Careers in social media have exploded over the past ten years and there’s no sign of that changing. Businesses use social media for a range of functions and, therefore, all kinds of jobs have sprung up and one of them might be the perfect one for you.

Roles include titles such as social media manager, content creator (image, text or video), account manager and even more specific jobs that involve updating just one platform or working with social media influencers. You can go after jobs where you’ll work in-house for a company and be responsible for promoting that company’s own range of products or services over social media, or for a social media agency like us, where you’ll be responsible for representing a wide range of clients.

 

Finding a job in social media

There’s never been a more exciting time to land a role in social media and it can equip someone with a range of skills that are extremely desirable, for this jobs market and the future. Think a career in social media would be your absolute dream?! Here’s how to find one:

 

Our first tip? Use social media (well!)

If you want to come across like someone who is enthusiastic, passionate and knowledgeable about social media, use it yourself! Cultivate your social media profiles, share your views and build yourself an online profile.

Things to share:

• The things you do that make you who you are
• Relevant work or work-related activity, including things you learn
• Professional content that showcases your skills

 

Things to avoid sharing:

• Your political views
• Anything potentially offensive
• Generally oversharing or anything that just doesn’t portray you in the best light!

 

While creativity is very welcome, make sure you think twice before every post you plan to add to your profile. Once it’s there it’s there forever for a potential employer to see!

 

Leverage LinkedIn

Linkedin is an online haven for successful and thriving professionals. If you don’t have your own profile, you should check it out and create your resume. Give yourself a professional headline, profile picture and summary and collect recommendations from colleagues, friends and even teachers. Here is no place to be shy – clearly state your knowledge and accomplishments so that potential employers want to speak to you!

In addition, Linkedin is an excellent tool for job hunting. You can follow the agencies and companies where you’d like to work and be updated with their vacancies. Normally, the job application process is pretty straightforward on Linkedin – you can just add your CV and cover letter when you click on the job ad and the company will instantly receive your application. Follow up separately via email to make sure you’re at the top of the list!

 

 

Research social media agencies and get their attention

As well as utilising the power of Linkedin, search for social media agencies in your area and check their websites for job ads or other job-related updates. If you don’t have much experience, you can also search for an internship or apprenticeship. We have a whole careers page here that describes exactly what we’re looking for in a social media manager and how we recruit our talent.

We have hired some wonderful people when we haven’t even been looking to hire. The candidates caught our attention and we pretty much created roles for them! That could be you. One account manager sent us a series of daily tweets to explain why she would be perfect for our team, someone else baked us a social media-themed cake!

Social media roles, both in-house and agency-based, thrive when the individual involved is excited and passionate about the work. Showing your interest in a company in a proactive way will ensure you stand out in a competitive jobs market.

 

Check out recruitment sites

Making use of existing recruitment sites is probably the easiest way to find a job in social media. There are many recruitment sites out there – Indeed, Glassdoor, BlueTown and Monster, to name but a few. Your main task is to create your CV, type in the keywords for roles you want and browse the job section. The algorithm will show you the role it thinks you will like and usually all you have to do is attach your CV and covering letter and wait until the agencies reach out.

Pro tip: you absolutely must personalise your covering letter for each role to ensure it’s relevant. Business owners and recruiters can spot simple edits you’ve made to make your application fit the role – you need to do more than that to impress them.

These sites can represent a bit of a numbers game, whereby you feel like you’re scattergunning your application all over the place. Unfortunately, these kinds of sites work this way.

 

Brush up on your knowledge

Do you know the intricacies of Facebook’s ads manager, Instagram’s algorithm, Twitter’s analytics dashboard and LinkedIn’s home feed? What about the latest updates to each one, as well as the new social platforms that are emerging?

 

 

To work in social media, you’ll need to be an expert. Whilst you might not be one yet, you’re going to have to demonstrate an interest in the field and the intent to learn. Get hungry for all of the information you can find and use it to talk confidently about how you’d apply it to your clients. It’s competitive out there. If you asked ten social media experts for their opinion on a social media post, you’d likely hear ten different opinions. Make yours be the one that people listen to by having the theory nailed, as well as how to implement it.

Do your research, keep up to date with changes within the industry and demonstrate you can put it into practice by using your own social media platforms regularly. But it’s not just the industry – make sure you know about the company you’re applying to. Read their blogs, find out about their key people and what their culture is all about. It’s not all about you!

 

 

Are you ready?

If you think you’ve got what it takes to be an awesome social media manager, you can register your interest on the social media careers page of our website. We’ve tried to make the page as helpful as possible by outlining exactly the type of person we’re looking for so you can see if you’re a good fit for the team, and if we’re a good fit for you!