Do Social Media Managers need to be Online Personalities in Order to be Successful?

My Argument for Social Obscurity

I proudly claim the title of social media maven. I run social media for websites, campaigns, and public personalities. At age 20, a large part of my life has been dedicated to making other people look good on the Internet. But what about my online presence?

“A large part of my life has been dedicated to making other people look good on the Internet.”

Basketball coaches are expected to be basketball stars in their own right. Professional organizers are supposed to have neat and tidy desks. And don’t you think therapists should have their lives together?

Umm…I don’t think so. When your service’s purpose is making others look good, the last person you should be thinking of is yourself. When studying my craft (yes, social media is a craft!), I practiced focusing on how to promote another person. Never once did I learn how to promote myself. I’ve learned how to pinpoint strengths in an organization, how to find brands that match those strengths, and how to pack those strengths and brand into one carefully developed tweet or Instagram photo. But never once did a professor tell me to pinpoint my own strengths or suggest I should look for brands to sponsor me.

Is it a bad thing that I’ve never looked inwardly in regards to my social media presence until recently? Or was I just doing my job? In order to prove my prowess as a social media maven, do I need to become a social media personality?

So my argument boils down to the question if others will only take my abilities seriously if I have proven myself across the social media platform. If this is really what matters to organizations looking to hire a Digital Director, then they may be looking in the wrong place. Companies like the fabulous online staple Buzzfeed ask for Twitter handles on their job application. Maybe they want to make sure your tweets have never took a turn for the racist, but maybe they’re trying to feel out your level of social media stardom. Companies are trending towards wanting their Digital Directors to be existing online personalities to prove their worth.

Social media personalities often rely on beauty, existing stardom, or a talent such as singing to help them achieve digital notoriety. These are perfectly valid ways to gain Internet fame, but they shouldn’t be expectations of the person managing the account. Social media managers often don’t desire online fame-they desire to help others achieve it. Organizations hiring digital directors cannot expect their social media managers to desire fame.

“Social media managers often don’t desire online fame-they desire to help others achieve it.”

Social media managers also may not enjoy crafting content for their personal page, or have no motivations to do so. For example, I love creating social media shareables for holidays, which my position as Communication Director for the College Republican Federation of Virginia (CRFV) allows me to do. However, these shareables would serve no major purpose on my personal page, as followers of my personal account don’t need or expect me to say “Happy Memorial Day,” as CRFV followers do. Social media managers often thrive by creating a niche, and surprisingly, they often do not fit in their own niche.

Finally, if one is pouring so much of their time into promoting another person, it makes sense that their page would be less developed. If I devote an appropriate amount of time to my job of managing others’ social pages, my personal social media cannot be held to the same bar as personalities whose personal pages are their job. A company can hire a social media personality as their Digital Director, but chances are they will not be trained in discovering the strengths of others. Their careers were built on highlighting their own strengths. And the most important thing a social media manager needs to do is highlight the strengths of the organization they are promoting.

Please, companies, do not disqualify a social media manager for not being a star. They may still be a social media maven, one who prefers to stay behind the scenes and focus their energy on making you look good. And isn’t that the purpose of this whole job anyway?

Let’s be contradictory! Follow me on social media to help me look good!

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