Social Media Specialists create and manage content on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Their job is essentially to engage customers and build a solid audience around a brand or product, often disguising it as entertainment.
Your work as a social media specialist will not only entail planning posts and creating content. You will have to actively engage with followers as well, responding to their comments and generating discussion. Your success will be measured in numbers, so following metrics and adjusting your strategies to consumer analytics will be a part of your job as well.
This is a highly complex and very independent role you can practically perform from the comfort of your home, and many actually do. You will be responsible for every aspect of this position, from customer service to creative direction, copywriting, and even data analysis.
Social Media Specialist Overview
Social Media Specialist Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a social media specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $22.51 an hour? That's $46,824 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 17,300 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Social Media Specialist Do
There are certain skills that many social media specialists 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 problem-solving skills, speaking skills and writing skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a social media specialist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 12.0% of social media specialists included content marketing, while 10.0% of resumes included instagram, and 9.7% of resumes included facebook. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the social media specialist job title. But what industry to start with? Most social media specialists actually find jobs in the retail and technology industries.
How To Become a Social Media Specialist
If you're interested in becoming a social media specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 68.6% of social media specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 13.9% of social media specialists have master's degrees. Even though most social media specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a social media specialist. When we researched the most common majors for a social media specialist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on social media specialist resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a social media specialist. In fact, many social media specialist jobs require experience in a role such as internship. Meanwhile, many social media specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as marketing internship or sales associate.
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Social Media Specialist Career Paths
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 specialist can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as editor, progress to a title such as consultant and then eventually end up with the title brand marketing manager.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Social Media Specialist
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Tegna Social Media Specialist (Remote) Social Media Specialist (Remote) | Tegna Tegna | 03/29/2021 03/29/2021 | $31,30503/29/2021 $31,305 |
Goodwill Industries of Central Texas Marketing & Social Media Specialist Marketing & Social Media Specialist | Goodwill Industries of Central Texas Goodwill Industries of Central Texas | 03/28/2021 03/28/2021 | $56,34903/28/2021 $56,349 |
Moo Properties Social Media Agent Social Media Agent | Moo Properties Moo Properties | 03/27/2021 03/27/2021 | $46,00003/27/2021 $46,000 |
Moo Properties Social Media Agent Social Media Agent | Moo Properties Moo Properties | 03/26/2021 03/26/2021 | $46,00003/26/2021 $46,000 |
University of Denver Social Media Specialist, Marketing & Communications Social Media Specialist, Marketing & Communications | University of Denver University of Denver | 03/26/2021 03/26/2021 | $52,00003/26/2021 $52,000 |
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Social Media Specialist Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Social Media Specialist. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Social Media Specialist Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Social Media Specialist resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Social Media Specialists
1. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
2. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
3. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
4. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
5. Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA • Public
6. Villanova University
Villanova, PA • Private
7. University of Houston
Houston, TX • Public
8. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Public
9. Bentley University
Waltham, MA • Private
10. Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY • Private
Top Skills For a Social Media Specialist
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, 12.0% of social media specialists listed content marketing on their resume, but soft skills such as problem-solving skills and speaking skills are important as well.
- Content Marketing, 12.0%
- Instagram, 10.0%
- Facebook, 9.7%
- Twitter, 8.4%
- Linkedin, 5.3%
- Other Skills, 54.6% See All Social Media Specialist Skills
Best States For a Social Media Specialist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a social media specialist. The best states for people in this position are Nevada, Hawaii, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. Social media specialists make the most in Nevada with an average salary of $58,528. Whereas in Hawaii and New Hampshire, they would average $55,766 and $55,253, respectively. While social media specialists would only make an average of $54,737 in Connecticut, 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. Nevada
$58,528
Avg. Salary
2. District of Columbia
$54,545
Avg. Salary
3. New Hampshire
$55,253
Avg. Salary
How Do Social Media Specialist Rate Their Jobs?
Top Social Media Specialist Employers
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 specialists and discovered their number of social media specialist opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Robert Half International was the best, especially with an average salary of $49,002. Nike follows up with an average salary of $53,958, and then comes Harte Hanks with an average of $49,803. 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 specialist. The employers include Edward Jones, Helen of Troy, and BAILEYS
Social Media Specialist Videos
