The 1 Trait Bad Social Media Managers Have That Kill Organic Growth

Written by Nishayne Lowe
(4MIN READ)

Bad social media managers lack clarity.

Lack of clarity about the ultimate goal of the business, on what to create for the business and how each short-form platform truly works.

Around 30% of SMMs (Social Media Managers) in the US have their job for less than a year (Zippia). I’m guessing companies realize social media isn’t a cake walk anymore, so they have to hire better, leaving tons of people with no job.

Today we’ll focus on what SMM’s need to learn to get the most out of their time and better results for their company — hopefully leading to a longer tenure and more pay.

Why you should listen to me…
(hate this part but the internet says I have too)

• 800M+ organic view across social media.
• Trusted to handle partner integrations with billion dollar brands.
• Earned well over 6-Figures as an organic content marketer.
• I truly just love talking, thinking and creating content.

Let’s dive in to the good stuff!

Clarifying the Goal

Imagine blindly boarding a plane and arriving someplace dangerous, boring and depressing.

That’s the game you play when you dive into social without a goal.

Clarifying a goal is the difference between seeing meaningful growth and burning hard-earned cash while wasting countless hours creating with no traction. So let's get clear.

Why does your business need a social media presence?

To get your product or service in front of more people? Are you a media company that needs more eyeballs on their content?

Knowing why you’re putting the effort into creating content will make the process 10x easier, which we’ll also get into.

What intangible feeling do you want to give off?

Dive deep into your business and bring out your unique attributes. Think about the journey people go on when they stumble onto your social media pages. What do you want them to do, think and feel? This will dictate visual aesthetic, brand voice and a plethora of creative elements.

More importantly, you’ll be able to identify the perfect avatar you want consuming your content which will help determine what platforms they live on.

What platform do you want to tackle first?

It’s tempting to loop all short-form video content into the same bucket, but you’d be wrong to do so.

Each platform has different quirks and features. Each platform houses a different main demographic and each niche has it’s nuances which dictate what type of content works well.

• Tiktok is predominantly used by people 13 - 18.
• Instagram Reels is predominantly consumed by people 18 - 34.
• YT Shorts is similar with it being consumed by people 24 - 34.

I’d start with the platform that your avatar consumes the most.

Clarifying What to Create

Content comes in all shapes and sizes.

What’s working for others might not work for you, and vice versa. Instead of following random trends you should instead be looking for the true needs of your market.

I know the nuances of social media can be overwhelming, so start by zooming out.

Know your audience.

We’ve been brainwashed by mainstream information telling us to create to appeal to a algorithm.

This rise of “secrets to the algo” and “10 ways to trick the algo” videos are a few I’ve seen, and unfortunately they’re consumed by businesses which delay the inevitable epiphany.

Create content made for humans, not a algorithm.

Look at your market and identify things they’re deeply interested in. Look at high-performing content in your/adjacent markets and ask “Why did this perform well?” instead of copying it verbatim.

This will allow you to derive valuable data to help with the next step.

Differentiate or die.

What makes you different?

Are people waiting for you to post?

Or are you just one of 1000 videos they scrolled by today?

Having that kind of authority is easier said than done but should be actively pursued.

Create content that provides consistency in terms of metrics but don’t be afraid to experiment.

Bringing forth a new trend, style or format is the key to being at the top of your market and top of mind.

Clarifying How Platforms Work

Forget the platform, focus on the content.

Every component of a video is connected and reliant on one another.

• Great video editing is nothing without a great hook.
• Great hooks are nothing without great ideas.
• Great ideas are nothing without great structure.

If you focus on 90% of the puzzle (creating the video) the other 10% (platform nuances) won’t matter.

Every single piece of advice you hear on social media about using X amount of hashtags, posting at this time of day and doing jumping jacks before uploading need to be completely ignored. Instead dive into the harder stuff like learning copywriting, dissecting films and improving your video editing ability so you can perfect 90% of the project.

Listening to surface level advice will get you surface level results.

For instance, the other day I heard you should clear your memory on your phone to get more views. I wish I was kidding. It seems like people will do anything but the actual hard work.

If you hear people talking about the “algorithm changing”, run far away. The “algorithm” adjusts to what people want. Which means people are the catalyst for change, not some robotic piece of code out to get you.

The accurate saying would be, “People are changing”.

Hope you enjoyed the post.

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