QUIT MY JOB AND MARRY A MILLIONAIRE ?

 "I JUST WANT TO QUIT AND BECOME SOMEONE'S RICH HOUSEWIFE"

 The young Nigerian social media manager palaver 

Have you heard the saying "If you see a Nigerian social media manager give him/her a hug" ? Well you probably haven't because I just made that up, but that doesn't make it any less accurate. The difficulty level in this country is ×2 and social media managers are not exempted.

Before I continue, my name is Lilian, but you can call me Lillie, coz we're cool like that. I'm a digital marketer specializing in Social Media Management (SMM), and I'll be sharing some vexing occurrences I've had to deal with as a Nigerian social media manager.

A social media manager is a person who is responsible for managing a brand's presence on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc. This means that as a social media manager, my priority is to make sure that the brands I work with meet and possibly surpass their goals in the social media space. It's a very cool job and a choice skill for most young people. Especially since it requires you to be social media savvy. Even though I love my job, there are a few things about it that makes me just want to switch to Plan B (becoming a rich guy's hot housewife).

So sit tight and grab a snack. Let's see if anyone like me here can relate to this, or if this will prepare an upcoming social media manager for what is to come. I promise it will be well worth your while.

1. The "when will you get a real job" question

This one mostly comes from my parents. For some reason, they (and lots of other people) still don't believe that SMM is a 'proper' job. I could be on a discovery call, and they'll be calling me to do the dishes. I once spent almost an hour explaining what I do to them, only for my mum to ask "so why are you always pressing phone". Pain! Sometimes I feel like they intentionally refuse to understand, because there's this innate 'African parents association' belief that nothing good can ever come out of a phone.

2. Clients Wahala

When you're not representing your own brand, it can be a huge challenge working for clients who want to underpay you, yet give you unfavourable conditions to do the job they contract you to do. 

My friend once had a client who kept on bitterly complaining about his low organic reach on his business page even though he was hell-bent on sending her very blurry pictures. And yes, she talked to him about it. He just insisted it was part of the aesthetics. From underpricing services, to multiple revisions on a perfectly good post, to complaining about the slightest issues, some clients have a special way of making you rethink your job.

3. Fear of being mistaken for a Yahoo (419) boy/girl

A big source of worry for Nigerian social media managers is to have their phone searched by a Nigerian police officer. This is because social media managers have some similarities with the so-called 'yahoo boys'. As a social media manager, I manage multiple emails, I have the word "client" all over my WhatsApp and as if that doesn't appear incriminating enough, I get paid for international services using PayPal. Most Nigerian police officers do not understand this and are not willing to. This could lead to malhandling, mistreatment and wrongful arrest.

It's a shame we still experience this in 2022 and I hope things will get better.

These are some of the things I have to deal with as a SMM in Nigeria. I would have listed more but I hope this paints a sufficient picture of how it can get for us. That being said, I still love my job regardless, which other job allows you to make six figures while sitting at home and surfing the net?

If you're a social media manager, please let me know how working in Nigeria has been like for you in the comment section, and if you want to go into SMM, let me know if you have questions. Bye for now, hopefully you'll get to hear from me again soon.