the week to our partners with promotion ideas or various pitches.

This is other than my task list that looks like that

• Lunch with another marketing colleague to discuss cross promotion ideas while taking an amazing shot of the pasta I just had and posting it on Instagram
• Write another blog post and develop other content •Check out a conference online about social media, like a              microblogging for the corporate.
• Reexamine our social media pages and follow-up with teammates to make sure things are going smoothly.
• Give a crash course on importance of social media channels for our organization

The Late evening Schedule (6.30 pm -6.30 am)

I usually keep aside an hour to plan my posts for the evening and the next morning. So in the one hour that I have, this is what I do

• Check the numbers for the day
• Register for webinars or events
• Schedule social media posts for late in evening and early morning
• Check my e-mail to check for other updates, reply back to queries if any and send out daily
  updates to others.

Once I am done with my task for the day, it’s time to leave; I am meeting a few friends for dinner. Does your day look like this? If not, I am sure you have another way to manage social media.