A day in life of a Social Media Strategist

An informational interview with Amanda Maxim

Recently, I had the amazing opportunity to ask social media strategist Amanda maxim some questions about her interest in social media marketing and her life as a freelance social media strategist. I got to meet Amanda through a USF AMA marketing week event, social media 101, where I learned about her journey from a college freshman to the present, where she is a successful businesswoman. As someone interested in social media marketing, Amanda’s story really inspired me and so I decided to take the opportunity to ask more about her career and share her answers in hopes of reaching other aspiring social media marketers.

What drew you to social media marketing?

-I’ve always been a huge fan of social media. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok – you name it, I’m on it… except Twitter. I don’t like Twitter lol. Since I have been using these platforms from a young age, I would say I had a basic knowledge of them. When it came time to go to college, Marketing was the major that stood out to me. I spent my freshman year trying to figure out if I really enjoyed Marketing and what kind of career I would want post-graduation. I luckily ended up connecting with a social media marketing expert on Instagram and was offered an internship with her. I got the opportunity to see how she was able to start a business centered around social media marketing and fell in love with it!

How did you get started in social media marketing?

-I knew I wanted to study marketing in college but wasn’t sure what kind of marketing I was interested in. I did some searching on Instagram one day during my freshman year of college and came across Natasha Samuel of @shinewithnatasha and saw that she was just starting her journey of becoming a social media manager. She was a Tampa local, so I reached out to her to conduct an informational interview at a local coffee shop and was so intrigued. She ended up offering me an internship with her and I really got an inside look to see what social media marketing entails and how she built a business around it. I continued to seek out other social media marketing opportunities and internships with a variety of other companies and really became passionate about understanding how social media marketing works and being able to help businesses accomplish their goals on social media!

What made you decide to become a freelance social media strategist?

-My first internship with Natasha showed me that starting and growing a business is 100% possible. I come from a family of entrepreneurs, so starting my own business was always in the back of my mind. Once I got the experience, I needed to become a social media manager, I knew the freelance life was for me. I just love the flexibility – you get to decide who you want to work with, what hours you’re going to work, and what your packages look like!

What is a day in your life like as a social media strategist?

It can vary from day to day but a typical day in the life of a social media manager is:

• 7 am - wake up

• 7:30 am - workout & breakfast & get ready

• 8 am - check emails from clients & research the latest social media marketing news

• 9 am - review client analytics

• 10 am - touch base with all clients

• 11 am - meeting with my intern

• 12 pm - lunch

• 12-5 pm - create content/strategy for client’s social media accounts

• 5 pm - dinner

• 6-9 pm - create content for my business account & interact with my community on IG

• 9pm - Netflix & bedtime!

Essentially, my days consist of a lot of content creation, dealing with analytics, and touching base with clients!

What are your favorite platforms you love to work with?

-Instagram will always be the OG platform to me, but I have to say that TikTok is the most fun. It’s still so new and I just really love seeing how creative people get with it! Since it is so new, there are so many brands/companies looking for people who understand how to create content for TikTok, so that’s where I like to spend a lot of time learning and studying the app and how people create content on it. But like I said, Instagram is definitely an all-time favorite of mine. They have really done a great job diversifying the app and trying to make it as best as it can possibly be. I also really love that you can build a community on IG, which is fantastic for brands!!

What is the hardest or most challenging thing about being a social media strategist?

-As a freelancer, I’m just a team of one, aside from my intern that helps me with a few things here and there. It can get challenging trying to keep up with multiple clients as one person. It definitely requires a lot of communication and organization which are skills that I am constantly improving upon.

What is the most rewarding thing?

-Since I am just a team of one, I think it’s really rewarding to see how far my business has come since I started. Aside from my internships and jobs that helped provide me with the experience I needed to position myself as an expert, I think it’s cool to see how I’ve been able to build an income centered around free social media apps! It’s also very rewarding to help bring my client’s goals to life! I love getting texts from my clients saying that a post I created helped them land a new client or a customer!

What skills do you think are important to have as a person who works in social media marketing?

-Communication! Social media in itself is a communication tool, and it requires you as the social media manager to communicate with the brand’s followers. But you also have to communicate with the client! It really is a balancing act, but if you love what you’re doing, it makes it worth it!

What do you like to do for fun?

-Aside from having a minor TikTok addiction, I love to explore new places like restaurants and coffee shops with my friends! I also love going to the beach and traveling!

Lastly, do you have any advice for people who are looking for a career in social media marketing?

-Take as many opportunities as you can to run social media accounts! It’s totally okay to not know what you’re doing, that’s why I always recommend asking your friends and family if they have a social media account, they need help running because they’re more likely to be understanding! Especially if you’re still in college, this kind of work can be done with a phone and/or laptop and doesn’t take up a TON of time which makes it a great side hustle! Of course, you want to be educated and there are so many free tools out there to learn from industry experts, but I think the real key to success is getting the experience of managing social media accounts from various industries!

I hope this was helpful and inspires someone to take on social media management, even if it’s only a side hustle! If you ever have any questions or want to get in touch, feel free to reach out to me – amanda@ciaosocialmarketing.com or follow me on Instagram/TikTok @socialwithamanda