/ How To Become a Social Media Professional: Career,Salaries,Job Stats & Education

Love sharing snaps Instagram? Enjoy racking up the likes? How about turning your social media expertise into a rewarding career by becoming a social media professional? With lots of growth on the horizon, now has never been a better time to get started with a Diploma of Social Media Marketing.

Social media means more than just great photos and accruing likes. It’s a digital phenomenon that has taken the world by storm, giving people a voice online. As it has grown in popularity, social media has also become a tool for brands to communicate more directly with their customers – and as a result become a career field all its own.

Social media marketing jobs

There’s never been a better time to launch a career in social media. Once reserved to duties in a wider digital marketing role, the growth of social media has paved the way for more defined career pathways and a variety of distinct job roles. You can also work both in-house and at an agency. Social media marketing jobs include:

• Social Media Assistant – looking for entry level social media jobs? Social media assistant roles are the perfect entry points for a career in social media, often requiring little experience and giving you the chance to work under a more experienced mentor. 
• Social Media Coordinator/Executive/Manager – All three of these roles share similar duties and involve the day to day management of social media accounts. Duties include creating and scheduling content, overseeing customer interaction and often the creation of imagery.
• Head of Social - Often the term ‘manager’ in social media manager roles refers to managing accounts rather than a team. When it comes to managing people, the role is often called ‘Head of Social’ or similar to avoid confusing duties with that of a social manager. 
• Social Media Strategist – while social executives and managers perform social strategy, this role is focused entirely on strategy and often involves more than one business or brand. Often this role is junior to the manager and offers support and direction.
• Content Manager – not directly related to social media, a content manager instead organises and manages all content within a business. By working with freelancers, content teams and others, a content manager ensures that all assets are used to their best effect – typically using social media to help accomplish their goals.
• Brand Manager/Creative Director/Content Marketing Manager – the end-goal of many social roles is to reach a level where you’re managing other executives and have graduated onto other marketing duties such as overseeing the creative output of an entire content team. Excelling in a social media role can lead to any of these job titles.

Where will I work? In-house versus Agency

For many businesses, achieving results through social media would require investment in new staff and training that they cannot afford. Instead, they will hire marketing agencies to help them with their social media presence.

Agency: If you work as a social media executive at an agency, you will handle a multitude of client accounts – overseeing their performance, creating or managing content and offering both reporting and strategy. An agency typically works in an hourly structure for clients, so you’ll receive a certain amount of time per client and aim to do the best you can to meet their goals.

In-house: When working directly for the company whose social pages you manage, you have more flexibility and more control. A social media executive employed in-house generally controls a single brand’s social media pages – overseeing day to day activities, planning new content and fostering better consumer interaction.

Ultimately, both jobs fall into the wider digital marketing sector – an industry forecast for very strong growth over the next 5 years, making social media an exciting role to get involved in…

Social Media Career Outlook

Source: *Job Outlook Government website. ABS Labour Force Survey, Department of Employment trend data to November 2015 and projections to 2023. Here is the information for Advertising and Marketing Professionals (Closest applicable title)

The graph shows historical and projected (to 2023) employment (thousands) for this occupation – indicating the strong growth in this field that’s occurring as more and more businesses are implementing digital marketing.

The government forecasts that the wider profession will have 53,000 total new job openings over 5 years, roughly equivalent to 10,600 a year. As a growing aspect of marketing, many of these new roles will involve social media. 

Social Media Executive Salary Expectations

Source: *Job Outlook Government website. ABS Labour Force Survey, Department of Employment trend data to November 2015 and projections to 2023. Here is the information for Advertising and Marketing Professionals (Closest applicable title)

The above salary is an average across all advertising and marketing professionals – so earnings in social media may differ. However, we can see that professionals in the wider marketing field enjoy good earning potential compared to the all jobs average. Weekly earnings are around $100 higher than the average salary in Australia. Annually, this equates to $69,992.  A Head of Social salary is likely to be higher than an executive’s, so it’s important to use this figure as an average.

Social Media Executive Age Profile

The average age of workers in marketing and advertising is 34, younger than the all Australian average of 40. The industry attracts vibrant young professionals, with far more younger workers compared to the all jobs average and fewer older workers – which may be due to people leaving the profession in their mid-50’s, or the modern nature of the industry limiting the number of older workers.

Social Media Executive Education Level

Many digital marketing professionals hold a Bachelor’s degree or a post graduate diploma. However, there are lots of professionals in the industry who are educated solely to a Year 12 standard. Fewer workers hold an Advanced Diploma/Diploma – but with more opportunities to enter the profession with courses such as the Diploma of Social Media, we expect this to change.

Why Study Social Media Marketing Courses?

While many marketing professionals hold a degree in marketing – there are plenty of workers who found their way into employment through certificates, diplomas and hard work. Social media is a more niche field within a wider marketing team, meaning that courses which focus solely on social make you stand out from those holding general marketing qualifications.

Social media marketing is a new and growing field, with plenty of opportunity for ambitious workers. Being an Instagram whiz isn’t quite enough – you also need the qualifications and experience achieved through social media marketing courses.