You better be paying this guy a lot of money. One of the best posts I've ever seen on Mashable.
PJ Brunet
· 1 year ago
And you're going to pay these experts more than they could make monetizing their own traffic.
You can't call yourself an expert w/o traffic, and if you have traffic you're not looking for a job.
Ben Parr
· 1 year ago
PJ: It's not just about traffic, though. It's about community engagement, it's about product management, it's about personal interaction.
Do you think Microsoft needs traffic? No, it needs to keep customers happy, it needs to pick up on new trends and build products around those first.
Traffic can take years to build, while companies with existing huge bases need people now. Not everyone's out to build their own website, work from home, or build their own company. You can be an expert without "traffic," because it's only a small piece of the social media equation.
PJ Brunet
· 1 year ago
Let me guess, you have no traffic. I hope that story works for you.
"Do you think Microsoft needs traffic?"
Yes, I hear complaints their ad network has no traffic, you can't get any volume from targeted keywords so it's not worth the trouble advertising on the MSN network, also the MSN search engine is barely relevant, again they have no traffic.
"You can be an expert without "traffic," because it's only a small piece of the social media equation."
Traffic _is_ social media. No traffic = no social media.
Why am I writing this right now? Traffic.
Jeremy Toeman
· 1 year ago
I think the concept is here, but the jobs are a transitionary element. The "social media expert" and "community manager" and "PR manager" are going to slowly blend, merge, and shift. Ultimately each marketing organization will be responsible for figuring out the right balance, but I'd be surprised to see "Social Media Manager" as a job title in a few years...
Ben Parr
· 1 year ago
Jeremy, absolutely. As I said in the article, all of these jobs have their core in the same area - it's about reach, users, traffic, and revenue. But the responsibilities, buzz, and jobs around social media will only grow as the technologies become more mainstream. So long as they grow, so will the reach. Maybe it'll be that more people have part of their responsibilities center around it while others focus on it exclusively, but it will grow.
Rawn Shah
· 1 year ago
I think we still limit ourselves if we think that is the domain primarily of PR and marketing. The job skills of a "community manager" are eventually going to be dispersed across many roles even into "traditional" managers today. It's not only about sharing views but perhaps to help guide a shared effort of the people involved.
So yes, this will continue, but I think it will become a part of many jobs all around, rather than stay strictly as a single job title.
Karl Long
· 1 year ago
I wonder if "Marketing" is the right owner for social media? I think the scope of social media covers every aspect of an organizations activities from product development, product management, consumer research, marketing etc. I think every aspect of the value network is effected by social media so I think the most successful companies are going to be thinking about social media at a more strategic and holistic level.
Joanne
· 1 year ago
I was very pleased to read this ... being that I am an Online Community Manager for NurseConnect.com. I do think roles will be redefined a little and grow as social media concepts are adopted more and more by corporations. It's an exciting area of marketing to be in that's for sure.
Blogging Technology
· 1 year ago
Ya Ben, there is still big Question mark on Social media Jobs and personally i think social media jobs are here to stay...
Mark Schoneveld
· 1 year ago
As the corporate world begins to learn the value of the new web, the folks who know how to use it will find their work and knowledge increasingly valuable. "Social Media Jobs" might not be delegated to one person, but rather spread among many in an organization. Ultimately, companies will realize the value of a human voice representing their interests on the web.
Ben Parr
· 1 year ago
A lot of companies have already realized it and gotten a head start against their rivals in this area. The question is how to best tackle it - perhaps you're right that social media responsibilities will simply become part of many job descriptions. I'd like to think so.
Laura P. Thomas
· 1 year ago
I think the elements are here to stay, but will become part of other jobs that already exist, rather than being a separate function.
mike mcgrath
· 1 year ago
Who's going to end up owning the social media space in large companies? Marketing, PR, Customer Support, somewhere else?
Indra Gardiner
· 1 year ago
I am convinced that PR will end up owning social media. It's about the ability to communicate, deal with crisis, stay on message and be real. Today's PR pro does all of that. Our work moves increasingly to the online space as print opportunities dry up. We find as much traction for our client's news on blogs as traditional news. And sometimes the results (i.e, traffic to our client's site) is better from targeted blogs than the "big" hit press like Time. I think PR is perfectly poised for this one.
Bill Cammack
· 1 year ago
No. Social Media Jobs are not here to stay.
Just like there used to be jobs for hand-coding HTML which were erased by DiY and WYSIWYG editors, Social Media Jobs will be wiped out when the rest of the world figures out what we already know... or apps become so easy to use that any idiot could handle their own Social Media campaign.
However...
That's not going to happen anytime soon, because there are too many aspects of Social Media to learn. If you're good at coding, you're not good at creating videos. If you're good at shooting videos, you're not good at encoding them so they look good and stream at a low bit rate. etc etc.
So there will be a need for Social Media teams for a long time to come. The current Social Media Expert fad is based on that fact that we know more than everybody else, so for the time being, they have to pay us or waste their time hitting the books themselves.
Lynne d Johnson
· 1 year ago
Of course social media jobs are here to stay. They will just have a different name -- and no time too soon I might add.
All these jobs are is an extension of either customer service, marketing, audience development and retention (as the post points out), and a myriad of other gigs.
Those types of jobs will never disappear. A social media expert doesn't just show a company how to use social media -- it's a lot similar to any community relations or grassroots campaign to attract and keep customers.
AndyFinkle
· 1 year ago
I just recently blogged about this (full post at www.afpr.com) and the only one who can successfully own social media is the Chief Social Media officer.
This is because Social Media is not encompassed by just Marketing, or Just PR, or any one area of an enterprise. Social Media can be used in EVERY facet of a modern enterprise.
PS - If you visit (afpr.com) make certain to ping me with your answer to my question
"How many social media strategists does it take to change a light bulb?"
Mel Kirk
· 1 year ago
Okay, let me start by saying that I'm not saying Social Media jobs should stay because of my role. Yes, I'm a Communities Manager and yes I consult on Social Media... but there's a reason that I do that, which is I feel it's an essential part of the future of successful businesses.
If you forget the actual term itself and even what's involved at a detailed level... it's about taking customer service to the next level, about listening to what your users actually want and building that into product development.
Whilst not all companies are fortunate enough to afford a dedicated team member of their own, given the right guidance, they can start to shift how they approach this ever changing environment and can start to implement changes to put them steps ahead of their competitors.
Rob Williams
· 1 year ago
When I talk to others about social media, I don't always talk about growth and retention (though those are good). I usually refer to customer service and branding.
Ben Parr
· 1 year ago
Perhaps I'm just distilling things too much, but the point of customer service is retention and the point of branding is growth. They're just (important) subsidiaries of two larger goals.
Kosso
· 1 year ago
I prefer to call it 'Social Multimedia'. And it's all 'V.I.T.A.L' : Video, Images, Text, Audio and Links.
People seem to forget the 'multiple/multi' media types being used everywhere these days.
These jobs have been around for years, as these media types are those which have been connecting us all for years.
So-called 'web 2.0' provided the way to look at the technology which made it more 'social'.
John Furrier
· 1 year ago
Great post Ben. The problem isn't if social media is here to stay, but no one really knows what social media is?
If fact look around and ask yourself who really knows what social media is? What is it that people are selling in social media? The answers to those questions are very telling.
Collin Schaafsma
· 1 year ago
Great post Ben. Social Media jobs are certainly here to stay. The only thing that will change is the media and the tactics if you will. Anyone who has the ability to create an audience or a user base, or a method to retain customers will always be in demand. No questions asked. I don't think you can call yourself a PR person now days without the Social Media element. It's like any profession, if you don't move forward you move backwards. If I was a PR professional I would be focusing heavily on Social Media outlets and marketing myself in that way.
Unique Domain Names
· 1 year ago
This is an excellent post and is most certainly true. I have actually been on Craigslist alot lately and am noticing more and more Social Media positions popping up locally in companies that range in all different sizes. These are all smart companies to be offering this position. Social Media is the future.
Ling
· 1 year ago
Its important right now, but whether these jobs will remain so depends on how technology changes. Few years back, the online element was just one part of a company's strategy to reach customers. Now it's 'the' part. 5 years from now, websites may be obsolete, if customers and companies find a way to reach other without having to go through webpages.
modemlooper
· 1 year ago
social media is more customer service than straight out marketing. Its not about the conversion its about making contact and feeding that connection.
Shawn
· 1 year ago
Great post and comments all around.
I work in social media on the agency side and I'd say the term isn't any one thing more than the other; but is rather the over-arching concept of all of those different elements working together to engage audiences, interact and communicate with consumers, and ultimately increase awareness to drive revenue.
What I do (my title is Social Media Manager) incorporates not only marketing, advertising, and PR; but customer service, content creation, strategic planning, and even promotions. They're all important and ultimately serve to reach the same end.
Jason
· 1 year ago
This post simply justifies my opinion that people who are writing these sort of posts are really living in an echo chamber and are increasingly sort sighted.
I quote "Social media allows people to spread their message to hundreds, if not thousands, of friends, followers, and strangers. "
.... ooohhh hundreds if not THOUSANDS.... THOUSANDS I TELL YER. Gimme a break. Try TV radio, print (you know those media people like you thing are dead) they reach MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of people.
Just remember the world and the internet is a big place. The population of the world is in the region of 6,676million. The number of internet connected people is in the region of 1,463, that represents a 22 percent penetration. TBC...
Jeez.
Jason
· 1 year ago
CONTINUED... the number of Twitter users is in the region of 800k.
Therefore (lets assume that this is the very bottom of the scale) the percentage of users who use 'social media' based on the Twitter number is is 0.05 percent of the internet population.
You can scale the numbers up from there and do you own calculation / estimate of the number of internet users that utilise some kind of 'social media' however much you scale this number up the number is insugnificant compared the the number of people with access to TV, print and other 'old world' media. Thus such posts that you have made mea
Jason
· 1 year ago
.. Thus such posts that you have made made mean nothing to anyone except those inside your little echo chambers.
cheers
J
David Polinchock
· 1 year ago
Of course social media jobs will be around forever, because they've already been around forever. Most of the social media jobs that I see described are additions to existing positions in marketing, customer service, etc. They're using new tactics, but are they really doing something new? Is listening to your customers so new that it needs to be celebrated as a revolutionary future or should it really just make us aware of how far we strayed from being good companies? It's retail of the middle ages, when goods were sold based on reputation and WOM and the seller had real relationships with the buyer. But, as we got into the hype of branded content, WOM, second life and every other tactic that's come down the pike the last few years, we like to jump on the tactic without really making any real changes to how we do business.
All Comments
Totally agree. You can argue all you want that a particular tool (like Twitter) is a fad. But two-way communication a fad? No way.
It is sooo young. I wrote a post on 5 social media predictions on where I think this is going if you're interested, located at:
http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/future-social-...
Jobs will change some, but won't go away.
~Jim
You can't call yourself an expert w/o traffic, and if you have traffic you're not looking for a job.
Do you think Microsoft needs traffic? No, it needs to keep customers happy, it needs to pick up on new trends and build products around those first.
Traffic can take years to build, while companies with existing huge bases need people now. Not everyone's out to build their own website, work from home, or build their own company. You can be an expert without "traffic," because it's only a small piece of the social media equation.
"Do you think Microsoft needs traffic?"
Yes, I hear complaints their ad network has no traffic, you can't get any volume from targeted keywords so it's not worth the trouble advertising on the MSN network, also the MSN search engine is barely relevant, again they have no traffic.
"You can be an expert without "traffic," because it's only a small piece of the social media equation."
Traffic _is_ social media. No traffic = no social media.
Why am I writing this right now? Traffic.
So yes, this will continue, but I think it will become a part of many jobs all around, rather than stay strictly as a single job title.
Just like there used to be jobs for hand-coding HTML which were erased by DiY and WYSIWYG editors, Social Media Jobs will be wiped out when the rest of the world figures out what we already know... or apps become so easy to use that any idiot could handle their own Social Media campaign.
However...
That's not going to happen anytime soon, because there are too many aspects of Social Media to learn. If you're good at coding, you're not good at creating videos. If you're good at shooting videos, you're not good at encoding them so they look good and stream at a low bit rate. etc etc.
So there will be a need for Social Media teams for a long time to come. The current Social Media Expert fad is based on that fact that we know more than everybody else, so for the time being, they have to pay us or waste their time hitting the books themselves.
All these jobs are is an extension of either customer service, marketing, audience development and retention (as the post points out), and a myriad of other gigs.
Those types of jobs will never disappear. A social media expert doesn't just show a company how to use social media -- it's a lot similar to any community relations or grassroots campaign to attract and keep customers.
This is because Social Media is not encompassed by just Marketing, or Just PR, or any one area of an enterprise. Social Media can be used in EVERY facet of a modern enterprise.
PS - If you visit (afpr.com) make certain to ping me with your answer to my question
"How many social media strategists does it take to change a light bulb?"
If you forget the actual term itself and even what's involved at a detailed level... it's about taking customer service to the next level, about listening to what your users actually want and building that into product development.
Whilst not all companies are fortunate enough to afford a dedicated team member of their own, given the right guidance, they can start to shift how they approach this ever changing environment and can start to implement changes to put them steps ahead of their competitors.
People seem to forget the 'multiple/multi' media types being used everywhere these days.
These jobs have been around for years, as these media types are those which have been connecting us all for years.
So-called 'web 2.0' provided the way to look at the technology which made it more 'social'.
If fact look around and ask yourself who really knows what social media is? What is it that people are selling in social media? The answers to those questions are very telling.
I work in social media on the agency side and I'd say the term isn't any one thing more than the other; but is rather the over-arching concept of all of those different elements working together to engage audiences, interact and communicate with consumers, and ultimately increase awareness to drive revenue.
What I do (my title is Social Media Manager) incorporates not only marketing, advertising, and PR; but customer service, content creation, strategic planning, and even promotions. They're all important and ultimately serve to reach the same end.
I quote "Social media allows people to spread their message to hundreds, if not thousands, of friends, followers, and strangers. "
.... ooohhh hundreds if not THOUSANDS.... THOUSANDS I TELL YER. Gimme a break. Try TV radio, print (you know those media people like you thing are dead) they reach MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of people.
Just remember the world and the internet is a big place. The population of the world is in the region of 6,676million. The number of internet connected people is in the region of 1,463, that represents a 22 percent penetration. TBC...
Jeez.
Therefore (lets assume that this is the very bottom of the scale) the percentage of users who use 'social media' based on the Twitter number is is 0.05 percent of the internet population.
You can scale the numbers up from there and do you own calculation / estimate of the number of internet users that utilise some kind of 'social media' however much you scale this number up the number is insugnificant compared the the number of people with access to TV, print and other 'old world' media.
Thus such posts that you have made mea
cheers
J