What You Need To Know About Building A Career In Social Media (No Toxicity, Expert Advice Edition)

Nothing says anyone can become a social media manager like Buffer’s resident music major turned SMM,

Here’s another graph that depicts the pay ranges based on years of experience, so you can tell how much you can expect from a role based on that.

One of the conclusions from the survey pointed out that more “traditional” marketers are far ahead of their social media manager peers when it comes to income. The same also rings true regarding how far SMMs can expect to rise within their roles.

Career opportunities abound for anyone in marketing. For some social media managers, those opportunities might look like climbing one straight ladder, going from intern to Head/Director of Social Media (a role you’ll typically find at bigger companies).

Others might pursue a broader approach, taking on roles ranging from social media manager to marketing manager to copywriter. Sometimes social media managers grow by taking on new channels in their work (growing “out” instead of just “up”).

Instead of focusing solely on posting, moving to a role like social media strategist can allow for more room to explore technical marketing roles like digital or product marketer. Social media managers are well-positioned to be digital marketing leads as well.

However, it often goes unsaid that there’s a ceiling on how far social media managers can go in terms of title.

To paraphrase an insight from Rachel Karten of Link In Bio, social media professionals often have a deep understanding of their audience and a wide range of skills, but they aren’t taken nearly as seriously as their peers.

You can always make more money, but roles like VP of Marketing are more likely given to people with a broad understanding of Marketing. This leads to low retention rates of social media managers, with up to 41 percent of respondents to the aforementioned Link in Bio survey saying they aren’t sure if they want to make a career out of social media as they don’t see a future in the role.

That doesn’t mean you can’t reach that point if it’s your goal to grow as a social media – but you’ll have to work even harder than your peers. Continuous learning and staying updated with the latest social media trends and …read more

Source:: Buffer Blog