What Does A Social Media Specialist Do? Job Listing Deconstructed

American Public Media is hiring a "Community Editor & Social Media Specialist." What exactly does that mean? We're deconstructing the ad. The description: The Editor and Social Media Specialist will oversee and implement the organization's social media activities and its hyperlocal newsgathering projects in South Los Angeles. S/he will directly engage SCPR's audience in a variety of social media channels, including a ground-breaking project to develop a community-based news website serving Angelenos. The Editor and Social Media Specialist will work closely with SCPR's New Media team, the newsroom, community organizations, freelancers, and residents of Los Angeles to craft unique online programming (blogs, podcasts, & multimedia) which explores the experiences of Southern Californians. The successful candidate will have a strong interest to produce outstanding journalism for underserved, diverse communities. Finally, the Editor and Social Media Specialist will implement and support best practices for online donation and fundraising in social media channels. What's important here? How about this sentence: " The Editor and Social Media Specialist will work closely with SCPR's New Media team, the newsroom, community organizations, freelancers, and residents of Los Angeles to craft unique online programming..." The editor isn't just working with freelancers and reporters, but is reaching out into the community. "Finally, the Editor and Social Media Specialist will implement and support best practices for online donation and fundraising in social media channels." Figure out how to make that Facebook thing bring in some money. "The successful candidate will have a strong interest to produce outstanding journalism for underserved, diverse communities." Journalism is still important. Not the most important for this role, but important. Now the job requirements: - BA in Journalism Standard, we imagine. - Five+ years reporting and editing experience, 3-5 years hands-on experience with social media tools You need to know reporting, editing, and this newfangled stuff. - Experience in web development, HTML/CSS, online news production Translation: Computer Jesus? - Ability to lead a hyperlocal project on underserved communities in South Los Angeles On top of everything else, leadership skills. - Ability to lead participants in the social media conversation, passionate about multimedia, blogging, micro-blogging Yeah, yeah, yeah, everyone wants somebody who's passionate. - Understanding of social media universe including Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc. - Strong Photoshop and visual skills One hopes here they mean "able to crop and resize photos" not "able to airbrush models, create drawings of aliens, and move the Pyramids closer together." One could also argue that a person trained in news photography should be heading up the visual side of this site, but such is the state of journalism. - Ability to manage a small cadre of community reporters and bloggers and work effectively under pressure with limited supervision Blah, blah, blah - Knowledge of cutting-edge social media tactics Blah. - Ability to deliver work that meets SCPR's high editorial standards No surprise here. - Spanish a plus Of course. So the new journalist knows Photoshop, at least two web languages, has a Facebook and Twitter page, can manage people effectively, and speaks two languages. This is not all that surprising, really. The salary range for this gig is $62,094 - $93,141. The low end of this range seemed awful low to us, given the immense amount of responsibility this person will have, and Salary.com seems to agree with us (though of course that's not a scientific tool). But check it out, let us know if you get the gig, and ask for the high end of that range please.

Fishbowl

What Does A Social Media Specialist Do? Job Listing Deconstructed

Rachel Kaufman

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Rachel Kaufman