Three things to consider if you are looking at a social media career
Tweeting and working on Facebook, and other social platforms, every day for a living may seem like a pie-in-the-sky job. But, it is a serious career path now, and there are many areas of specialty to master if you want to be a social media professional. If you’ve thought that this may be the career path for you – here are the things to consider.
Social Media Statistics
The first thing you should check if you are contemplating a new career path is the employment statistics. Is this a viable career path? Are real employers actually hiring people with these skill sets? Well, the first place I would normally tell you to look is the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, since the profession is so new, I can already tell you from having looked that they don’t have any useful statistics. The only thing I found there was: “The recent emergence of social media in the public relations is expected to increase job growth as well. Many public relations firms are expanding their use of these tools, and specialists with skills in them will be needed.” Good grief, you would think the government could afford a professional writer – yikes!
Therefore, a good gauge for this new profession will have to be the employment websites. Viola! I think we have a winner. When I searched SimplyHired.com for the words “social media” 14,797 results came up. When I searched for “Facebook,” 12,609 results were returned. Among them were positions for Interface developers, Javascript experts, Facebook Marketing Managers, app developers, a Facebook Assistant, Facebook Fan page Expert, someone who can “build strong Facebook ads”, and many others. The word Twitter returned 16,399 search results today on Simplyhired.com. Some of the skills and positions these ads were seeking included: Twitter and Blog design, promotions on Digg and Twitter, javascript skills, data entry for Facebook and Twitter, and a lot more. I should mention that there’s much redundancy in the statistics mentioned in this paragraph, simply because the words Twitter, Facebook and social media show up together in many of the ads. This is because most employers are seeking a social media professional that can work on many of the social media platforms.
Social Media Education
If you are convinced that this is the career path for you, next you will need to enhance your skill set with the proper social media education. There are many skills that a good social media professional should have. For a good comprehensive overview, I would recommend Gatlin International’s Social Media Professional Course, which I teach. On top of receiving a good overview of social media and its uses, you learn the basics of SEO, blog writing, how to build online communities, management and automation, social brand building and management, social media planning, and how to build a portfolio that demonstrates that you have command of these skills.
You may also want to expand your knowledge in any of the areas mentioned above with online courses such as: Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Webmaster, Digital Arts Certificate. You can even get an Associate degree in Web Design online.
Social Media Portfolio
There are very few social media jobs for which you can be hired without showing some good working examples of your social media skills. In other words, you need a portfolio to demonstrate your knowledge and practical work experience. This is hard to do, you say, when I’m looking for my first social media job. My advice is to set up Twitter, Facebook, and other social media accounts for yourself and your friends. Build up your following. Also, build a website for yourself with a clever and sharp design, and promote it through various social media tactics. Ask to do this for free for a business that you have an interest in. Portfolio building is covered in the Gatlin International Social Media course as well. A little time and effort will give you a portfolio and resume that shines.
