Cool Careers in Communications: Social Media Manager
It didn’t take long did it? I told you something would pop into my head! Those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about obviously didn’t read my introductory blog post. (Shame on you.) It’s not okay, but I’ll forgive you if you click here.
Good, everybody should be caught up. So as you’ve probably noticed, I’ve figured out a theme for this blog. Remember in the last post when I said “communications is such a broad field with a ridiculous amount of career possibilities and I want to experience them all?” Well that’s exactly what I’m going to do with these Cool Careers in Communications spotlights! Through the Cool Careers in Communications spotlights I will explore all the various careers the communications field has to offer while bringing other communications majors (who aren’t quite sure what they want to do after college) along for the ride.
So without making you guys wait any longer, let’s start with the first cool career: social media manager.
When I say “social media” chances are the first things you think of are massive websites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. These sites are mostly known for giving users the ability to connect with friends and family whenever they want to, no matter where they are on the globe. You know what they say, “EVERYBODY is on Facebook.” The truth is, our world has become so engaged in social media that new jobs have begun to branch from it.
But what exactly is a social media manager? WhatIs.com defines a social media manger as an “individual in an organization trusted with monitoring, contributing to, filtering, measuring and otherwise guiding the social media presence of a brand, product, individual or corporation.”
All the information a fan could ask for.
Take the U.S. Soccer Women’s National Team for example. (Remember, I love sports.) You can follow the team on twitter (@ussoccer_wnt) and be constantly updated with the latest news, player injuries and score updates, as well as a plethora of pictures and videos. As fans we love that kind of stuff — but have you ever thought about where awesome tweets come from? They come from a social media manager that gets paid to travel with the players and represent the team’s brand through tweeting and interacting with other users.
Of course, social media managing isn’t only limited to sports. Since almost every person and business exists on at least one social media site, the opportunities for a social media manager are virtually endless. Grocery stores need to inform consumers of new sales. Radio stations need to update listeners on current contests. And your favorite actor needs somebody to run his Facebook fan page.
What qualities should a social media manager possess? A social media manager should:
-Be a good, efficient writer
-Have great marketing and analytical skills
-Employ search engine optimization
-Be able to stay on top of social trends
-Have extensive knowledge of multiple social media channels
Sounds like a pretty cool career, huh? Well if you are interested in becoming a social media manager, now is definitely the time. According to commercecomended.com, social media manager is listed third on CareerBuilder’s 10 fastest growing jobs in the last year. I did a quick search for social media manager jobs on Monster.com and over 200 job listings were spit back out at me. There’s no doubt that the opportunity is there.
What?! You don’t think social media managing is THE perfect career?! What’s wrong with you?! I’m just kidding. To be honest, it doesn’t sound like the perfect career for me either. I feel like I would always be writing in a “matter-of-fact” tone and would never be able to express my own style…which I’ve come to realize is very important to me! So, the search continues. But where to go from here? Well, there was that one time I covered a presidential visit to campus. Stay tuned.
