Social Media Week kicks off today, so what better time to take a look at the people who make up this booming industry.
The infographic below from OnwardSearch breaks down the location and salary ranges of people working in social media in the US – and it's no surprise to see that the majority are located in New York and California.
These areas are also home to the highest paying digital marketing jobs on average.
Looking at the different job titles, the infographic shows that almost a third of the industry (30%) is made up of content writers.
It would be interesting to see a similar stats breakdown for Europe to see how the UK stacks up against its neighbours…
Reader comments (5)
11:06AM on 13th February 2012
Another near useless infographic, the first piece of data has a 38,000 range...!
I know econsultancy didn't produce this, but maybe a little more thought around what this actually means, typical jobs it may entail etc. would have been useful?
I would think econsultancy would be in the perfect position to collect this kind of data for the UK? And perhaps with a little more purpose...?
Sorry, #negativemondays
4:25PM on 13th February 2012
Nearly 40% are management. Yep, that sounds about right. Agree the salary ranges are ridiculous.
11:22PM on 13th February 2012
Great - now all you need to do is employee someone in that salary range - oh and good luck with that ... Really need to add 40k at least.
2:09PM on 17th February 2012
With those rates that person better be managing several products/brands. Spending $30,000 - $79,000 (crazy salary ranges, right!) to follow a single company or brand on several platforms is a little bit pricey and is what keeps the ROI argument flamed. Also, these rate probably don't included the costs of benefits and training.
This data reinforces my opinion that companies with limited brand exposure should outsource social media strategy and execution to marketing or communications experts.
National Marketing and Social Media Manager at Onward Search
2:46PM on 21st February 2012
Hi! Thanks for the comments on our Infographic. If you visit our site http://www.onwardsearch.com you can view a lot more information regarding jobs. This is a Job and Salary guide, so the descriptions of the jobs and responsibilities and skills were not put on the infographic. As we would have loved to have created an infographic that was 6 feet long, the prospects of that seemed a bit unwarranted. I will be posting a blog shortly that gives great insight into what some of these jobs do entail.
Personally I think that when people THINK about the word Social Media Job, the see people playing around on Facebook and tweeting random things about what they had for lunch, etc. I can tell you that I manage about 10 different "communities" on Facebook as well as on Twitter. Not only do I post on facebook, but I also create branded pages, making sure that all of our brand stays consistent across the board. I write press releases, I analyze the ROI of these sites. Who;s coming in, are we getting job applications from the sites. What's working, What's not. Are we spending enough on our ads.
8 hours at work honestly is just not enough some days. I absolutely love my jobs because I can interact with people all over the world. It's Globalization at its best.
I hope that my comment helped in a way. So visit out site for more information.
Thanks!
Jennifer Brabson
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