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The differences between communications officers and social media directors can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a communications officer and a social media director. Additionally, a social media director has an average salary of $70,846, which is higher than the $40,161 average annual salary of a communications officer.
The top three skills for a communications officer include affordable housing, non-emergency telephone calls and customer service. The most important skills for a social media director are facebook insights, instagram, and twitter.
| Communications Officer | Social Media Director | |
| Yearly salary | $40,161 | $70,846 |
| Hourly rate | $19.31 | $34.06 |
| Growth rate | 8% | 8% |
| Number of jobs | 73,260 | 39,016 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 60% | Bachelor's Degree, 80% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
A communications officer is responsible for maintaining the brand image of an organization through monitoring marketing campaigns and public relations techniques. Communications officers handle press releases, social media management, media outreach, reviewing digital contents, and disseminating public communications within the company's premises and appropriate audience. They often coordinate with the senior management to develop strategic procedures to improve brand awareness, attracting potential partnerships that would generate more revenues and increase the company's profitability. A communications officer must have excellent leadership skills to monitor the performance of the communications staff and ensure maximum productivity.
Social Media Directors are responsible for the promotion of an organization's brand, services, and products through social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. They are responsible for implementing a social media strategy, tracking social media presence, keeping abreast of social media trends, and adopting new social media channels. Other duties include measuring Twitter activity, analyzing traffic patterns, assessing Facebook comments, and inspecting reception levels of social media messages. They contribute to creating progress reports, providing feedback to management, and contributing to strategy improvements.
Communications officers and social media directors have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Communications Officer | Social Media Director | |
| Average salary | $40,161 | $70,846 |
| Salary range | Between $25,000 And $62,000 | Between $40,000 And $124,000 |
| Highest paying City | New York, NY | Seattle, WA |
| Highest paying state | New York | Idaho |
| Best paying company | Morgan Stanley | Accenture |
| Best paying industry | Non Profits | Internet |
There are a few differences between a communications officer and a social media director in terms of educational background:
| Communications Officer | Social Media Director | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 60% | Bachelor's Degree, 80% |
| Most common major | Criminal Justice | Communication |
| Most common college | California State University - Bakersfield | Northwestern University |
Here are the differences between communications officers' and social media directors' demographics:
| Communications Officer | Social Media Director | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 44.3% Female, 55.7% | Male, 42.8% Female, 57.2% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 6.1% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 9.2% Asian, 5.1% White, 74.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% | Black or African American, 5.9% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 9.0% Asian, 5.1% White, 74.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 16% | 16% |