Top 5 Social Media Marketing Career Options

The social media marketing industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the 21st century. Despite only having been introduced to the world in the early 2000s, social media has become a valuable communication and marketing tool for businesses and brands around the world.

At Pacific Training Group, we’ve recognised the exponential growth of the social media marketing industry, and provide educational courses to all individuals interested in the field.

You can view our social media marketing courses here.

Social Media Marketing in the 21st Century

To help our students get a head start in the industry, we’ve compiled a current list of the most highly demanded social media jobs in this blog, as well as some background information on the industry.

Social media plays a large role in marketing success of businesses, with 79% of people noting that content on social media impacts their purchasing decisions. Correspondingly, 73% of marketers believe that social media is ‘somewhat’ to ‘very’ effective for the growth of their business.

Along with the growth of the industry are a few key social media marketing jobs, which have been climbing the ranks as the most in-demand. To help you have an easier time preparing for your future in social media, below are five of the most popular and important roles in the space!

Social Media Strategist

A social media strategist is an expert in the social media marketing field, who works to plan, develop and execute a company’s general social media strategy. Knowledgeable on all things related to social media marketing, a social media strategist helps to improve a company’s online branding and presence, as well as increase organic web traffic to their website and other company assets.

As a social media marketing specialist, a few specific duties and responsibilities of strategists include:

• Managing social media content (in some cases planning and creating the social media content as well)
• Researching and keeping up to date with social media trends, best practises and utilities
• Being well-versed in the search engine optimisation aspects of social media content
• Leading team members in the marketing team, as well as communicating with personnel in the sales and product development teams.

Social Media Manager

Similar to a social media strategist, a social media manager is a social media marketing expert who is aware and knowledgeable of all the processes concerning the space – namely planning, development and execution. They work with the strategist and analyst to monitor campaign results and are often involved in public relations (of the internet).

The job of a social media manager is to:

• Plan and produce relevant social media content for a variety of social media platforms and accounts
• Work as the ‘voice of the company’ when it comes to their social media branding
• Work as the ‘voice of the company’ when it comes to their social media branding
• Streamline the social marketing process with automation tools.

Online Community Manager

A dedicated online community manager is integral to the social media marketing strategy for large businesses. An online community manager builds, grows and manages online communities around a business or brand, and is knowledgeable in both the social media marketing space as well as general internet communities.

In a social media marketing context, an online community manager’s role is to:

• Understand and encourage user engagement and online community activity
• Monitor community development across a number of digital platforms
• Plan and implement marketing and communication campaigns in the online context
• Maintain a brand’s public perception.

Social Media Consultant

Unlike the previously mentioned roles which are usually performed in-house, a social media consultant is the most frequently outsourced position in the marketing space. A social media consultant is knowledgeable in social media strategy and is an experienced problem solver.

Focused on helping brands plan and execute their own social media marketing campaigns, a consultant helps with goal-setting and can guide businesses through the phases of their campaign executions.

As the main job providing businesses with social media marketing help, a consultant’s duties and responsibilities includes (but is not limited to):

• Identifying areas of improvement in brands and business’ social media marketing strategies
• Answer their clients’ questions on social media strategy and implementation
• Facilitate discussions with clients using practised communication skills
• Gather and analyse quantitative and qualitative data on proposed social media campaigns.

Social Media Analyst

More on the technical side of things, a social media analyst is trained in data collection and analysis. They also work with consultants and strategists to predict the effectiveness of future social media marketing campaigns, as well as analyse the effectiveness levels of existing campaigns.

A social media analyst will usually have a degree or training in marketing or communications, and will have extensive experience measuring the impact of brand advertisements.

The role of a social media analyst is to:

• Use statistical models and other metric tools to understand social media campaign data and how they influence each other
• Understand and contribute to the success of social media marketing campaigns through numbers.
• Work with other business personnel to convey their findings and plan future campaigns.