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External relations director vs social media director

The differences between external relations directors 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 an external relations director and a social media director. Additionally, an external relations director has an average salary of $130,849, which is higher than the $70,846 average annual salary of a social media director.

The top three skills for an external relations director include project management, external relations and oversight. The most important skills for a social media director are facebook insights, instagram, and twitter.

External relations director vs social media director overview

External Relations DirectorSocial Media Director
Yearly salary$130,849$70,846
Hourly rate$62.91$34.06
Growth rate8%8%
Number of jobs22,84839,016
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 69%Bachelor's Degree, 80%
Average age4242
Years of experience44

What does an external relations director do?

An external relations director is responsible for helping a company or entity establish good public relations by creating a good market perception. The professional's responsibilities include giving communications counseling to the leadership team and ensuring compliance with appropriate facility conditions and sanitation standards. The job requires good communication, leadership, and organizational skills to accomplish such responsibilities. The job's education requirements include possessing a college degree in business, public relations, marketing, or other related fields.

What does a social media director do?

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.

External relations director vs social media director salary

External relations directors and social media directors have different pay scales, as shown below.

External Relations DirectorSocial Media Director
Average salary$130,849$70,846
Salary rangeBetween $82,000 And $208,000Between $40,000 And $124,000
Highest paying CityDavis, CASeattle, WA
Highest paying stateNevadaIdaho
Best paying companyPhoenix Children'sAccenture
Best paying industryEnergyInternet

Differences between external relations director and social media director education

There are a few differences between an external relations director and a social media director in terms of educational background:

External Relations DirectorSocial Media Director
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 69%Bachelor's Degree, 80%
Most common majorBusinessCommunication
Most common collegeStanford UniversityNorthwestern University

External relations director vs social media director demographics

Here are the differences between external relations directors' and social media directors' demographics:

External Relations DirectorSocial Media Director
Average age4242
Gender ratioMale, 44.1% Female, 55.9%Male, 42.8% Female, 57.2%
Race ratioBlack 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 Percentage16%16%

Differences between external relations director and social media director duties and responsibilities

External relations director example responsibilities.

  • Program development includes managing and building strong relationships with corporate and affinity partners to secure sponsorship and career enhancement for alumni
  • Ensure target ROI with feasibility studies on potential acquisitions, identifying optimum projects requiring rezoning and entitlement approvals for development.
  • Develop and implement company-wide QA and delivery procedures.

Social media director example responsibilities.

  • Manage client Facebook accounts to increase their sales/promotions.
  • Perform administrative duties including ordering photography supplies, managing expenses bookkeeping, updating photography inventory and archives.
  • Determine KPIs and metrics for success across platforms and develop strategies to meet client ROI expectations.
  • Create addiction and recovery relate blog posts for fifteen hours each week through a WordPress account.
  • Negotiate SmartPlus, Arbitron and Nielsen contracts.
  • Engage and nurture social media communities using HootSuite.
  • Show more

External relations director vs social media director skills

Common external relations director skills
  • Project Management, 13%
  • External Relations, 11%
  • Oversight, 10%
  • Press Releases, 9%
  • GAAP, 8%
  • Financial Statements, 7%
Common social media director skills
  • Facebook Insights, 10%
  • Instagram, 9%
  • Twitter, 8%
  • Social Media Marketing, 7%
  • Digital Marketing, 6%
  • Web Content, 5%

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