Top 10 Highest-Paying Social Media Marketing Careers [With Salaries]
Social media marketing has become an integral part of any communications, marketing or advertising campaign. Employers expect job candidates to have outstanding social media marketing skills, even for positions that aren’t traditionally in the communications field.
Here are 11 (updated to include the hot field of digital advertising) of the highest-paying social media marketing careers and the average annual salary range of each:
1. Entrepreneur – Social Media Consultant
Salary Range: $35,000 - $175,000 and up
Enjoy helping other small businesses reach new heights with your social media marketing skills? Consider starting your own consulting firm! Combine entrepreneurial skills with your love of social media marketing to help small businesses, non-profits, and solopreneurs grow their brands.
2. Vice President of Communications
Salary Range: $100,000 - $150,000
Communications departments in large brands include marketing, public relations and social media, and the V.P. ensures each is reaching their goals on a quarterly and annual basis. V.P.’s need a strong understanding of each discipline, the ability to manage teams and guide them in reaching the brand’s goals. Think brands like Coca-Cola or UPS.
Take a look at the 6,500+ jobs, in the U.S. alone, paying over $100K for a V.P. of Communications listed on Indeed.com:
Over 6,500 jobs for V.P. of Communications careers paying over $100K in the U.S. alone
3. Public Relations Manager
Salary Range: $60,000 - $100,000
Public relations (PR) focuses on communicating with the general public and media outlets to communicate a brand’s news and messaging. Social media marketing has become a huge component of PR, making it easier to reach more people than ever before, yet the challenge is to maintain the message when social media makes it easier than ever for rumors to spread. PR managers often work in political campaigns, for major utilities, and large brands.
Here's just a sample of the P.R. Manager careers listed on Indeed.com and LinkedIn:
Over 8K P.R. Manager jobs paying 55K+ in the U.S.
LinkedIn Jobs has 350+ jobs for P.R. Directors in the U.S.
4. Marketing Communications Manager
Salary Range: $50,000 - $100,000
Years ago this career had little to do with social media, but that’s changed as social media is a huge component of today’s marketing communication strategies. This means that the directors and managers of these departments need a solid background in social media marketing. Every brand, no matter their size, needs marketing, and you’ll find these managers at mid-size to large companies.
More opportunities for Marketing Communication Managers than any other career in the top 10
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialist
Salary Range: $30,000 - $100,000+
Every business wants to rank highly in online search to get organic traffic to their website. Social and SEO work together, and it takes a rare candidate who understands how to use both to achieve lasting results without resorting to shortcuts that get a brand penalized. Analysis is an important skill for SEO Specialist who need to work through volumes of data to identify important ranking factors. SEO Specialist often work as consultants, but will also be a critical part of any marketing team at brands of all sizes.
6. Content Manager
Salary Range: $40,000 - $95,000+
Great content is the foundation of digital marketing, and it’s up to the content manager to develop and curate outstanding content to use in multiple ways throughout a brand’s marketing. Content managers need a strong writing and editing background and the ability to manage a team of contributing writers. Content managers often work at digital, publishing, or media brands.
Indeed.com lists over 32,000 careers for Content Managers paying over $40K.
7. Marketing Consultant
Salary Range: $40,000 - $80,000
Marketing consultants often work with small business owners to jump start or even build a marketing campaign from scratch. One of the largest components of these marketing plans? You guessed it, social media. Advertising on these social networks also plays a large part in marketing, so consultants need to be experts on both organic and paid strategies.
8. Social Media Director
Salary Range: $40,000 - $85,000+
Directors oversee the entire spectrum of social and digital marketing, and need to stay on top of the evolving landscape to focus campaigns on those platforms offering best results for the brand. Directors often work at larger companies as part of a marketing department across all industries, including private and public brands, as well as government agencies.
Indeed.com lists over 9,000 careers for Social Media Directors paying over $45K.
9. Online Community Manager
Salary Range: $30,000 - $80,000+
Online community managers combine social media marketing skills with community development, either with a brand’s audience, clients or both. Being a community manager requires diplomacy, the ability to encourage community participation, using tools like Facebook groups, forums, comments on social media, and other community tools. Community managers are especially valuable for brands with challenging public images and are expected to turn negative perceptions into positive ones.
Indeed.com lists over 16,000 Online Community Jobs earning over $30,000 in the U.S. alone, including this one for the Clark Howard show (a nationally-syndicated consumer advice radio show):
Nationally-syndicated radio personality Clark Howard is looking for an online community manager
10. Social Media Analyst
Salary Range: $40,000 - $70,000+
Analysts review bottom-line results from digital campaigns using native analytics within each platform as well as third-party tools like Google Analytics. It’s up to the analyst to identify whether campaigns are generating a return on investment (ROI), and requires candidates who enjoy working with large amounts of data. Analysts can be consultants or be part of a larger marketing team.
11. Digital Advertiser
Salary Range: $35,000 - $100,000+
Digital advertisers are responsible for branding, generating leads and sales through online advertising. Knowledge and experience of a broad variety of platforms from AdWords to YouTube to each social network will command greater salaries.
Advertisers not only develop the ad creative, but the audience targeting, website assets such as landing panges, tracking and conversion pixels, and reporting. You'll also be required to prove the return on investment (ROI) from advertising budgets.
Indeed.com lists over 19,000 digital advertising jobs in the U.S. on their website.
Best Online Social Media Certification Program
How do you qualify for any of these top ten high-paying social media marketing careers?
You need to prove to employers you've got the most up-to-date social media training from a respected institution.
