social media job Archives - Silverback Social

Source: mediabistro.com

Hootsuite Recently wrote a blog article declaring that the title of Social Media Manager is pretty much dead (read here). Even the strongest social media advocates are waving the white flag.

Is it true?

My response on Twitter: “Title: yes. Job function: Absolutely not.”

Now don’t be confused: Hootsuite is only referring to the title of Social Media Manager as being “dead”.

Why?

The title is just too broad – At Silverback Social alone, we have six people alone that manage various different aspects of social media – from community management, to content strategists to brand strategists and beyond. In today’s competitive market, if you’re a medium sized business to a corporate Fortune 500 company, you need to have more than one person working on your social media. (Don’t want to deal with it? Hire us.)
Any social media manager worth their salt will hate being referred to as a social media manager. It’s yesterday’s buzz-word job title. A cliche if you will. Set your company apart and look for a digital or social media marketing professional. Or better yet, take the point from above and look specifically for a community manager or digital content strategist.
It’s an inaccurate description of what function this person fulfills – Today’s social media manager doesn’t, as the title would imply, manage social media for a company. They talk, they engage, they solve problems, they identify new opportunities, they set the company’s voice and tone, they leverage culturally relevant events and news and strategize how their company can leverage this information, they plan campaigns – this goes beyond the scope of simply operating Twitter and Facebook.

…And all of the above is exactly what makes that’s this job function so important.

So there you have it: while the social media manager title is disposable, the job function is certainly not.

What do you think? Has the “Social Media Manager” title met it’s demise? Tell us in the comments below!

Is social media next?

I used to work for a prestigious college in the Westchester area as Director of Digital and Social Media. While there, I was often invited by the heads of student organizations and other clubs to talk about what a career in social looked like and how students could properly use it: sort of like Social Media 101. It was great. Until Q+A time, when I heard the following, over and over:

“I’m studying political science, but there are no jobs, so I’m just going to do social media instead”

– OR –

“I’m studying biology, but it’s really difficult so I want to do social media instead. I do it everyday anyway and even manage my cousin’s pizzeria’s Facebook page. What’s so hard about it?”

Really? REALLY?

Therein lies my fear: social media is becoming the next generation’s dead end job.

Actually, it gets worse. It’s already happening.

Today’s generation (and I’m referring to most millennials) seem to think that social media is a great “last resort” if they can’t secure a job anywhere else. I especially see it with companies who hire interns to handle their social media: they tell the interns “Just make sure the page is updated”.

And once these former interns graduate and are hired by a company to actually do social media, they have already learned what I like to call “lazy social”. They pin and post and tweet just for the hell of it…just because it has to get done…and somebody’s gotta do it, right? The day in and day out at this point requires little thought and even less action.

And there you have it. The dead end job.

How do I know this is true? When I talk to the team at Silverback, they say they get a LOT of flack for being in social media. Their friends think it’s a joke. It’s so far past a “buzz word”, that it’s now a cliché. Because every other person in the room is a social media “expert”, “guru”, “rockstar”, “ninja” or any other assortment of randomly selected and self-applied titles.

Here’s the thing: The Silverback Team puts in WAY too much time and effort for anyone to call what we do “a joke”. From developing content calendars, to calculating analytics, to developing strategic times for posts, we do these things because we understand they are tied to our overall goals.

But we get the bad name because of “lazy social”. Because when people use social media, they don’t use it strategically. They use it lackadaisically: there’s no attention put towards identifying their goals or capturing their audience’s attention.

And when it’s that easy, it attracts the next generation kid (or, even adult) who wants to do it because, well, just pinning and posting every day? That sounds like the easiest job in the world.

What do you think? Have you seen people engaging in lazy social?

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