The Rise of the Social Suit: A New Hybrid Role

The Social Account Manager, or “Social Suit,” is an evolving hybrid role that’s rapidly gaining traction.

With more and more media spend shifting towards paid social, and audiences like Gen Z and millennials turning to platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram for their purchase decisions, it’s only natural that agencies and brands are focusing on capturing these consumers. As a result, there’s an increasing need for agencies to build specialised social pillars, particularly within account management. This role requires someone who understands the ins and outs of social media trends, platform changes, and audience behaviors—and who can effectively communicate this to clients. The huge opportunity and responsibility for candidates in this role is to really build out and bolster the social media service the agency offers.

While executional roles like Social Media Managers, Community Managers, and Creators are still key to campaign delivery, the need for a strategic leader who can engage stakeholders and make fast, reactive decisions is growing. This person must balance creativity with people skills, educating clients on the constantly shifting social landscape while ensuring swift execution when needed.

Who is This Role for?

Existing account managers, especially those with a traditional background, have a great opportunity to upskill in social media. If you’re passionate about the social landscape, enjoy strategy, and excel at building client relationships, this hybrid role could be the perfect fit. As the bridge between clients and creatives, you can specialise in an area that is dynamic and continuously evolving. With the variety of social channels, constant changes, and diverse audiences, there’s immense room for growth as a specialist.

How to upskill your current team into this role, or build up your social specialisation.

For Account Managers: If they’re a traditional suit who’s looking to upskill, progress, they need to start by deepening their understanding of social media strategy, and also general pop culture, which is how you connect to your audience. Familiarising themselves with platform-specific trends, content types, and audience insights is key. Building expertise here will make them a more valuable asset to your team and clients.

For Social Media Creators/Managers: If you already have hands-on experience with social media managers, who are interested in being client facing, can be very convincing and love strategy. This is a great progression opportunity. They will need to focus on sharpening their presentation skills and getting comfortable communicating and educating clients on the huge impacts of social media. In order to do that, get comfortable getting this talent pool in client meetings and allowing them to understand the clients commercial goals, in order to bring creative ideas to life, inline with their commercial goals which will strengthen long-term business partnership.

Whether you’re an existing suit or a creative looking to step into strategy, the Social Suit role is a perfect blend of creative thinking, stakeholder management, and strategic planning—tailored for today’s fast-paced, ever-evolving social media landscape.