Social media jobs continue to rise

As expected, social media career opportunities are still on the rise. The need for savvy young professionals to boost online reputations for older companies has never been more prevalent. Industries that have normally remained offline are discovering that maintaining an online presence can significantly increase product and service exposure to interested consumers.

To put the job market into perspective, in November of 2009 there were 4,300 social media jobs. Just one year later, there were more than 14,000 open jobs, according to US News. Within that one year, available social media jobs had more than tripled.

In 2011, the number of social media jobs posted has increased by more than 600 percent over the past five years to 21,000 jobs, according to Social Media Influence.

For a lot of people, understanding what a social media manager does can be quite confusing. It is easy to fall under the impression that all they do is tweet, re-tweet and keep up-to-date with what other companies and consumers are saying online. Although this is a great basic description, their responsibilities go much deeper than that. A social media manager must also review traffic volume, bounce rates and find new interactive ways to engage with consumers.

Social media has become a gateway into a world of new advertising. Simply by having an online presence, businesses have discovered new ways to reach consumers. In a recent study by The Pivot Conference and Brian Solis, 67 percent of polled companies answered that they conduct social media optimization (SMO) campaigns. Among them, roughly 42 percent plan to step up spending on such efforts over the next 12 months. In addition, 62 percent of those companies use platforms like Facebook to advertise their services and reach new markets.

For an employer, the need to improve social media coverage is obvious. The world is becoming more communicative through the internet, and choosing to consider social media as a passing phase could prove to be a costly business mistake.

Social media has even changed the way print advertisement is done. In the same Pivot Conference and Brian Solis study, 70 percent of social advertisers say they use traditional media to drive consumers to social media outlets.

The job market is a changing one. Employers need to find talented new employees to fill social media roles. However, knowing who to hire can be the hardest part. In such a new industry, there has not yet been enough time for a worker to prove himself, so finding a talented advertiser with an innovative mind can produce impacting results for any company using social media.