A Social Media Manager Moment:

Your Job Isn't to Win Every Battle. It's to Solve Problems.

There was a time when I absolutely loved managing social media. Building campaigns. Watching ideas come to life. Growing communities. Finding creative ways to help organizations tell their stories. Every once in a while, I'll still step back into that role for a project or two. But after more than a decade in communications, consulting, and digital strategy, I now find myself looking at the profession differently. Less through the lens of algorithms. More through the lens of people. And if there's one thing I'd tell every social media manager—especially those early in their careers—it's this: Your greatest value isn't creating content. It's solving problems.

Unfortunately, not everyone around you understands that. Some clients think social media is magic. Some executives believe every post should go viral. Some board members won't engage with a single campaign but somehow become experts when the analytics arrive. And then there are the personalities. The oversized egos. The people who insist they're communication experts while ignoring the very principles that make communication effective. If you've worked in this profession long enough, you've met at least one of them. Probably several.

Not Every Communication Problem Is a Social Media Problem

One lesson I've learned over the years is that people often blame the social media manager for problems that started long before a post was ever published. Poor leadership. Unclear messaging. No strategic direction. Departments that don't communicate with each other. Events that nobody bothered to promote internally. Executives who refuse to provide timely approvals. Board members who won't share a single post but wonder why attendance is low. Those aren't social media problems. They're organizational problems. The social media manager just happens to be the one standing closest to the fire.

Your Job Isn't to Feed Every Ego. I recently reread Judy Smith's Good Self, Bad Self. While the book focuses on crisis management, one chapter about ego felt like it could have been written for communications professionals. Smith reminds readers that confidence is healthy. Unchecked ego isn't.

I've seen organizations where one person's need to be right outweighed everyone's desire to solve the problem. I've watched good ideas die because someone couldn't bear the thought that they weren't the one who suggested them. I've seen communication plans abandoned because constructive feedback was mistaken for personal criticism. And perhaps most frustrating of all, I've met people who proudly call themselves public relations or communications experts while consistently demonstrating the very behaviors that create communication crises in the first place. Titles don't make communicators. Behavior does.

Sometimes the Best Strategy Is Listening.

Social media managers often become accidental counselors. They hear frustrations from leadership. Complaints from staff. Suggestions from volunteers. Criticism from the public. Requests from every department. All before lunch. It's tempting to think your job is to have an answer for everything. It isn't. Sometimes your greatest contribution is listening long enough to identify the actual problem. Because the issue rarely starts with the caption.

Don't Let Someone Else's Ego Become Your Identity.

This may be the hardest lesson of all. When someone dismisses your expertise... When a carefully planned campaign is ignored... When a teammate refuses to participate but criticizes the results... When a client changes directions every other day... Don't internalize it.

Some battles aren't about strategy. They're about insecurity. People with fragile egos often mistake collaboration for competition. They don't want solutions. They want validation. Those are two very different things. Your responsibility is to remain professional without becoming personal.

Stay Focused on the Mission. One passage from Judy Smith's book reminded me that ambition becomes dangerous when it loses sight of its purpose. I think the same applies to communication. It's easy to become consumed with likes, shares, impressions, engagement rates, and follower counts. Those metrics matter. But they're not the mission.

The mission is helping people understand. Helping organizations build trust. Helping communities feel informed, connected, and seen. If your work accomplishes those things, you've already succeeded in ways an analytics dashboard can't always measure.

Keep Solving Problems. If you're a social media manager reading this, I hope someone tells you what I wish more people had told me years ago. You aren't "just the social media person." You are a strategist. A translator. A diplomat. A project manager. A crisis navigator. A brand steward. A researcher. Sometimes a photographer. Sometimes a graphic designer. Sometimes a copywriter. Occasionally a therapist. And almost always... A problem solver.

Don't let someone else's ego convince you otherwise. Because at the end of the day, organizations don't succeed because they have the prettiest Instagram feed. They succeed because they have people willing to solve problems with humility, professionalism, and a genuine desire to move the mission forward. And that's something no algorithm can replace.