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Jobs abound in social media field
By ADAM EARNHEARDT
Social media managers are in high demand.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, there’s projected growth nationwide in the fields of social media management.
Yes. Youngstown has social media jobs, too.
In our region (Youngstown, Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Columbus, Erie, Pittsburgh), the projected growth for social media managers for the next 10 years is up 17 percent.
That’s good news for those studying in fields such as communication, journalism, public relations and marketing.
If you’re studying social media management, there will be jobs when you graduate. You just need to have the right tools to manage social media accounts.
More on those tools in a minute.
Even with this demand, you’d be surprised how many people shy away from social media as a career opportunity, fearful that it’s a passing fad or that these jobs will dry up as companies make cuts in the wake of bad press, lawsuits and government regulation.
With all the hits Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms have absorbed, they still dominate many marketing discussions around the world.
In the realm of social media, Facebook is still king with its 2-billion-plus users. Twitter, Instagram and YouTube still have millions of MAUs (that’s social media lingo for “monthly active users”).
To reach those MAUs, you need to have the right tools or, at least, know where to access them. Once you access the tools, learning how to use them takes a little time and patience.
When we use the term “social media manager,” we’re referring to someone with the skills to effectively and efficiently manage a social media account.
Whether we’re members of a social media team in a large company or we’re managing social media for individual clients, we use these tools to build accounts and to collaborate with other social media managers all over the world.
Landing lucrative social media manager gigs requires knowledge of the field, and knowing how to use management tools.
“The best social media management tools meet a variety of needs, from marketing to customer service to social selling,” social media expert Christina Newberry recently posted to the Hootsuite blog.
“They allow different teams within an organization to use social media. They encourage collaboration and make social media efforts more effective and efficient.”
Newberry suggests managers know how to utilize message scheduling tools. This includes knowing when to schedule to reach the highest number of users.
We’re constantly refining what we believe students need to know to enter the workforce.
We focus on social media listening, when (and when not to) respond to customers, and how to interact appropriately.
We teach content curation, how to evaluate message effectiveness and how to build a library of content – all tools Newberry recommends.
Social media management jobs are out there. Having the right tools will make those jobs easier to land.
Adam Earnheardt is chair of the department of communication at Youngstown State University. Follow him on Twitter at @adamearn and on his blog at www.adamearn.com.