Ten years ago only a few of us were getting to grips with the early versions of Facebook and had only just discovered the ability to peer into the private lives of people we’d previously only counted as acquaintances. It certainly wasn’t expected that just a decade later you would be hard pressed to find an organisation, or even many individuals, who don’t have some presence on social media in one way or another.

Roles in social media

Tweets, likes, pokes (remember them?) pulse blogs, pinning and regramming were all just glimmers in Mark Zuckerberg and the likes’ eyes and the idea of having a job solely dedicated to something called social media was obviously unheard of. However, things have changed significantly now and social media has not only expanded into people’s personal lives, but also their working ones in many cases. Social media management roles are now commonplace at the majority of organisations, particularly larger ones and thousands of professionals now work in roles related to the field.

We spoke to the Lancashire Evening Post on this very subject last year with our Recruitment Manager, Tracy Bolan outlining some key pointers about working in social media.

“The average starting salary for Social Media Executives is around £18,000 but pay can easily rise to £35,000 and up for Social Media Managers.”

Career paths into social media

And because the field is so new, there are no established paths into a social media role.

“It’s a relatively new concept and new platforms are constantly emerging, so any firm solely looking for employees with marketing degrees is likely to be fishing in a shallow pool. You can gain a lot of valuable experience by using platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram both personally and professionally and having a ‘relevant’ degree certainly isn’t a steadfast requirement.”

However, social media careers aren’t just about following your favourite celebrities and liking your friend’s tweets, you’re in charge of an entire organisations’ online profile and that can be a considerable responsibility. Dozens of companies have embarrassed themselves by not having properly aligned social media communications and this can do considerable harm. At the same time, social media can also present significant opportunities to make a business look good and in touch with its customers or clients. An organisation that replies quickly to its followers when something has gone wrong, for example, is more likely to be seen as responsive and engaged than one which responds sporadically while also posting updates. The latter approach can leave a customer feeling dissatisfied and would probably make them question using the organisation again, while the former is likely to build more of a connection with the firm.

Social media roles are becoming increasingly common, however it’s a big responsibility and you can also expect to be asked to report regularly on engagement, follower numbers and just about every metric you can imagine. If you’re looking for a role in social media, get in touch with our specialist team.