How To Become A Social Media Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is a social media director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Brock Zehr

Social media directors manage the social media accounts on behalf of their company. You will plan online strategies to meet up with set goals. It is your responsibility to create content, schedule posts, and monitor your social media metrics. You are to devise interesting story-telling styles of advertising for your company's product or service. Your duty includes the effective communication of innovative ideas to your co-workers or clients. Your responsibility also includes the use of search optimization engines to the benefit of your company.

Ideally, a degree in business management, public relations, or related discipline is required. But then, most employers leave the role open for applicants from various fields. Solid knowledge of some selected social media platforms is a must. You should be able to write and edit content well. Social media directors are very creative with strong communication skills and make an average salary of $63,294 per year.

What general advice would you give to a social media director?

Brock Zehr

Associate Professor of Business & Economics and MBA Director, Huntington University

Social media content development, data analytics, and quality video content generation will all be in greater demand. Employers tell me that the "soft skills" of being a team player, excellent communication skills, integrity, and a strong work ethic are still valued skills.

ScoreSocial Media DirectorUS Average

Salary

5.5

Avg. Salary $70,846

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.7

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.42%

Asian 5.10%

Black or African American 5.88%

Hispanic or Latino 9.04%

Unknown 4.66%

White 74.91%

Gender

female 57.17%

male 42.83%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress level

8.7

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.4

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.8

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a social media director

Explore social media director education requirements

Most common social media director degrees

Bachelor's

79.6 %

Associate

8.2 %

Master's

7.1 %

Start to develop specific social media director skills

Skills	Percentages
Facebook Insights	9.69%
Instagram	9.27%
Twitter	8.35%
Social Media Marketing	6.60%
Digital Marketing	6.17%

Complete relevant social media director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New social media directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a social media director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real social media director resumes.

Research social media director duties and 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.

Get social media director experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a social media director. The most common roles before becoming a social media director include internship, sales associate team lead and marketing internship.

Prepare your social media director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your social media director resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a social media director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable social media director resume templates

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