Isabella Rugna

My name is Isabella, most people call me Isa. I'm 23 years old and I'm a social media manager and content creator.

A social media manager actually does a lot of things. There's a lot of different profiles of people in the social media space. A lot of bigger companies actually have teams of social media managers that can do the designs, the copywriting, or the creative content strategy.

I consider myself a very versatile social media manager. I really like focusing on startups and companies that are scaling up because I have more creative freedom to do different things, which I really like.

A typical day as a social media manager for me looks quite different during my week. So I start my week very strong with a bunch of different meetings with my team, my leaders, and my peers. We talk about what we're going to do that week, what are our main goals, what's coming ahead. A lot changes during the week as well, but we basically track down what we need to do as our main goals.

And then during the week, I have days when I record mostly. So I go to the shopping malls, go to the places to shoot content for our social media. Then there are a couple days that I stay in and edit a bit more.

When you work in a startup setting, sometimes you do different things. You're able to explore a little bit more outside of your main role. So sometimes I have to translate stuff, I need to help my boss with some ideas, we deliberate about stuff, we talk, we do brainstorming.

The skills that I use as a social media manager include writing. I really do a lot of writing, so knowing how to write both in English and Portuguese is important.

I also use a lot of the creative side of things. I use a lot of creativity and brainstorming in general, knowing how to brainstorm and develop an idea.

I use a lot of video editing skills. I use a lot of design skills, even though I don't personally do design. I need to know a little bit to know how to evaluate if a design is good, if it's going to perform well, if it's something that's aligned with what we're doing.

I use a lot of people skills as well, knowing how to talk to people, how to develop an idea as a team, how to talk to my peers, how to talk to my leaders. And also to use those skills working remotely, which is more challenging.

Currently in my team I have my boss, who is the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of the company. I have a peer that also does social media / PR in Costa Rica. She does a lot of similar things that I do but in another setting.

We have a designer and we have an intern, who I currently help to do the social media editing for my colleague since I do most of my stuff myself.

I work with them in asynchronous ways, so we need to be always talking during the week in our channels. We use Asana for organizing and then we also use a chat platform to talk more day-to-day stuff.

With my peers, I always try to develop ideas, bring them to the team, and make sure that we're aligned in what we do.

The best thing about being a social media manager is that it really aligns with what I want for my life in general. I really like the way that it's something that I can do from anywhere in the world, and that it's something where I can communicate to people and educate people from all over the world.

I think there's so much now in social media that it's basically brain rot things, things that are not going to take you anywhere. So it's nice to really be on the side of creating things that are meaningful for future generations, for the current generation.

I think the worst thing about being a social media manager is not necessarily about being a social media manager but is to maybe work remotely. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I love working remotely, but it's not seeing your peers every day and being able to chat and develop more of an in-person relationship.

My inspiration to become a social media manager was... I don't know, I think it was something that came to me very naturally. I currently work with that but I have actually loved social media for a long time. But basically I started as a hobby and then when I was 16, I had some struggles at school. Then my Dad put me in an internship with his brother and his brother's company for me to learn a little bit. I started as a social media manager there and then everything had a very natural flow from that point on.

I'm very happy with what I do currently. It was something that I always say chose me instead of me choosing it.

The challenges that I faced as a social media manager... I think it was something where I was very fortunate because there was a lot of space when I started, there were not a lot of people.

There's a lot space but at the same time, being a girl, being young, a lot of people don't take you that seriously. I thought for a long time you had to have like grey hair, you had to have 10 years of experience to know about something.

So sometimes I felt really really devalued in that aspect. And that changed a lot when I got into my last job, where I really feel valued and listened to, which was super nice. But that was not the case in all of my jobs.

So my studies were super important for me. I think at school it was very nice because I had the opportunity to be introduced to marketing in my last year. I went to Canada for my high school and I had a first year course that they normally do in universities, but they had that at school and I was able to take it. So it was super nice for me, it gave me a huge base.

I also at school learned a lot about writing, learned about a lot of skills that I use for my creativity and languages. I think for you to be a creative person, you need to know a lot about a lot of things. And even though you're not necessarily going to use everything, that helps a lot.

At university, I learned a lot about social media. I actually went to a course that was very much focused on social media. So it was super nice to be able to get a degree in something that really focused on what I wanted.

I always think that we need to keep learning and keep studying directly and indirectly.

I currently work remotely but I have worked in an office before. I think that they have different purposes but I think they both have a lot of value.

I worked first in an in-office job and I think that's super important, especially on your first one, two years of your career. If you're doing an internship, I wouldn't do an internship remotely. I think it's so valuable for you to be in an office and know how to portray yourself, how to really talk to people, to chat with your colleagues, to know how to have business etiquette in general. And that's something that you normally don't use that much in remote settings.

What I would say to someone that wants to be a social manager is to really go for it. I think one thing about being a social media managers is that there are so many ways to learn. You don't have a specific age that you need to be if you're young.

I know someone started a company at 15 and started to just do info products and be a social media manager and he did a bunch of different things for different people at 15 and now he's 20 and super successful in what he does. I know people that started later in life and did like a career switch at 40 to become a social media manager.

One piece of advice that I really wish people would have told me when I was younger is that sometimes when your parents are super strict about something they really want the best for you.

So even though you don't understand at the time and you get really mad, take a deep breath and probably you're gonna look back and 10 years and say " Oh, they had a reason for that."