Is the Social Media Manager Really Dead? (And Why You Need Employee Advocates)

Last week, Ryan Holmes, CEO at HootSuite, wrote an article about a supposedly recent trend, the decline of ‘Social Media Manager’ positions. So is the Social Media Manager really dead? The short answer is: no. The Social Media Manager is alive and well, and is not going away anytime soon. In fact, even though the growth rate was slower than previous years, the number of jobs with ‘social media’ in the title actually grew by 50% over last year.

However – what’s really interesting is that the same Indeed study found that job mentions with ‘social media’ in the description actually grew by 89%, which highlights the expansion of social media beyond marketing departments and throughout organizations. While this may not explain the decline in Social Media Managers as the article suggests, it is definitely a significant change for organizations and marks a shift in the way many companies are thinking about employees’ role in overall corporate social media strategy.

Social media is no longer solely a function of the marketing department. This isn’t to say marketing no longer “owns” social as a form of corporate communications – that still holds true. IT teams will (probably) not be tweeting from company Twitter handles and finance teams will not be steering brands’ social strategies.

These findings show that social is becoming increasingly important for employees in all departments. Companies are realizing that by powering employees to participate, listen, and engage in social media, they can reach more people, increase engagement, and deepen relationships with customers in social channels. Leading brands continue to roll out social media programs company-wide in an effort to transform employees into brand advocates in social channels, recognizing the value in powering their employees to organically spread the brand’s message.

Employees are some of brand’s best advocates and should be incorporated into companies social media strategies.

Employees can help reach new audiences. According to research from Dell, there is only an 8% overlap between employees Twitter followers and the brand’s Twitter followers. This means by powering employees to share the brands message in social, the brand can reach new audiences which translates to new prospective customers.

Employees messages are more trusted. A recent Gartner study found that only 15 percent of people trust posts by companies or brands on social networking sites. In contrast, 70 percent trust of consumer brand or product recommendations from friends and family.

Employees help increase engagement. Due to the more trusted nature of employee’s networks, brand messages are shared 8x more when they are shared by employees compared to when the same messages are shared by the brand.

Still not convinced? Check out this ebook, about transforming employees into brand advocates.