I was listening a to a panel the other day where the participants were discussing what a ‘Social Media' job might involve nowadays and how someone might go about getting one.

It wasn't that long ago that I used to hear lots of stories about companies not knowing where their social media competence should ‘sit' within an organization. 

It used to be that a ‘Social Media' person was someone who was going to deal with people ‘being difficult' about the company online.  At best this person was a ‘community manager' - at worse someone thrust into doing customer care on Twitter and Facebook. 

So I guess we have moved on a bit since then.  This particular panel would suggest that some people have.

You, yourself on social media

The panel seemed unanimous in its opinion that having a strong personal presence on social media was important.  Indeed one panelist described the importance of being ‘personally branded. 

This is, of course, much more than just ‘googling' oneself and ensuring that nothing ‘dodgy' comes up.  This is about looking good online - about looking like you know what social media means and how to create good marketing and branding.

The panelists mentioned LinkedIn quite a lot too.  Whereas some might say that LinkedIn falls into some kind of social media category for me if feels like a place where you just put your CV and add get some recommendations (in that ‘oh so internet -I'll recommend you if you recommend me kind of way' - like follow me follow you?).

Building an engaged Facebook or Twitter community is something quite different, of course, and a lot harder.

Full story:

www.webintravel.com//blog/what-exactly-is-a-social-media-job-and-how-do-you-get-one_2054