Months before my college graduation, my classmates and I were watching the global economy crumble and wondering how we were going to find jobs. Since my graduation, I’ve seen a trend in my classmates who have recently been hired: many of them are forging careers in the social media realm. Five years ago, companies would have never thought of hiring someone to manage “Tweets”, or give daily promotions to hundreds of thousands of people over social media sites. What was once purely social, entertaining and “off-limits” to every demographic besides college students is now part of many business professionals’ day-to-day tasks.
The unstable economy has forced companies to become innovative with their marketing dollars. They have found that social media is a wonderful asset to their organization not only because they can gain unbelievable exposure, but also because it is relatively inexpensive, with strategy and manpower as their biggest costs. Nielsen’s latest statistics report that Twitter drew 7 million unique users in February 2009, an increase from the 475,000 unique users they had in February of last year. As companies begin to realize the value of using sites such as Twitter and Facebook, they are putting more time and energy into these sites each day. This investment will no doubt increase over time, requiring companies to hire staff with the sole responsibility of managing social media sites. According to CNBC.com, JetBlue already has ten employees working on Twitter, with two or three on the site at all times.
Total advertising budgets have been on the decline over the past year; however, social media marketing budgets are estimated to grow (CNBC.com). Forrester recently estimated social media marketing budgets will increase by more than 30 percent each year for the next five years, putting spending on pace to reach $3 billion by 2014. Due to the increase in the social media budgets and the value companies are beginning to see in these sites, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more Web-savvy college graduates finding work in this emerging field.
- Posted By Audrey HoeferTags: Facebook, Interactive, social media, twitter
Great insights, Audrey. I have definitely seen more companies hiring for their social media needs and this is something college grads really excel in becuase of their personal interest and experience in the area. I’ve also been reading that now is the best time to begin your own company-Twitter and all other social media outlets can only positively affect new businesses and freelancers.