someone reposted the below on my linkedin page.. i thought it was only fitting to share it here...
Social Media Marketing is Not Just a Job Title
http://bostinnovation.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/social-media-icons-297x300.jpgPreface: If you currently have a job title with social media in it, this is in no way degrading your skills, I simply want to set forth why your job has become so much more, and so has the role of social media.
Two years ago when Cambridge-based HubSpot coined the now famous term inbound marketing the industry became very focused on using the buzz words remarkable content, social media expert, guru, SMO (social media optimization), etc.
This led to many new job titles coming about, some of which included phrases such as Social Media Guru, Social Media Expert, Social Media Analyst, etc. Since social media itself was so brand new at the time, this was completely fair and admirable to work under this job title.
However, having worked in the Internet marketing industry for a solid three years and especially within social media, Ive observed a few things:
- Social media has become an integrated part of an entire marketing strategy.
- Social media impacts all other aspects of a marketing program, including the blog, PR, SEO and general brand loyalty and awareness.
- So many social media automation and measurement tools have come about that it is nearly impossible for a person to work full time on solely social media (unless you are a huge corporation with several accounts per service).
Due to these three major observations and shifts in the placement of social media within a marketing plan,
I no longer think someone should be dubbed as just a social media expert within their company.
When speaking with several of my connections around Boston about this exact topic, we all found that we take a bit of offense when people refer to us as the social media person of XYZ company.
For me personally, I started off at
Backupify, a cloud-to-cloud backup provider, as the Marketing and Social Media Analyst. Since this was a year and a half ago and social media was my main focus and expertise, I was fine with this and so was everyone else in the industry. However, as I saw social media grow and evolve,
I requested that the social media part be taken out of my job title. To clarify, I wanted it taken just out of my job title, not job duties. On a daily basis I still do manage and monitor all our social media, however that is only about 10% of my job today.
If you are currently dubbed as a social media person for your company, stop and think for a moment if this is the entirety of your job title or if you simply manage social media as a component of many other activities you perform as well. If so, you may want to reconsider how you display yourself to ensure you are giving credit for the vast amount of marketing projects you truly work on.
of course, lol@souffs...
