10. What the heck does a Social Media Professional do all day?

If you google, "When was social media born?" one of the top results will tell you 1997. That means if the oldest social media platform (Six Degrees according to this google result -- which is no longer functioning) were a person, it would be 26 years old.

Even LinkedIn, founded in 2002, is 22 years old. 

But even with twenty-plus years of existence, there are still plenty of people -- some of whom work in the marketing field -- who don't know what a social media professional does all day. 

To me, this is shocking. 
So let's address it.

Not only does this episode give an introduction into what a social media professional does all day, we break down those tasks and skills into specialties.

Wait.. social media specialties?? Isn't it just scrolling and posting silly dance videos all day?

Nope! I mean.. there's some of that.. but there's a lot more that goes into it. 

Just there are different specialties to practice if you have a career in the law or taxes/accounting or medicine, we're seeing specialties develop in the social media profession as well. 

• Social Media Strategy
• Social Media Content Creation (Photography, Videography, Graphic Design, Writing, SEO, Hashtag Research, etc.)
• Social Media Community Management
• Social Media Campaign (Paid/Sponsored) Management 
• Social Media Intelligence (Listening, Analytics, & Reporting)

Currently, most companies hiring for social media positions will list all of the above, but I predict as companies continue to invest marketing budgets into the platforms, we'll see a decline in the Social Media Unicorn search and a shift into recognizing these specialties and with them, full blown social media teams. 

Episodes of Gift of Gab will publish weekly!
Follow along for more content on Instagram and TikTok: @giftofgab.podcast