‘Social media experts’ should describe people that are around 12 years of age and have had a smartphone since forever, OMG. In reality, though, it means you have gotten a job running a company’s very straightforward Twitter and Facebook accounts. Oh dear.
It’s a masterstroke and has social media companies in cahoots with the idea. For example, is your business getting the right ‘reach’ on Facebook? Is it ‘organic’ reach, or ‘paid’ reach?
Is the reach effective? Can you remember what the word reach means? Can you reach that sandwich over there? And so forth.
What’s wonderful about all this is it has now become necessary to have expertise in the area of social media. Quite whether that means you must hire a social media expert, or just learn those accessible steps needed to keep pace, is entirely up to you.
But beware, if you do want to hire someone in this field, expect CVs populated with ‘ninja’ or ‘guru’ in job titles, because social media is cool.
There’s a serious side to the role, however. Social media management is, actually, just marketing. It’s marketing on a modern platform that’s terribly fluid and ever-changing. Focusing on social media is something many businesses need to do, working out how best to go about it is a purely personal decision.
What they do: Wangling their way into a job that, at most, is a fraction of what many would consider work, social media experts #commandtheconversation. Streamlining a business’ online voice into one, consistent accent, ensuring you ‘engage’ with the right audience – well, the right amount of audience.
What they don’t do: It’s unfair to pick out any one thing that they don’t do when there’s a wonderful world of examples any which way you look.
Education requirements: Social media marketing degrees or diplomas. You also need a smartphone with a big screen, bucket loads of followers on Twitter and the ability to engage in conversations that lack all awareness of reality and tangible existence.
Salary: Whatever someone’s willing to pay.
Here are some social media expert memes, jokes and videos to help explain what these people do at #work.
Lego office meeting image, via Shutterstock
