It's Friday night and I REALLY should be doing something other than blogging...but I happened to leaf through the Association Buyers' Guide (can't link to it b/c it's not online yet--if it's posted I'll come back and update with link) to an article called "WatsNxt4Tech?" According to the article "Today's top trend in association technology? Hands down, it's social media." This supports one of the main findings of NTEN's 2010 Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report that I blogged about the other day: "one-half of organizations indicate that they will increase employee staffing related to commercial social networks in the coming 12 months."
The article goes on to talk about the importance of hiring the right kind of person to ensure the success of their social media endeavors, and how "more times than not, associations' social media attempts leave visitors searching for real value" because "many organizations simply plopped the community manager role onto a communications person's already-full plate and hoped for the best."
Here's the thing: if, as the article asserts "we've fully entered the time of mass adoption [of social media], and the key to success is hiring someone with the right skills and experience to drive an associations' social media and online community initiatives...where are the salary benchmarks associations need to attract and keep qualified candidates?
I've blogged about this issue so often that if you Google "social media salaries" or "social media manager salary", my posts appear in the top 3 results. Yes, I am known to obsess over certain issues...and this is one of them.
Here's the thing: when new association jobs are created, the salaries are determined by benchmarking the position against similar positions in the association world. Right now, ASAE does not have any benchmarks for social media/community management jobs. Benchmarks do exist: read my other posts about the various social media and community management salary surveys that have been conducted over the past 2 years. However, association social media salaries don't even come CLOSE to the average salary reported in those surveys. Or, I should say, MY salary and the few other salaries I know of other association social media professionals don't come close.
I'll get to the point so we can all go on with our Friday evenings: ASAE, PLEASE put your money where your mouth is. Yes, social media is a growing trend, one associations can no longer ignore and need to start staffing for. PLEASE develop some kind of salary benchmarks for the position. If you don't, associations will continue to want to pay coordinator-level salaries and expect director-level strategy, continuous learning as social media changes on an almost daily basis, and much more than a 9-5 commitment to real-time social media monitoring and responsiveness.
Ok, I am stepping away from the keyboard now...
Showing posts with label association social media salaries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label association social media salaries. Show all posts
Friday, May 7, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Snocial Media, #UnTech10 and Social Media Salaries (Yes, Again)
It's been a long week. TWO blizzards, a 48-hour power outage at my house, kids out of school all week--and my husband's been out of town the whole time. The positives? Shoveling snow is a good workout. Lots of time spent with the kids--AND they did most of the shoveling after the second storm. And LOTS of time spent online. Even during the power outage, thanks to my trusty iPhone. Did I mention I *LOVE* my iPhone? With it--and Twitter and Facebook--I managed to stay connected to the world throughout the storm, monitor Pepco's progress on the power restoration front, figure out what areas of DC/MD/VA were getting plowed and which weren't, and generally not feel like I was cut off from the rest of the universe.
I also got to attend a conference I wasn't originally scheduled to attend. ASAE's Technology Conference was supposed to be this week, and I was sad not to be going. But ASAE had to cancel due to the weather. Within minutes of the cancelation notice, my association buds Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer--together with a host of generous and hard working sponsors and organizers--whipped together an unconference--#UnConf10. They livestreamed most of the day Thursday and hosted a bunch of virtual sessions today. I can't say enough good things about it so I'll just link to what others are saying.
My favorite take-away from the event? The conversation about the importance of community managers, of course! You KNOW my biggest blogging obsession is the role of community/social media managers and the haziness of the whole thing, so the more people start to get on board with the fact that it IS a legitimate, important function, the more likely there will be some standardization of titles and salaries. I think this is particularly important in the association world, where there are no existing benchmarks for this role. I about died when I read Mack Collier's post on what a social media strategy will cost--because I know there are associations out there who are on one hand saying "we can't afford to hire someone to do this full time" then, at the same time, paying consultants $2,000-$5,000 a month to set up and maintain a Twitter account or $5,000-$6,000 a month to set up and maintain a Facebook page. If social and community are as important as we keep proclaiming them to be in terms of organizational strategy, member culture and all the rest of it, isn't it time associations (in particular, ASAE) put their money where their mouth is and come up with a real job description and some concrete salary benchmarks for the role?
I also got to attend a conference I wasn't originally scheduled to attend. ASAE's Technology Conference was supposed to be this week, and I was sad not to be going. But ASAE had to cancel due to the weather. Within minutes of the cancelation notice, my association buds Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer--together with a host of generous and hard working sponsors and organizers--whipped together an unconference--#UnConf10. They livestreamed most of the day Thursday and hosted a bunch of virtual sessions today. I can't say enough good things about it so I'll just link to what others are saying.
My favorite take-away from the event? The conversation about the importance of community managers, of course! You KNOW my biggest blogging obsession is the role of community/social media managers and the haziness of the whole thing, so the more people start to get on board with the fact that it IS a legitimate, important function, the more likely there will be some standardization of titles and salaries. I think this is particularly important in the association world, where there are no existing benchmarks for this role. I about died when I read Mack Collier's post on what a social media strategy will cost--because I know there are associations out there who are on one hand saying "we can't afford to hire someone to do this full time" then, at the same time, paying consultants $2,000-$5,000 a month to set up and maintain a Twitter account or $5,000-$6,000 a month to set up and maintain a Facebook page. If social and community are as important as we keep proclaiming them to be in terms of organizational strategy, member culture and all the rest of it, isn't it time associations (in particular, ASAE) put their money where their mouth is and come up with a real job description and some concrete salary benchmarks for the role?
Sunday, September 13, 2009
How Much Do YOU Make As A Social Media Professional?
I seem to be getting an increasing amount of traffic through people searching for information about social media salaries. Not at all surprising because there is precious little information out there about social media salaries. As I've blogged before, social media jobs in general are an enigma...titles are all over the place, from VP Digital Strategy to Intern to Community Manager. Now David Meerman Scott created a new one: Social Media Administrator. And my association friend Elizabeth Weaver Engel just came up with a great one: Chief Community Officer.
About the only definitive thing I've found recently regarding social media salaries is Forum One Networks' Online Community Compensation survey from 2008. You have to purchase the report to view it but can get a complimentary summary; basically the summary says that the average annual survey for participants was $81k. They just completed the 2009 version, which should be available within the next few months.
Granted, there is (or maybe not?) some difference between online community manager and social media what-have-you, so perhaps this data doesn't 100% correlate with the average "social media doer", as Jim Durbin calls it. To me, this is the main problem with social media jobs: there is no consistency with position titles, so how can there be any consistency with regard to salaries? There may be very little difference between what a VP, digital strategy and social media coordinator do, but you can bet the salaries are probably vastly different. I know--you're reading that sentence thinking "duh--of course it's a different job"--but actually, don't assume so quickly that it is.
Think that a social media "doer" is just leaving comments on Facebook or tweeting? Maybe in some cases; but in others they are doing a lot of the same things--if not the exact same things--as the people in the higher-level jobs. People assume that the lower the title, the less strategy the person is involved in, but that's not necessarily true at all. This is my exact point: title and what the position encompasses may well be two entirely different things with social media jobs.
As if it weren't already confusing enough--this whole mess with the titles and compensation--doing social media for an association adds a whole new level of ambiguity. The position is so new that ASAE has no benchmarks for it yet, thereby leaving the whole thing to the discretion of each individual association to decide which position they think most closely correlates with social media whatever they're choosing to call it. PR manager? Communications director? Marketing assistant? In my case, it was benchmarked against web content coordinator and PR representative. It remains to be seen what associations end up doing on the whole when it comes to staffing their social media initiatives.
I'd love it if anyone reading this would weigh in with any salary information they have, either for their own social media position or others they've heard about. Feel free to leave your comment anonymously if you don't want to reveal your identity.
**UPDATE**
To add to the confusion and fun, I've tracked down some more social media salary info to add to the pot:
SimplyHired average social media salary: $55,000
Indeed average social media salary: $79,000
Salary.com: no results for "social media"
About the only definitive thing I've found recently regarding social media salaries is Forum One Networks' Online Community Compensation survey from 2008. You have to purchase the report to view it but can get a complimentary summary; basically the summary says that the average annual survey for participants was $81k. They just completed the 2009 version, which should be available within the next few months.
Granted, there is (or maybe not?) some difference between online community manager and social media what-have-you, so perhaps this data doesn't 100% correlate with the average "social media doer", as Jim Durbin calls it. To me, this is the main problem with social media jobs: there is no consistency with position titles, so how can there be any consistency with regard to salaries? There may be very little difference between what a VP, digital strategy and social media coordinator do, but you can bet the salaries are probably vastly different. I know--you're reading that sentence thinking "duh--of course it's a different job"--but actually, don't assume so quickly that it is.
Think that a social media "doer" is just leaving comments on Facebook or tweeting? Maybe in some cases; but in others they are doing a lot of the same things--if not the exact same things--as the people in the higher-level jobs. People assume that the lower the title, the less strategy the person is involved in, but that's not necessarily true at all. This is my exact point: title and what the position encompasses may well be two entirely different things with social media jobs.
As if it weren't already confusing enough--this whole mess with the titles and compensation--doing social media for an association adds a whole new level of ambiguity. The position is so new that ASAE has no benchmarks for it yet, thereby leaving the whole thing to the discretion of each individual association to decide which position they think most closely correlates with social media whatever they're choosing to call it. PR manager? Communications director? Marketing assistant? In my case, it was benchmarked against web content coordinator and PR representative. It remains to be seen what associations end up doing on the whole when it comes to staffing their social media initiatives.
I'd love it if anyone reading this would weigh in with any salary information they have, either for their own social media position or others they've heard about. Feel free to leave your comment anonymously if you don't want to reveal your identity.
**UPDATE**
To add to the confusion and fun, I've tracked down some more social media salary info to add to the pot:
SimplyHired average social media salary: $55,000
Indeed average social media salary: $79,000
Salary.com: no results for "social media"
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Does A Social Media Job = Career Suicide?
Geez, talk about a downer of a blog post: according to Jim Durbin of Social Media Headhunter, I am in a total dead-end job. As a social media specialist, I am what he calls a "social media doer" and "A social media doer is not a position with career advancement."
He makes some very valid points--points I myself have blogged about before. And as depressing-ish as his post is (especially to current social media job holders), I admit it's sort of a refreshing change from the constant deluge of social media is the second coming stuff we read about all the time.
What do you think--is he right and I and others like me--social media doers--are ultimately going to be SOL for having chosen this career path? And, also-- do you think it's kind of counterintuitive that a social media recruiter is blogging about how you don't actually want the kind of job he can help you get?
He makes some very valid points--points I myself have blogged about before. And as depressing-ish as his post is (especially to current social media job holders), I admit it's sort of a refreshing change from the constant deluge of social media is the second coming stuff we read about all the time.
What do you think--is he right and I and others like me--social media doers--are ultimately going to be SOL for having chosen this career path? And, also-- do you think it's kind of counterintuitive that a social media recruiter is blogging about how you don't actually want the kind of job he can help you get?
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Social Media Salaries
About 6 months ago I posed the question "Social Media Manager: What's It Worth To Your Association?" At that point, I wasn't able to find any data about social media salaries at associations; at this point, I still am not really able to. More on that in a minute, though.
In addition to what I included in my previous post, I've recently found a few new sources of salary data for social media/community manager/specialist positions. Connie Bensen, goddess of social media job description and salary information, updated her information on March 1: $50,000-$85,000 for an entry-level online community manager (depending on location). Tom Humbarger--awesome blogger who I just discovered--participated in an online community compensation survey last summer and recently blogged about the results: 27% of respondents were in the $50,000-$75,000 category and 21% were in the $75,000-$100,000 category. There were also a decent amount of respondents in the <$50,000 category and a significant number in the $100,000-$150,000 category.
$150,000 to play on Facebook and Twitter, you say? Sign me up! Not so fast, though, especially if you work for an association.
The underlying problem with pinning down the worth of social media positions is that there is so much latitude when it comes to the job description for social media roles. Social media manager? Community manager? Strategist? Specialist? Intern? Pick one. Then, depending on what you pick, benchmark it against similar existing jobs in the association world. Oh, wait--there aren't any? Bingo!
I just had some first-hand experience with the issue when my job title was changed and the position "re-benchmarked" against comparable DC area association positions. The new title is Social Media & Community Specialist; the positions considered comparable in terms of re-benchmarking were "PR Representative," "PR/Communications," and "Web Content Coordinator/Manager." Kind of random and, I thought, not the most accurate points of comparison. If I had to pick the most comparable existing position against which to benchmark it I would have chosen Communications/Public Relations/Public Affairs Specialist. But I am not a numbers person or an HR person, so I digress. And frankly it really doesn't matter all that much to me. I guess that's one of the benefits of getting older; in my younger days title mattered a lot to me; now I just want to like what I do.
Anyone want to take one for the team and tell me and the rest of the world what you make in your social media job? Or what your company pays for social media jobs? No? Then how about just your thoughts about the matter--what do you think social media jobs should pay and why?
In addition to what I included in my previous post, I've recently found a few new sources of salary data for social media/community manager/specialist positions. Connie Bensen, goddess of social media job description and salary information, updated her information on March 1: $50,000-$85,000 for an entry-level online community manager (depending on location). Tom Humbarger--awesome blogger who I just discovered--participated in an online community compensation survey last summer and recently blogged about the results: 27% of respondents were in the $50,000-$75,000 category and 21% were in the $75,000-$100,000 category. There were also a decent amount of respondents in the <$50,000 category and a significant number in the $100,000-$150,000 category.
$150,000 to play on Facebook and Twitter, you say? Sign me up! Not so fast, though, especially if you work for an association.
The underlying problem with pinning down the worth of social media positions is that there is so much latitude when it comes to the job description for social media roles. Social media manager? Community manager? Strategist? Specialist? Intern? Pick one. Then, depending on what you pick, benchmark it against similar existing jobs in the association world. Oh, wait--there aren't any? Bingo!
I just had some first-hand experience with the issue when my job title was changed and the position "re-benchmarked" against comparable DC area association positions. The new title is Social Media & Community Specialist; the positions considered comparable in terms of re-benchmarking were "PR Representative," "PR/Communications," and "Web Content Coordinator/Manager." Kind of random and, I thought, not the most accurate points of comparison. If I had to pick the most comparable existing position against which to benchmark it I would have chosen Communications/Public Relations/Public Affairs Specialist. But I am not a numbers person or an HR person, so I digress. And frankly it really doesn't matter all that much to me. I guess that's one of the benefits of getting older; in my younger days title mattered a lot to me; now I just want to like what I do.
Anyone want to take one for the team and tell me and the rest of the world what you make in your social media job? Or what your company pays for social media jobs? No? Then how about just your thoughts about the matter--what do you think social media jobs should pay and why?
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