How to get a job in social media
Are you…
“Desirous to give a new orientation to my career, in an open and international environment, I permit myself to submit a spontaneous offer. Are you looking for someone dynamic and polyvalent, knowing to achieve the fixed objectives, on an international level, to fill a position with responsibilities“? -
(Honestly, a direct quote from a PR and Comms Network post)
Don’t be – you wont get a job in PR writing like that, and you certainly wont find a job in social media using such a terrible approach.
In the past few weeks I’ve seen several bad examples of people trying to find a job in social media and I’ve spoken to both employer and a successful student who pressed all the right buttons – Chris Norton (who also gave out tips on securing a work experience placement) and Natalie Smith (who has been described by Stuart Bruce as the ‘best student he’s ever employed’). I’ve also recently spoken at length to Michael Litman about breaking into social media and I read over Adam Lewis’s recent post about student Twitterers.
Assimilating all of that information and opinion; here’s my guide to breaking into social media…
- Learn what social media is. Seriously.
- Treat yourself as a client. How would you raise awareness?
- Research the tools that people within the industry use – they might change on a regular basis, but the theory behind the tools is the important concept to understand.
- Research who the movers and shakers are in social media.
- Before you send anything anywhere, find out who to contact, how to contact them and how they like their coffee.
- When you approach the agency you’d like to join, learn what channels they use and their tone.
- There are two ways to break into social media at breakneck speed – blogging and twittering.
- Blogging enables you to interact with your potential work mates and industry colleagues – put something decent into the conversation and you’ll find yourself in the interview room faster than you could ever imagine.
- Twitter is simple. Mix a chat room with RSS and blogging and you’ve got a surefire way into the interview room; just follow the conversation, put something relevant in and put your suit on, you’re going for an interview!
- Think outside of the box, not all applicants need to follow one of these paths;
- The traditional CV approach, put a cover letter in and hope for the best
- The ‘crazy’ press release approach ‘The worlds greatest social media student’ blah blah blah…
- Try and demonstrate that you understand social media and the way it affects public relations – it might come in handy when you get the job!
And my final tip? Make sure you actually want to work in the industry, just take a look at how many jobs Russell Page had before deciding that PR was the way to go…