u/terezama

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some career advice because I feel a bit lost about what to learn next.
About two years ago I was hired by a footwear brand as a product photographer. Over time my role completely changed, and now I basically handle almost everything related to social media.

My responsibilities include:
product photography
filming and editing videos
creating graphics
writing captions
replying to customers
planning content
trying to grow our Instagram account

Because I’m mostly self-taught, I’ve been learning by watching YouTube videos, following marketing creators on Instagram, and trying to apply what I learn. But honestly, I often feel lost. There are endless videos about algorithms, hooks, trends, and “how to go viral,” and everyone seems to have a different opinion.

I’m also often the person in front of the camera. I model the shoes, film myself, and create Reels featuring me. At first I didn’t mind, but now it’s becoming exhausting. I don’t really want to be the face of the brand.

The funny thing is that I actually enjoy creating content. I love photography, I enjoy coming up with creative concepts, and I like filming when I have a good idea. What I don’t enjoy is feeling like I constantly have to perform on camera or make “fake funny” videos just because the algorithm seems to reward them.

Ideally, I’d rather work with models or UGC creators and focus on directing, shooting, editing, and developing creative ideas instead of always being the person in the videos myself. It feels like many brands are moving toward working with UGC creators anyway.

The creative side still excites me, and I’d say I’m quite technical and enjoy learning new tools. What I’m realizing is that I’d like to move away from being the person constantly creating social media content and instead learn more about the systems behind marketing.

The problem is that I don’t know where to start.
Should I learn Meta Ads? Email marketing? Marketing automation? Analytics? SEO? CRM? Something else?

If you were in my position, what skills would you invest in over the next 1–3 years that would open more career opportunities and rely less on constantly chasing Instagram trends?
I’d really appreciate hearing from people who made a similar transition.
Thanks!

Hi, I manage social media for a company and I'm thinking about how to bring them more value: ads, email marketing, e-commerce. I've completed a digital marketing course where we covered everything from Meta to SEO and email marketing, but I don't have much real-world experience yet and everything was covered rather superficially.

I've recently done an e-shop analysis (I found issues with page loading speed and a high cart abandonment rate: traffic is decent, but conversions are poor) and I want to start somewhat from scratch, put together a proper plan, map out the target audience in detail, and rebuild everything on more solid foundations.

I'd love to know what you specifically do in practice, what you focus on the most, and where you learned it ..YouTube, courses? Is self-study a viable path?

Thanks for any response 🙂