Hey psycho traditional marketers, Social Media is here to stay.
In fact, in my opinion, if your business doesn’t have a blog and isn’t practicing social media on a fairly consistent basis, you’re going to be passed up in SERPs and in market share by some of the younger generation marketers that “get it”.
I read a great post recently that talked all about the job opportunities out there in social media. The funny thing was, if you’re a social media marketer looking for a job, the simple phrase “social media marketer” is only one of at least 75 different titles describing your area of expertise. Doing a job search for this industry, according to the list I read, has become much more “long-tail“.
As I reviewed the collection of social media job titles, some were creative and probably helped broaden the appeal to “old school” marketing folk. However, there were at least 16 that I felt I had to share as a warning on how NOT to market your social media skills.
16 Stupid Job Titles for a Social Media Marketer
- Blogger-in-Chief – this sounds like a name from “Dances with Wolves”
- Brand Champion – who did they compete against to be considered the “Champion”?
- Community Data Guerrilla – the word “Guerrilla” reminds me of the “get-rich-quick” schemes I see way too often.
- Conversation Manager – so does this mean they are constantly monitoring every employees conversation, both on and offline?
- Director of Enterprise Communications – sounds corny.
- Idea Inventor – wow, now that’s creative and must be really time consuming
- Social Media Rockstar – “Hey now, you’re a [social media] rockstar, get your game on, go play…”
- Social Media Missionary – do they go door to door preaching the good [social media] word?
- Product Evangelist – amen, amen! They must work closely with the “SM Missionaries”.
- Serial Entrepreneur – “Serial”, really? This seems too much like something you’d read about on the front page of the morning news and wonder – what’d they do?
- Social Media Guru – Guru is just like “Guerilla” – aka FAKE, SCAM, LIAR, etc.
- Online Community and Social Media Czar – Czar is a new one but seems too similar to Guru and Guerilla
- Leadership Trainer – wow, that’s a generalized term for social media work
- Tweeter / Ghost Tweeter – I’d be so excited to have that title on MY business card… 🙂
- Virtual Worlds Developer – hmm…how would you explain that one to the in-laws? To have this title do you have to be at a certain level in Facebook Farmville?
- Youth Marketing Manager – this sounds illegal
What are your thoughts on these titles? Are there some that I left out of the “stupid” list?
To help you SEE the growth of social media, check out this infographic: it will give you a better picture of how social media has become a part of every aspect of our business and personal life:
Source: The Growth of Social Media: An Infographic
Nate Moller works with businesses who want to improve their online business. For over five years, hes worked with thousands of companies who are looking for answers in their online marketing journey. Follow Nate on Twitter and become a fan of Moller Marketing on Facebook!
“this sounds illegal” had me cracking up.
Thanks… you’ve got me cringing at the titles I am finding in some new twitter followers this morning. These are legitimate, straight copy and paste:
“Chief Evangelical Officer & Senior Alchemist.”
“Engaged Twitter Rockstar Guru”
@Justin
Thanks for the comment Justin! I’m sure there are other bad titles too, but that was close to my MOST disliked for a variety of reasons 🙂
@Thos003
OUCH – people like that need to be called out on their stupidity don’t you think?
By the way, I just watched that cool video of the bed bug sucking your blood. Looks like the video got a good share of “buzz”. Good work!
Haha This sounds illegal…
Love how some of them are so stinking general. The evangelists probably sends out the missionaries and the czar tells the guerilla and the guru what to do. Just call them a social media specialist or something…
PS tweeter is just to close to tweaker haha
I run social media for 3 car dealerships and I’m the “IT guy”. On my business card, however, I had them put Internet Marketing Manager, which is also because I coordinate most of the online marketing.
The fact that my position is not solely social media demonstrates part of the problem with their being a solid name for the role. Companies are still hesitant and unsure of the ROI of having someone dedicated to social media and so to justify the salary they also include other more traditional/proven benefits to the company. Part of the reason I’m shorthandedly referred to as the IT guys is because even though we have IT consultants we can call, I’m the quicker (and much cheaper) solution.
In the Senate we use New Media Director
I think most of the time social media people get to make up their titles. Makes you wonder how seriously they take it sometimes…
I’m totally okay with changing my title to Social Media Rockstar. In fact, you should always refer to me as that from now on. 😛
“Mayor of Bloggerville” is another one that I’ve seen, actually a guy I worked with…
“this sounds illegal” summed up my thoughts on that one exactly. It’s a good thing the demographic for those under 18 was NOT included in the infographic.
Great info Nate! thanks
@Jon Barker
Hey Jon, sometimes I wonder if the tight wrestling gear athletes are required to wear is “illegal” as well 🙂 What are your thoughts on that matter?
To me, it seems a lot of these titles are bogus – I’d be interested to find out what the average salary is for a “Tweeter / Ghost Tweeter”.
Thanks for the comment!
@Ryan
Talk about taking advantage of all your skills Ryan. You gotta demand a raise, I mean, that’s what they do in all professional sports don’t they?
I read a cool article today on conversion marketing and wondered what your thoughts are when talking about social media marketing and conversion. Interested to talk more about this. Thanks for the comment and Go Yankees!
@Ben
Any idea what Obama’s social media maven was called back when that strategy helped him win the Presidency? Think they used one of these bogus titles or was it more sophisticated?
How’s politics and social media treating you?
@Dan Patterson
True. If you were making up a social media title, what would it be and why? And how would that title convince an “old-school” direct marketer to pay you what you’re really worth?
@Mariah Overlock
In fact, I believe I did use that title when speaking with you today. Congratulations on your “promotion” to Rockstar status. Thanks for the comment.
@Dave Barnes
I just wrote an article about “Blogger” the blogging platform and won’t say too much more about that other than with a question:
Using Blogger should be illegal for a legit business – Enough said! 🙂
Thanks for the comment Dave.
Social Media Rockstar is very funny.Infographic is great.thanks for sharing
I like the “Serial Entrepreneur”! Many people use it but I find that if you are a serial entrepreneur it’s maybe because your projects keep failing. And I’m the surprised you didn’t put the famous “Social Ninja”!
@Dale Green
Glad you liked it Dale. Thanks for the comment.
@Jonathan
Good addition. I’ve also seen “Social Media Maven”. I agree, if you’re a “serial entrepreneur” you’ve probably been through LOTS of ideas and none of them has really stuck.
Thanks for the comment Jonathan.
Nate,
The capacity for people to come up with pretentious and ridiculous titles always amazes me! Do they really think they project authority with titles like those? The infographics are a perfect illustration of how social media has grown and will continue to grow and overtake print media. Great post, thank you.
avinas kaushik is an evangelist… gogole analytics evangelist, and he doesn’t seem to be ashamed of this title:D he uses it very often
These titles are pretty annoying! Youth marketing manager means more like human trafficking. Really sounds illegal. I prefer to be called “Social media jockey”, pretty cool like I’m in a disco. Well Social media is like a really big party, just enjoy and be connected.
LOL!
My favorite is “Idea Inventor”! That is one title that doesn’t mean a thing.
I guess that an Idea Inventor has to find a good Idea Implementor in order to succeed.
I like Social Media Missionary most, well funny.
Very witty and entertaining post. I also like the “Idea Inventor” ! 🙂