Rippling's social media manager acts as an internal creative partner and quality control. Instead of just posting requests, her job is to partner with stakeholders to elevate their ideas into great social content, acting as an "air traffic control" that also up-levels creative quality.

Instead of getting defensive when asked for metrics, social media managers must proactively educate leadership on how social works. Frame it as a strategic brand channel, show examples of success, and explain the long-term vision. When the strategy works, its value becomes self-evident and measurement questions fade.

To avoid being pulled in multiple directions, proactively survey your leadership team to define their top goals for social media. Consolidate their varied answers into three "north star" objectives. This creates a clear mandate and gives you leverage to decline off-strategy requests by referencing their own agreed-upon priorities.

At Rippling, the social media role is elevated from a simple scheduler to a strategic creative partner. This person acts as a "gatekeeper" for quality, collaborating with various internal teams to transform their requests (e.g., for a webinar promo) into engaging, high-performing content that fits the brand's human-first voice.

The title "Social Media Manager" is impossibly broad. To set realistic expectations, leaders must force founders to specify what "great social" looks like (e.g., viral videos, educational carousels) to define the role's actual focus.

To get leadership buy-in for a social media initiative, frame it as a short, time-bound experiment like a single quarter. This is much easier for stakeholders to approve than a vague, indefinite commitment to 'do social media'.

To combat being undervalued, social media managers should proactively market their impact internally. This means sharing positive customer feedback (even if it feels boastful), holding educational training for other departments, and using high-stakes situations like crises to demonstrate strategic value to leadership.

If executives or legal teams reject your social media ideas, it's a failure in your salesmanship, not their understanding. The responsibility lies with the social team to build trust through soft skills, education, and presenting ideas with clear business cases and examples.

An essential but often overlooked role of a communications leader is to educate internal decision-makers. Don't assume your bosses have the same context you do. Proactively informing them ensures they make better decisions, which leads to stronger communication outcomes for the entire organization.