Social Media Careers: Skills Needed, Where to Look, and Jobs to Consider

• Updated on: 2023-03-08
• Read original article here

Today, masses are flocking to social media platforms for literally everything – fun, shopping, connecting with brands, seeking jobs… you name it!

Since businesses are after the masses, it is not a wonder that social media has since become a crucial marketing tool for businesses.In fact,83% of marketersreported using social media for their digital campaigns.

No wonder social media careers are becoming a lucrative choice. Social media has opened up media and marketing positions as well as opportunities for professional development.

What does this mean for you? It translates to exciting career options and an opportunity to put your love for social media to expert use.

Do You Want to Find out More?

Let’s dive in to discover why you should take a career in social media, how to get started, and different social media jobs that you can consider, including the skills needed and where to find such jobs.

Deciding on a career path isn’t always easy. You want to make a few considerations to determine if a certain path fits you best. So, if you are still indecisive about pursuing a career in social media, here are a few reasons why you should.

What’s exciting is that social media isn’t going anywhere anytime soon!

As said earlier, social media marketing is a necessity for businesses that want to cut through the noise in a saturated market. Thus, having social media presence to connect with potential audiences and build strong communities is no longer an option.

What’s more, digital marketing will continue to be a necessity for businesses if they are to stay afloat. This translates to a continuous and growing demand for social media practitioners.

Any successful digital marketing strategy has to keep up with the ever-changing trends. This means adopting new tactics and tools every now and then. There will always be something new to learn and challenges to overcome. This, coupled with the fact that you are dealing with diverse client bases and needs, makes each day exciting.

No matter what your job profile is in the field of social media, be assured creativity will be a big staple of it. It takes creativity to create unique content that is sharable and appeals to your brand’s target audiences. This calls for a combination of video, photography, text, marketing and advertising techniques, communication, and more.

Social media careers allow you to work from anywhere. This means that you are not confined to an office full time. You can choose to work remotely entirely or check in the office some days of the week.

So, you have finally decided that a career in social media is the way to go, but how do you get started?

The truth is that social media careers are an emerging field, so employers will rarely be looking for individuals with proven track records.

However, a background in marketing and showcasing the passion, enthusiasm, and potential to succeed in social media roles are important. Here are some tips for you:

Social media platforms come with different characteristics.

A social networking platform would look different from a professional networking platform. Familiarize yourself with different social media platforms to learn how they work, what tickles the masses there, and what language is preferred.

This will help you gain knowledge on how to use different social media platforms to help your employer achieve the set digital marketing goals.

See how Nike uses different social media platforms differently to connect with the audiences and market its products and enhance brand awareness.

The brand uses Twitter successfully to drive engagement and build new connections using emotional storytelling to invoke the right emotions. Nike’s strategy on Twitter is to build a sense of community and create a lifestyle.

Nike leverages Linkedin to create brand awareness and connect to other professionals and businesses. The brand uses the platform for marketing itself as an ideal employer by posting awards and recognitions such as the latest Forbes’ World’s Best Employers of 2022.

When working as a social media professional, your work is likely to entail managing different social media accounts with millions of followers. Social media management tools make work easier for you.

Social media scheduling tools like SocialPilot, for instance, enable users to schedule social media posts for multiple social accounts to align with the active time of the target audiences. This ensures maximum reach, which is essential for successful campaigns.

Working as a social media professional will take more than just understanding the platforms.

You will need communication and marketing skills to create content that appeals to different demographics, among other skills that can be acquired formally.

A social media career is writing-related. Post-secondary education will be an asset. You need to have creative copywriting skills.

Taking a course in digital marketing and gaining knowledge in different applications such as CMS, HTML, social media management tools, and the like can help you gain the skills required to succeed.

You can build your expertise by learning from others. For instance, look at successful marketing campaigns that you like with a digital marketer’s eye. Study them in detail, including the graphics and tone used.

Ask yourself who the target audience would be and what the campaign goals are. What did the marketer miss, or what could you have done differently? This unlocks valuable insights into how successful campaigns are put together.

Apply tactics learned to engage with your followers and grow your presence and following.

Make use of LinkedIn, which is the best platform to show your professional work achievements and make networking connections with people with similar roles.

The experience that you gain growing your social media following and marketing your skills will come in handy for the position that you are targeting.

“It can be a red flag to see no social presence for some industries that require a vast knowledge of the digital space.” Sara Skirboll, VP of Communications at CareerBuilder

Volunteering your skills can help grow your expertise and prove your proficiency. You can choose small businesses in your field that can benefit from your expertise but don’t have the budget.

Another great idea is to help a friend’s business. If you are employed, be part of social media initiatives in your marketing department.

Different social media jobs exist with varying skills and expertise. Your success in finding the one that suits you the most lies in understanding the options that you have.

However, keep in mind that small companies without the budget for a large social media team often bundle all the roles into a single position. It is important to position yourself as a generalist.

In addition, please note that tasks and roles vary from organization to organization. We have rounded some common titles that you are likely to come across.

Learn about the skills needed for each of them as well as where to look.

Starting as an intern is a good way to usher you into the social media career space while learning from the experts. As a social media intern, your duties will be to provide assistance to the digital marketing team.

Working as a consultant allows you to work independently, helping different clients develop and implement social media marketing strategies.

The beauty of this job is that you can choose to niche your focus to a particular area, thus becoming a thought-leader in that area.

SEO is all about helping brands rank higher in search engines.

As a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialist, you will be required to use popular keywords and other techniques to ensure that your content gets a chance to rank on the first page of SERPs for increased visibility.

In addition, you will have a task to ensure site compliance and SEO best practices on all social media posts.

Social media content needs to align with business goals. Thus, as a content strategist, your main work is to create relevant content that receives views and swings audiences into the desired action.

This involves doing a lot of analysis to understand the latest content trends. As Tyra Banks says, “The future is in photos for social media. More and more people are not reading, so I try to attach a photo to most Tweets.”

Also referred to as paid social media specialist, a social media Ad specialist is tasked with PPC ad campaigns on social media. This includes planning, designing, and implementing digital campaigns and social media ad strategies. An ad specialist will also be responsible for optimizing all digital campaigns while ensuring brand image consistency across all platforms.

Social media strategists’ job entails focusing on the day-to-day activities on social media while thinking long term.

Your day as a social media strategist will revolve around watching popular trends. After monitoring, you will have a task to determine which trends appeal to your organization’s target audience. You will then be required to brainstorm on how to implement them in the marketing strategy. This means collaborating with the social media manager and content strategist.

A social media analyst is a key player in any social media strategy. They help brands organize and understand information about demographics that show interest in their products in a bid to determine how best to reach them.

Community management is crucial for brand management and keeping social media discussions on topic. With great community management, customers can be taken through the journey from prospects to advocates successfully.

A social media manager’s job is to oversee, monitor, and moderate a social media team. If you choose this path, you will be tasked to provide direction and support while collaborating with your team to attain set goals.

Social media careers are quite exciting, so they attract a huge number of prospects. Understanding where to start looking for open positions can give you a leg up in your job search. Here are different places to find different social media jobs.

As a social media professional, you will probably work in a digital marketing agency or in-house marketing department. Organizations usually post their open positions on their career page on the website. If you are interested in working for a particular organization, keep checking their websites for job postings.

These platforms have become the go-to places for job seekers. Employees leverage such platforms to advertise their open positions to a larger number of potential hires.

Visit popular sites such as Indeed, Glassdoor, and LinkedIn. A quick search on social media job titles will give you results on different job openings.

Likewise, online communities where digital marketers converge can provide insights into potential employers. You may not find job postings there, but you can find job leads from members.

Like job boards, social media has become an important hiring tool for most organizations. You can start following brands that you would like to work for on their social pages so that you are among the first to see when they advertise for vacancies.

Organizations also focus on social media communities to reach a wider pool. Ensure that you join relevant communities in popular social media platforms to take advantage of this.

Usually, you can find them posted as the example below:

Social media presence has become a necessity for businesses that are focused on remaining in business. However, creating and implementing a social media strategy is something that requires expertise and professional knowledge to get results. Thus, this emerging trend has created various jobs that are stable and well-paying. If you are interested in a career in social media, there you have it! – valuable insights to guide you through it.