What Do CSMOs Even Do All Day?
In an age where social media has become one of the most important parts of running a business, it’s no wonder that we’ve seen a huge increase in the way social media is valued as a career. Whether it’s navigating ever-changing algorithms, mastering the art of jumping on video format trends, or just knowing when it’s time to stop using that PinkPantheress ‘is this illegal’ audio on your TikToks, there’s a lot more that goes into a successful social media strategy than meets the eye.
Recently, we explored the rising valuation of social media professionals. For years, businesses relied on pressing underpaid, underexperienced interns into social media servitude. And while that can have great results, more companies are realizing that the age-old idea of ‘spending money to make money’ doesn’t just go out the window when it comes to social media!
With this in mind, we want to help create a new idea of what a social media expert can be. These professionals deserve a position that reflects their leadership, vision, and skills, and to do it, we’re bringing a job title to the forefront that really should be more common: The Chief Social Media Officer. But what do CSMOs really do all day, and what does it take to become one yourself? Let’s take a look!
A Day in the Life of a CSMO
To understand what a CSMO is, it’s easiest to first look at what it’s not. For many business owners, hiring a social media pro means finding one person to make content, create a posting schedule, post your stuff, reply to comments, generate reports, tweak the strategy, and so forth. This is very different from the role of a CSMO. As the name implies, CSMOs are C-suite executives who play a high-level role in the marketing of a business.
Just as your Chief Financial Officer isn’t personally balancing the books, the CSMO isn’t the one whipping up Reels on Capcut. Instead, their job is to hold the high-level vision of your brand’s social media omnipresence, create overarching strategies for growth, visibility, engagement, and conversion, and work alongside the overall trajectory of the business to keep your socials aligned.
So what does a day in the life of a Chief Social Media Officer entail? While specific duties can vary, you can generally expect a CSMO to be in charge of a few key tasks:
Product Management: Compile and analyze info on the brand’s products or services as well as customer preferences, identifying where to push new products through marketing and where to pull back.
Image Curation: No, we’re not talking about picking out stock photos! One of a CSMO’s most important jobs is to manage the image of the brand itself. They need to be keenly aware of how people perceive the brand, as well as what tools they can use to shift that perception as needed.
Marketing Strategy: Things move fast in social media land, and a good CSMO understands that even the best marketing strategy is going to need some tweaks along the way. Their role is to develop this plan and continuously improve it as time goes on. Often, this is done in tandem with the company’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), making sure social media fits nicely into the rest of the company’s overall strategy.
Coordinating Marketing: As we mentioned, CSMOs generally aren’t responsible for executing on their marketing plan. However, they often take a leadership role, coordinating marketing events (like a big campaign or a giveaway) and using multiple channels for the biggest impact.
Market Research: CSMOs are usually responsible for overseeing market research, which is a vital job that’s never truly over. This means leading recurring research on market trends, customer preference, and brand perception, and is a key part of making the right tweaks to the overall marketing strategy.
Creating a Team: Depending on the size of the company, a CSMO might lead a team of one or a veritable fleet of social media managers and content creators. As the leader of the social media department, their job is to curate, manage, and support this team.
Watching the Metrics: Key performance indicators (KPIs) are a crucial way to tangibly track the success of any marketing campaign, and especially for social media campaigns. It takes a trained eye to interpret this data into usable info, which is why it’s one of the key jobs of a CSMO.
In other words, a CSMO's job is to lead, hold the vision, and steer the mighty ship that is your social media marketing approach. Typically, they manage a team that handles the day-to-day activities, freeing up this higher-level professional to focus on the big picture stuff.
Becoming a CSMO
Do you think you have what it takes to be the chief? When it comes to seeing real success on social media, familiarity with the tools is just one part of the job. It’s equally important to have the experience, perspective, and foresight to position your social media just right in the overall digital landscape. This ensures that your social strategy moves beyond sporadic posting and hoping for the best. Instead, CSMOs lead an intentional, data-driven approach to social media marketing that gets real results.
So how do you get in on this and start using your social media skills to build a sustainable career? One great way is to formalize your knowledge with the help of other experienced professionals. This idea of skill-sharing is what led us to create our upcoming CSMO coaching program!
Launching in 2026, this six-month group career-building program was designed from the ground up for marketing and social media professionals looking to take their skills to the next level. Learn from an in-depth curriculum packed with insights gained over almost a decade of experience in the professional social media world. Gain vital leadership skills to complement your natural abilities on social media, and find out how to think about these platforms from a high-level, big-picture point of view.
If you’re ready to level up in the social media world, this program was made for you! We’re currently accepting applications for our first-ever session of the CSMO program, and we couldn’t be more excited to get going. Drop us a line if you want to be a part of it!