What has been your career progression in social media?

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All new posts need a flair going forward
byu/JonODonovan insocialmedia

[losernanne]

Nice try CIA

[SkyMajor8375]

if you work as a social media you don’t necessarily need to be stuck with a company …

[911pleasehold]

I started at a completely unrelated corporate job, started a business with my ex boyfriend since he needed a job, it succeeded, I learned and did all the marketing on the fly.

We sold that and from there started a small local marketing company that focused on teaching business owners about how to do their own marketing. During this time I created two Instagram profiles mostly to show as examples for our clients that got around 10k local followers. I also had writing gigs on the side.

I left that toxic relationship and searched for a more stable job, which I found in a man who was nice enough to take a chance on me since I didn’t have prior agency experience other than my own work.

He retired/closed during the pandemic and four months later I found a job as a team lead/social media director at a relatively large niche agency.

Both times I was told my casual yet confident interview skills and personality put me ahead of others and my Instagram profiles + ability to find answers even if I don’t know them landed me the job.

I freelance on the side and make 55k more than my first corporate job. I was still at that job three years ago.

So that’s my life story.

I was in a second round of interviews for a govt social media position but they take so fucking long to hire that I already had to take this different job. Can’t help but wonder how far I would have gotten there.. Probably would have been *a lot* less fun than my current job but the benefits seem nice 🙂

[TheMacMan]

Directed the social media program for a Fortune 50 company (computer company you very likely own). $20 million a year ad budget. Then went into more general marketing, directing things for everyone from small businesses to large. Still advise for some of the largest tech companies out there, including one of the big 4 social media networks and the largest software maker in the world, amongst others.

[[deleted]]

Journalism > magazines > government communications

[Dabasacka43]

You have the best job out there. Digital marketing is a load of crap. I did SEO for about 4 years and my career hit a wall.

[Sleepykidd]

Started doing journalism, managing communities got a gig managing a reality tv stars community etc and then worked for a bunch of corporate accounts managing their brands.

[SadSpaceWizard]

I’m also in social media with my country’s government. Started in general media relations with a large government department, made a small name for myself after being involved with the social media response to a couple of big crises, and have spent the last six years doing almost exclusively social media outreach for a niche department with a very strong connection to the daily news cycle.

[nalehWeiddA]

Maybe look into agency world – I know it’s definitely different. But like others, I manage socials for a global tech company from Korea (this should tell you who it is LOL) and I’ve considerably moved up the ranks. Plus, I get to work on different clients every day, maybe move to data or analytics etc etc.

[dvdmcn]

Started off working in Music PR 12 years ago, helping bands set up communities on MySpace/very early Facebook. Found kids were too happy to do my job for free so started at a consumer agency, again building communities and creating content.

Spent the next 10 years working at agencies, moved by choice once and got made redundant/let go 4 times in that time. With each new agency, I stated narrowing my scope of clients, starting with fairly well known consumer clients, through to tech and then financial services. Each role increasing scope and seniority, with varying progression.

Couple of months ago I moved to a client side role and really enjoying the breadth of the role, being on the other side and being part of the conversations that previously I wasn’t included in.

[RampartAdmin]

Career progression in the private sector is the opposite of government work. In the private sector, if you don’t produce results, you get fired. In the public sector, the only way to get fired is to not follow the rules. A lot. Over and over.

In all candor, if you have never held a public sector job before, you should probably not leave your guaranteed income for life government job. You just won’t be cut out for it.