Why Teachers Make Great Social Media Managers

As a retired teacher, I will tell you why teachers make great social media managers. If you are thinking about leaving the classroom, after a quick Google search, you’ve likely found other potential career options for yourself.

• Virtual Teacher
• Instructional Designer
• Corporate Trainer
• Educational Technology
• Project Coordinator

I see many teachers scrambling over the question, “What SHOULD I do next?” wanting someone to give them the next right step…when in truth, there isn’t ONE RIGHT course of action.

There are options. And your personality, interests, and lifestyle that you want will determine what the best next choice is for you (side note: please give yourself permission to change your mind).

So imma drop you another option: 

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT

Here’s why teachers would make great social media managers:

Teaching is a career where you have to manage a lot of tasks, understand learning and human behavior, and often create content, assets, and resources that make education more effective.

With social media management, you’re often managing multiple clients, figuring out how to best communicate a specific idea or product, and creating content (writing, graphics, video/photo editing).

Teachers are also uniquely skilled to be able to figure ish out (like, if you taught in a pandemic, for example.) So maybe you don’t know how to video edit. Or what type of content works the best on Instagram in 2022? But if you decide that you want to learn, YOU CAN.

And many teachers have a penchant for social media.

Ya know, those of you that have a “Teachergram” or a “TeacherTikTok.”

 

What if you could take the same principles that make those accounts effective and apply them to a business?

 

Teachers have so many transferable skills, such as:

• Planning → Creating a content calendar and conceptualizing how it works with company goals
• Organization → Scheduling/repurposing content AND managing your time wisely
• Creativity → Thinking outside of the box and doing things differently than others
• Writing → Caption, blog, or email copywriting
• Canva Design → Design for freebies or social media graphics
• Data → Pulling monthly analytics reports and adjusting based on what works and what doesn’t
• Growth mindset / lifelong learning → Being able to figure out the things that you need to be effective
• People skills → Community engagement & DM management
• Collaboration → Collaborating with other members of a marketing team to be sure everything is working together properly 
• Public speaking → confidence in front of others
• Adaptability → Being able to adapt quickly to changes in the social landscape or trends

And depending on your specific background and interests, you may have other skills like:

• Audio, video, or photo editing
• Content creation for social media
• Copywriting (creating copy to influence people to take a specific action)
• Website design
• Business Savviness

DANGGG…I hope you realize now that you’re skilled as heck, right?

 

But what are the perks of being a freelance social media manager? 

Freelance = self-employed independent contractor that works on a project basis, part-time, or full-time providing services to one or more clients.

INSTEAD OF working for a particular business as their employee – AKA a job.

 

There are A LOT of perks to this:

1. The ability to charge more. When businesses aren’t responsible for training you or your benefits, it opens up the ability to charge more. Also, you have to take out a portion of your income for taxes (so charge accordingly). 
2. Working from anywhere, anytime. If you’re a freelancer and not an employee, businesses can’t dictate where or when you work, which opens up a lot of opportunities.
3. You can work as much or as little as you like. You could get a lot of different clients and do this full-time OR you could just have one or two clients and do this part-time, providing you with some extra income.
4. Having a job that you can do that’s FUN. No one wants to work all the time, but honestly, it’s nice to have a job where the work can feel fun and energizing. Especially if you’re starting it as a part-time job to supplement your already existing income.
5. You get to create the business and life that you want. In the “real world,” if you don’t like someone or get along with them at work…too bad. If there is content that you don’t feel like you would like to teach but it’s part of your state standards…too bad. And if there’s a task at your job that you just really despise doing but it’s a part of your job description…you guessed it, too bad. With social media management, if you don’t get along with a client or feel like their business is aligned with your interests and values…you don’t have to work for them. If there is a task that you don’t like doing regarding social media management or the things that are included in a package for your customer, you can just not include it anymore. You can work when and where you want, which allows you more flexibility in your life and to build a life that you have designed, instead of just one that was chosen for you by your employer or your career (which is a beautiful thing).

Intrigued? 

This blog post is just about how awesome you are and how incredible of an opportunity social media management is as a potential income opportunity. 

But if you’re intrigued, I did create an entire blog about what social media managers do, how to get started, how to find clients, the earning opportunity, and a ton of other FAQs. You can read it here.

 

 

No matter what you decide, I want you to know…

If this is something that you want to do. I’m here to support you.

Both with my free content, but also with resources to teach you how to do the whole shabang as well, with my course You Meet Social: Earn an Income as a Social Media Manager.

If this is something you DON’T want to do, totally cool! There is something else you’re called to that might be a better fit.

But I DO want you to know that YOU DO have the ability to do something outside of the teaching career field.

You DO deserve a job that makes you feel happy and fulfilled.

You DO deserve to prioritize yourself, without all the crazy guilt that can come with leaving teaching.

You’re kind of a rockstar.

 

I’m always rooting for you!

Allison