Social Media Jobs Are Hot

I'm pleased to report that the job market for social media is taking off. A post in VisInsights indicated that more companies are starting to put together job description for social media types.

It's encouraging to see that organizations are not only taking social media seriously by apportioning budgets for programs, but they're also staffing against them. Here's some visual evidence:

One of the classic knee-jerk responses to instituting a social media program is "my staff is already swamped with work, they can't take on something else." It looks like that complaint has been met with the retort courteous, "Then hire someone new."

What should be particularly interesting is to see how many of these jobs end up being cross-functional. That is, to date, it's been impossible to compartmentalize social media: it seems to have parts of PR, advertising, brand management, customer service, employee communications and product development, to name a few. If I had an option, I'd go for the job that allowed social media to seep into / tap into all of those areas.

Every week Jeremiah Owyang has a feature on new jobs and new hires in social media. It's worth checking out his site as a resource, as well as:

• Jake McKee’s community portal for jobs
• Chris Heuer’s Social Media Jobs
• socialmediajobs.com
  
• My own Jobamatic link here or over in the sidebar

If you'd ever like to chat about getting started in the social media field, I'm more than happy to speak with you.