Social media managers have no shortage of advice on how to do their jobs better. Everyone with an Instagram account and a pulse think they know how to run a brand social media account best.

There are countless blogs, newsletters, and experts offering “tips and tricks,” questionable algorithm hacks, thoughts on trends, and other advice for social media managers. And while some of these can be helpful, for the most part, they don’t share much that many social media managers don’t already know. Or they offer advice that doesn’t apply to most brands.

If a social media manager needs advice on the latest platform updates, best practices, or industry commentary, there are plenty of places for them to find it. But when it comes down to it, what social media managers need most isn’t advice—it’s validation. Here’s how key stakeholders can help their social teams.

No more party of one

Social media leads need to hear from others who are or have been in their position and understand its ups and downs—and that’s not always so easy to find.

Far too often, social media managers are teams of one. They are expected to be content creators, strategists, photographers, videographers, copywriters, customer service representatives, on-camera talent, community managers, and so on. While the growing scope of a social media manager’s job description is a huge problem of its own, there’s another problem with the “team of one” model that doesn’t get talked about—professional loneliness.

While social media managers might work as a part of a marketing team, they often work in isolation. Many ideate, create, edit, and execute their campaigns without any outside assistance other than a laborious approval process from management or clients who don’t understand social media.

They are left to their own devices without coworkers they can bounce ideas off of, ask questions of, learn from, or even just commiserate with.

Praise for social media managers is rare and criticism is abundant. They often face a daily onslaught of negative comments from the brand’s followers on social media and are told to “ignore the haters.” Every content decision they make is questioned by management. Every tiny mistake is on full public display to everyone inside and outside the company.

And we wonder why burnout rates for social media managers are so high.

An SMM’s hierarchy of needs

Social media managers need to be a part of a professional community of others in their field.

What they don’t need are “tips and tricks.” They need reassurance. They don’t need someone to tell them to “ignore the trolls.” They need understanding when it comes to the level of difficulty that comes with their job. And they don’t need algorithm hacks; they need communities to share ideas with and workshop.

They need to attend conferences, join professional organizations, find online groups, and develop professional relationships with other social media managers outside their place of work. They need to build trusted groups of like-minded social media managers with whom they can share their thoughts, aspirations, frustrations, and struggles.

They need to have Zoom calls, group chats, and long talks over coffee (or something stronger) with others who have been on the receiving end of the firehose of comments and information overload that social media managers face every day. They need to be around other chronically online creative marketers who understand the value of a well-timed meme. They need peers with whom they can discuss their jobs who won’t say “I thought interns did that” or the all too common “Oh! You must have so much fun!”

They need to be around people who love the job but also know that it’s far more than clever posts and viral moments.

How to really appreciate your SMM’s

So, how can you support your social media manager?

Give them the budget and time to attend professional conferences–preferably in person. Instead of sending them articles on the latest memes and trends, send them information on conferences they should attend. Encourage them to join professional organizations and online groups for social media managers. Set up introductions to social media managers at other companies. Help them find mentorship opportunities with more seasoned social media professionals.

And give them the time to do it. Let them take that long lunch with a fellow social media manager, participate in that X (formerly Twitter) chat, and skip a meeting to sit in on that webinar.

But most importantly, give them positive feedback and be willing to listen to them yourself. Take the time to learn about their job and its highs and lows. Pop by their desk and ask them about their work and what they need to do better.

While you might not fully understand what it’s like to be a social media manager, taking a bit of time to learn about the inner workings of social media beyond the latest trends or platform basics will go a long way to making sure your social media manager feels appreciated, fulfilled, and doing their best work.

Easter falls on April 9, and Snapchat is marking the occasion by highlighting a variety of Easter-themed lenses in its Lens Explorer catalog.

Our guide will show you how to use Easter lenses in the Snapchat mobile application.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Snapchat app on iOS.

Step 1: On Snapchat’s camera screen, tap the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen.

Step 2: Tap “Easter” under the search bar near the top of the screen.

Step 3: Tap one of the Easter lenses to activate it.

From there, you can create your Snap as you normally would.

Spring is here, and to celebrate, Instagram released a “Bloom” chat theme that adds flowers and pastel colors to a conversation’s background.

Our guide will show you how to use the Bloom chat theme in the Instagram mobile application.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Instagram app on iOS.

Step 1: Open the Instagram conversation you want to customize and tap the conversation name at the top of the screen.

Step 2: Tap “Theme.”

Step 3: Tap the “Bloom” chat theme. Note: There is no preview screen or confirmation window. Once you tap the “Bloom” chat theme, the conversation will be updated.

To celebrate the arrival of spring, Messenger released a “Bloom” chat theme that adds white and yellow flowers to a conversation’s background.

When this theme is activated, the conversation’s “Quick reaction” emoji will automatically switch to the honeybee emoji.

Our guide will show you how to use the Bloom chat theme in the Messenger mobile application.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Messenger app on iOS.

Step 1: Open the Messenger conversation you want to customize and tap the conversation name at the top of the screen.

Step 2: Tap “Theme.”

Step 3: Tap the “Bloom” chat theme.

Step 4: Tap the “Select” button in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

Messenger assigns each conversation a “quick reaction” symbol that users can tap to send that symbol in the conversation. By default, a conversation’s quick reaction is the thumbs up emoji, but users can change this icon to suit their tastes. Specifically, users can select a different emoji or a picture of their avatar.

Our guide will show you how to change the quick reaction in a Messenger conversation.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Messenger application on iOS.

Step 1: Open the conversation you want to customize and tap the conversation name at the top of the screen.

Step 2: Tap “Quick reaction.”

Step 3: Tap a picture of your avatar or one of the emoji to set it as the conversation’s quick reaction. Note: You can tap the icons at the bottom of the screen to browse emoji based on different categories. You can also tap the search bar at the top of the window to manually search for an emoji.

This guide was first published in March 2018 and was updated in March 2023.

Reddit allows users to chat privately with others on the platform. Users also have the option to leave these private chats if they no longer want to be part of them.

Our guide will show you how to leave a chat in the Reddit mobile application.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Reddit app on iOS.

Step 1: Open the Reddit conversation you want to leave and tap the three dots in the top-right corner of the screen.

Step 2: Tap “Leave chat.” Note: There is no confirmation window. Once you tap “Leave chat,” you will be removed from the chat and the conversation will no longer show up on the app’s Chat tab.

LinkedIn now allows users to send a post to multiple users on the professional social network at the same time. That is, rather than sending a post to a single user and repeating this process to send the post to another user, users can now send the same post to multiple users in separate conversations simultaneously.

Our guide will show you how to send a post to multiple users at the same time while using the LinkedIn mobile application.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the LinkedIn app on iOS.

Step 1: Tap “Send” in the bottom-right corner of the post you want to share.

Step 2: Tap the check box to the right of each user you want to send the post to. Note: You can use the search bar at the top of the screen to search for users manually.

Step 3: Once you’ve selected your desired users, you can tap the “Add a message…” field near the bottom of the screen if you want to send your own message along with the post.

Step 4: When you’re done selecting users and composing your message (if you wrote one), tap the “Send separately” button at the bottom of the screen to send the post to the users you selected.

Reddit allows users to chat privately with other users on the platform. Users have the option to mute notifications from individual conversations if they don’t want to be alerted about those chats.

Our guide will show you how to mute notifications in a chat in the Reddit mobile application.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Reddit app on iOS.

Step 1: Open the chat you want to manage and tap the three dots in the top-right corner of the screen.

Step 2: Tap the gray toggle to the right of “Mute notifications” to mute notifications in the chat. The toggle will turn navy blue when notifications are muted. Note: You can repeat these steps in the future if you ever want to unmute notifications in the chat.

To celebrate the beginning of Ramadan, Snapchat is featuring a variety of augmented reality (AR) Ramadan lenses (or filters) in its Lens Explorer catalog.

Our guide will show you how to use the Ramadan lenses in the Snapchat mobile application.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Snapchat app on iOS.

Step 1: On Snapchat’s camera screen, tap the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen.

Step 2: Tap “Ramadan” under the search bar near the top of the screen.

Step 3: Tap one of the Ramadan lenses to add it to Snapchat’s camera.

From there, you can create a Snap as you normally would.

Discord Nitro subscribers now have access to 16 “Color” themes that they can use to customize the appearance of the Discord desktop application. Previously, only the “Light” and “Dark” themes were available. These Light and Dark themes are still available to all users and Nitro subscribers, giving Nitro subscribers 18 themes to choose from in total, as of this writing.

Our guide will show you how to use one of these new Color themes in the Discord desktop app.

Note: These screenshots were captured in the Discord app on Mac.

Step 1: In the Discord desktop application, click the gear icon to the right of your username in the bottom-left corner of the app.

Step 2: Under the “App Settings” section on the left side of the screen, click “Appearance.”

Step 3: Under the “Theme” section, click one of the 16 new color themes to change the appearance of the Discord app. Or, click the “Preview Themes” button on the right side of the screen if you want to preview these themes before selecting one.

If you clicked the “Preview Themes” button, click one of the Color themes on the right side of the screen to preview it in the Discord app.

Once you decide on a theme, click the “x” button in the top-right corner of the screen to close the “Preview Theme” menu, or click the “Back to Settings” button in the bottom-right corner of the screen to return to the Settings menu.

Disclosure: Adweek’s Social Pro Daily received a complementary three-month Nitro subscription.