Careers in social media and digital marketing

Businesses took a skidding jolt on the day Zuckerburg decided to open Facebook to people outside the Harvard network. One of the biggest inventions of the 21st century, the platform successfully connected millions of people to the rest of the world and, upon realizing the potential this social network held, businesses have started to orient themselves around this new mode of exchanging ideas.

The Internet and its ubiquity now imply that life in our fast-paced world can no longer be the same. It ensured that our ways of doing things changed for the better, so that we don't have to worry about our day to day living. Our society has become increasingly reliant upon the Internet for information. For most, if not all, our first source of information would be the World Wide Web.

“As a CEO of a full service social media agency, I believe strongly that there are key areas within social media upon which you may build a career. These areas will survive the emergence and dissipation of networks, tools, and philosophies," Carrie Kerpen, CEO of Likeable Media, told Forbes. Kerpen is definitely correct in her hypothesis that social media is a place where there are many methods to utilize and construe the reality into a platform where a person can thrive. Since the field in question is quite in demand and most of the users are but entrants, it is easier to use our own ideologies, tools, uniqueness and perceptions to concoct innovative methods to exploit this field to our own benefits. The primary areas upon which one should concentrate on in this field as mentioned by Kerpen would be advertising, service, content, and data.

Similarly, consumers of goods and services refer to the Internet as their primary source of information as well. A bad product review can be harmful for any brand, while positive reviews can do wonders in terms of word of mouth marketing over the online platforms.
Thus, in response, many organizations have started using the Internet as their primary source of marketing as it can reach a larger mass of audience and may appeal to the wider populace of consumers with less investment of resources. Digital marketing has not only become one of the most popular forms of advertising and selling a product or a service, but certain products and services would not thrive or even be capable of sustaining themselves without some form of digital marketing.
Advertising on social media is distinct from traditional and digital advertising. It requires an understanding of social behaviour that goes way beyond re-targeting platforms. For emerging networks to survive, they will need to find innovative social media ad solutions, and must become experts in the placement, optimization, and reporting of social ads in order to go forward.

In many Internet-based companies, social media marketing is also the only form of marketing available. Nazia Hossain, Quality Control Executive at Lamudi, was responsible for managing the social media marketing for the company to some extent. According to her, the experience taught her a great deal about how the digital marketing sector functions and how one can thrive in that field. “Not only did I have to learn how to deal with customer queries and solve them efficiently, I had to learn what sort of advertisements and marketing strategies would attract customers and also what would be the relevant data obtained for utilizing digital marketing appropriately.

Kerpen also refers to customer service as being a significant field in social media, “Understanding the impact that social media can have on customer service is something that will take time and resources. Trust me when I tell you that companies will need to ramp up their social listening and customer service. This is way beyond a PR or social agency pulling a Radian 6 report. This is investing in resources that understand one-on-one communication. Companies hate when I say this—because it's hard. But make no mistake; it's something that companies will need to do as social media becomes more and more integrated into the overall consumer experience.”
Finally comes content. In order to interact in any way other than being a total annoyance—brands need to have great content. Great content is about being valuable to consumers. That means either informing them, entertaining them, saving them, inspiring them, or simply knowing what they want in what medium. The diversification of media has made reaching your target consumer much more challenging, and brands that master the art of content win.

Any person who enters social media with relative knowledge in any of the streams above will thrive and attain a multitude of success. However, proper guidance and mentorship are also of the utmost importance.  A social media manager can earn a basic salary of Tk. 15,000 to 18,000 in nominal companies and Tk. 20,000 to Tk. 25,000 in high-end companies where social media is the major form of marketing.
Hence, considering the overall impact of social media upon our lives and perceptions, it can be concluded that innovative advertising techniques, a diligent customer service team, relevant data and proper, alluring content could collude to an exceptional career growth in this sector. As businesses find themselves entangled in a web of overload of information, digital marketing will be their preferred way forward. And this is exactly why the prospects in this field are enormous.

Ishaqur Rahman is an Associate, Content & Analytics for GradInsights, the career intelligence service of GradConnect. Nakibul Hoq is the Lead Manager, Content & Analytics, GradInsights. Visit www.grad-insights.com for more articles