1. University of Georgia
Athens, GA • Private
In-State Tuition
$11,830
Enrollment
29,474
With social media evolving into the powerful industry it is today, over the course of a single decade, social media management is a promising career option for everyone who does not mind diving deep into this peculiar universe. Social media managers are people who know how to take advantage of user data accumulated by social media platforms for marketing purposes and ride the wave.
Today every business making an effort to be relevant develops a social media strategy, coming up with ways to target consumers with the right ads with mathematical precision. Social media managers find the way to use personalized social media platforms as vehicles to interact with clients and drive up sales as a consequence. They work on building social media presence for brands and businesses by creating engaging content and operating advertisement campaigns through entertainment.
What makes social media revolve around its axis is influence. People deeply affect each other through this intricate web of relations, and a successful social media manager finds the influencers with the largest follower groups to win them over for their sales purposes, provided what they represent and the crowd they engage matches the profile of the product they wish to market. This exciting and challenging profession opens up new horizons to our consumer society, and it is really up to you and your creativity to make your own way in this jungle.
There are certain skills that many social media managers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed leadership skills, communication skills and analytical skills.
If you're interested in becoming a social media manager, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 78.7% of social media managers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 7.1% of social media managers have master's degrees. Even though most social media managers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a social media manager can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as marketing director, progress to a title such as senior director of marketing and then eventually end up with the title senior director of marketing.
What Am I Worth?
The role of a social media manager includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general social media manager responsibilities:
There are several types of social media manager, including:
Role:
Role:
Role:
Mouse over a state to see the number of active social media manager jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where social media managers earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Athens, GA • Private
In-State Tuition
$11,830
Enrollment
29,474
Madison, WI • Private
In-State Tuition
$10,555
Enrollment
30,360
Minneapolis, MN • Private
In-State Tuition
$14,760
Enrollment
31,451
West Lafayette, IN • Private
In-State Tuition
$9,992
Enrollment
33,495
Washington, DC • Private
In-State Tuition
$26,756
Enrollment
6,166
Austin, TX • Private
In-State Tuition
$10,610
Enrollment
40,329
Los Angeles, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$56,225
Enrollment
19,548
Columbus, OH • Private
In-State Tuition
$10,726
Enrollment
45,769
Philadelphia, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764
San Diego, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$7,488
Enrollment
30,018
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 8.6% of social media managers listed instagram on their resume, but soft skills such as leadership skills and communication skills are important as well.
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Social Media Manager templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Social Media Manager resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
1. Social Media Management
This course equips you with critical content creation and management skills. You’ll learn how to create effective social media posts and how to create a strong brand to help you build a social media presence. You’ll also learn how to establish an ongoing process to manage your content. This includes setting up a content calendar, managing and moderating your posts, analyzing data for insights and iteration, and how to increase post effectiveness. You will end the course with real-world...
See More on Coursera2. Meta Social Media Marketing
Want to turn your passion for social media into a career? In this program, you’ll learn how to create a social media presence on Facebook and Instagram that people want to follow! Social media marketing jobs are amongst the most in-demand skills for organizations of all sizes. Whether you’re completely new to digital marketing or you’ve been tinkering with social media platforms for your own business, you’ve come to the right place. This six-course program designed by experts at Meta and Aptly...
See More on Coursera3. Social Media Advertising
Social media platforms are driven by digital advertising. As a result, social media advertising is affordable and can be purchased at almost any budget. Targeting options in social media advertising are also sophisticated. It is possible to tailor ads around a user’s behaviors (e.g., likes, posts and clicks). This course unpacks small business use cases of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter advertising. From basic campaigns, to advanced techniques including lookalike modeling and audience...
See More on CourseraSome places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a social media manager. The best states for people in this position are Washington, California, Nevada, and Oregon. Social media managers make the most in Washington with an average salary of $89,087. Whereas in California and Nevada, they would average $88,236 and $87,105, respectively. While social media managers would only make an average of $86,846 in Oregon, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Washington
$89,087
Avg. Salary
2. California
$88,236
Avg. Salary
3. Oregon
$86,846
Avg. Salary
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ social media managers and discovered their number of social media manager opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that iCIMS was the best, especially with an average salary of $65,760. Pearson follows up with an average salary of $62,599, and then comes AT&T; with an average of $85,858. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a social media manager. The employers include Veeva Systems, Commonwealth Financial Network, and Creative Circle
Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Meta | $138,672 | $66.67 | 15 |
2 | $132,827 | $63.86 | 16 | |
3 | Microsoft | $131,788 | $63.36 | 22 |
4 | IBM | $95,266 | $45.80 | 11 |
5 | Sears Holdings | $89,814 | $43.18 | 14 |
6 | AT&T | $85,858 | $41.28 | 50 |
7 | Tulalip Resort Casino | $76,282 | $36.67 | 10 |
8 | Crossover | $74,157 | $35.65 | 26 |
9 | The Black Sheep | $73,372 | $35.27 | 14 |
10 | Main Street Hub | $72,492 | $34.85 | 28 |
To become a freelance social media manager, start by learning about marketing. Since becoming a freelance social media manager is a freelance position, the job starts with you.
There are technically no requirements to become a freelance social media manager other than setting up a website and having basic marketing knowledge. While it may be easy to become a freelance social media manager, actually getting paid for such a job is an entirely different story.
To become a social media manager from scratch, start with marketing experience. While we all may interact with social media daily, becoming an effective social media manager does take some knowledge and experience.
Starting social media managers starting make $33,000 a year. An entry-level social media manager makes very little money, as the industry relies heavily on word of mouth and proven prior experience. A beginning social media manager can earn anywhere between $15-$50 an hour, which is entirely dependent on the company and the size of the project.
You do not need a degree to be a social media manager. Even though you may not need a degree to become a social media manager, some knowledge of marketing and social media interaction is required to create an effective social media marketing campaign.
A social media manager is the voice of the brand. It is the social media manager's responsibility to create a strategy for a successful marketing campaign, post content, and engage with customers for the betterment of the company.