4 things that are wrong with the social media marketing industry

Almost every time I talk to a social media manager about their role, I hear the strain in their voice. They bemoan a terrible work-life balance, where they’re tethered to their phones like lifelines, bouncing from one account to another, from platform to platform.

This caught me by surprise.

I thought being a social media manager (SMM) was a sexy job, adjacent to influencing — professionally doing what so many love to do recreationally: being up-to-date on pop culture, meme curation, building and engaging large audiences, and dancing. Like, lots and lots of dancing. (I had the hunch that SMMs were the theatre kids in high school who finally had a chance to shine — and made loads of money doing so. Blame Emily in Paris.)

But, the role is a lot more nuanced than that, and it’s not the fault of the SMMs.

It boils down to an impossibly difficult setup that was handed down from Big Tech. Big Tech’s lack of transparency, unethical product design, and monetization model ultimately created an unsustainable industry culture. This is a culture of competition over community, shallow and sh*tty content, bro-ey advice, and poor work-life balance.

So, hang on to your hats. Let’s cover four things that are wrong with the social media marketing industry.

1. It bends to the rules of Big Tech reactively.

Although Instagram is teeming with social media “gurus” and “silver bullets,” no one knows for sure how social media platforms work — particularly in terms of algorithms and the utilization of user data. Platforms have been historically elusive about what changes happen, when, and how.

The SMM is left to piece together a working strategy based on the meager breadcrumbs Big Tech tosses their way…

…that is, before another feature rollout scrambles things.

2. SMMs exert increasing effort for diminishing gains.

As the platforms change at breakneck speeds, content that used to perform falls flat. SMMs are forced to create more content to just maintain their accounts.

(Oftentimes, this forced quantity implies reduced quality.)

Social media platforms get content-saturated. Much of the content that gets produced doesn’t get its expected viewership, and the value of each piece of content is cheapened.

3. SMMs have to focus on the short term — to a fault.

In such a volatile landscape, it’s difficult to expect consistency. Yet, SMMs are often held responsible for growing “vanity metrics” to justify their own ROI.

From likes to follower count, social media is rife with these “vanity metrics,” which can be described as “statistics that look spectacular on the surface but don’t necessarily translate to any meaningful business results.” Vanity metrics can look impressive, but they don’t necessarily move the needle for business goals, like actual sales.

As a result, SMMs are forced to prioritize short-term vanity gains over long-term brand building and strategy. Their approach becomes too myopic.

4. SMMs are the CMOs of the future but aren’t paid accordingly.

I’m confident SMMs are the CMOs of the future. It’s a rigorous, fast-moving, and future-oriented discipline that asks for a constant update of skills.

It requires a generalist to become a million specialists at once: a designer, an analytics manager, a copywriter, a brand strategist, a videographer, a model, an editor, a special effects artist, a funnels strategist, and a TikTok choreographer.

And, we expect this SMM to be on the pulse 24/7.

Sadly, it’s an undervalued role in terms of compensation.

It’s clear we need to think of the future of social media management from a more holistic perspective. In a future post, I’ll offer my solutions.