The professional social media sphere is young.

It is an industry whose organizational

structures and divisions of labor have not yet been calcified, which lends it vitality. I spoke with

four professionals who work in various corners of the social sphere to gain a better

understanding of how the still-developing social industry is structured and what it looks like to

work within it.

I first spoke with Emily Quartaro, who is a digital manager and social media producer for

Digital Media Management (DMM) in NYC. That snippet of info doesnt really get at whats so

cool about Emilys job, though. DMM works with NBC to provide what they term social media

embeds for different shows on the network. What that means for Emily is that she may, on a

given day, write social media copy, capture social media content, or even post to social media for

people like Jennifer Lopez or Mariska Hargitay. Her role exists because, as she puts it,

celebrities dont always have people in their lives who specifically manage their online

presence.

I met my next subject, Emmy Hayes, while she was working as freelance social media

professional and doing some work with Kasita, an organization where I have just completed my

time as a marketing fellow. She has since transitioned into a full-time position as a copywriter at

the Atlanta office of Iris Worldwide, a creative agency who has done work for brands ranging

from Guinness to Adidas to BMW.

Mairin Heard is another person I came to know through Kasita; she was, in fact, the

person who brought me on board and my first mentor in the social industry. Her work for Kasita

was a side-gig; her main role is social media content manager for HomeAway. The position

entails both managing all of the content the organization puts out on all of its U.S. channels and
running the companys influencer program, which leverages the media presence of particular

individuals in service of the HomeAway brand through various campaigns and promotions.

Finally, I spoke with Justine Braun. Her role is the most distinct among this group; she

works more with data than content as a senior analyst for Spredfast. Her job is fascinating; she

works with data collected from social media to create visualizations and write stories about,

literally, things that are cool. The value? To show off what Spredfast can do with data and get

people to use the companys social media management software program.

Part of my curiosity in speaking to each of these women was to find out how they got into

this industry that didnt exist when they were students. Common themes? Volunteerism and an

interest in trying new things. Emily was an acting major in college who graduated and landed a

position as an assistant at 20/20. While she was there, she volunteered to run the shows

Facebook page and everything accelerated from there. She helped them gain a million followers

and from there began to work specifically in the social media industries.

The remaining three professionals all received their education in communication

industries. Mairin, being an alumni of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication,

received a bit more formal education in the communication industries and left equipped for the

digital professional world. Nonetheless, she found herself sharpening her skills on the job by

taking on extra tasks as a matter of interest and curiosity. I think this is a good idea. I'm gonna

try it. do you care if I try it? she would often ask. The answer was seldom no; what kind of

employer turns down innovation?

Justine was an advertising major who also had an interest in Psychology which drew her

to doing research and experimentation in the advertising realm. After working a few strategy-

oriented jobs, she decided to transition into her current area where she could use interesting data
and research for less brand-specific purposes. She notes however, that her background being

congruent with her job is not necessarily the norm. Her work is filled with people who studied

diverse things, from geology to Russian literature, whose curiosity and risk-taking brought them

to the social sphere.

Emmys start came as a social media coordinator in public affairs. He background was in

journalism, so it was appropriate that was among the early wave of professionals using social

media in the context of communicating around legislation, for non-profits, and other social

goods. Eventually, however, she transitioned to more commercial enterprises and from there

followed a path that saw her take some fairly traditional roles. She has taken a path that is

relatively standard for such an emergent field. It is likely because of this that she possesses such

a thorough understanding of the structure of the profession and is able to so clearly explain it.

Given her experience and expertise, I asked Emmy for a rundown of the division of labor

and structure of social media teams in professional contexts. An entry-level position, which she

was worked, is the role of the community manager. This role, she explained, is responsible for a

lot of moving parts, including customer and community service, scheduling content, and daily

page/account management. She explained that the always-on nature of the job leads to a high rate

of burnout among people just starting in the field.

Another key role on a fully-fledged social team, Emmy said, is the content strategist. She

likened this position to the role of a media buyer in old-school advertising. Whereas a media

buyer might buy TV spots, a content strategist will handle the paid aspects of a campaign, decide

who to target with what content when, and generally structure a companys efforts. Working

closely alongside strategists are analysts, who work with the numbers and analytics to provide

insight as to what content and practices are successful. The final role in a core social media team
is the creative, which is what Emmy primarily does. A creative position can entail copywriting,

art-directing, developing concepts for campaigns, and any number of other tasks.

Above these positions are the executive level positions. Social media teams are often

housed with advertising or communications departments, and it is the executives within these

departments that people who work in social media are often ultimately accountable to. Emmy, as

well as Mairin, suggested that these sort of roles are often where the trajectory of a social media

career leads.

In my interviews, I was also particularly curious about what type of knowledge and skills

someone needs to thrive on a social media team; how much do the creatives need to know about

numbers and analytics, and vice-versa? Emily was the only one of the four who had intensive

experience working on both sides of the fence. While at 20/20 she did both for the shows

Facebook page and taught herself a lot about analytics in the process. In her current position,

however, she only engages analytics in a relatively shallow manner because, importantly, all of

the accounts she runs are so huge and at represent individuals at a peak of their popularity. The

minute details of content performance are become less important in this context.

None of the other three have ever worked intensely with analytics. Although Justine

works with data, in the sense that she visualizes it and finds stories within it, her role has not

primarily been to gather or develop it from analytics. Similarly, Mairin and Emmy both have

never had analytics be a central part of their job. They have often been fortunate enough to work

alongside people with dedicated analytic roles which help inform their primarily creative efforts.

Still, they maintain it is important to develop a base understanding and doing so helps them

respect and work alongside those who hold other positions within the profession.
 Interestingly, my conversations suggested that not everyone who works in social media

loves to use social media in their personal life. While Emily suggests that being personally

obsessed with the formats and being a user is important for success, not everyone concurred.

Emmy, for instance, is a heavy Instagram user but isnt particularly fond of any other platforms,

while Justine doesnt really use social media much at all. However, each of them said that some

level of use is crucial, if only because it enables them to keep up with new features and trends on

each platform.

I wanted to end each of my conversations with these professionals with a look toward the

future, to see where they think the social media professions are going. In Emily I got bold

predictions that were mostly platform-specific: Twitter will be gone in five years, Snapchat will

fade because it has plateaued, and Facebook will always reign. Emmy also suggested that

Facebook would continue to assert dominance, but suggested that the future of social media is

really more about evolutions in storytelling than platforms. Justine echoed the importance of

storytelling innovations and predicted that VR will make significant waves in the social sphere;

her prognosis also suggested that all of the major platforms are going to experience significant

fading. Mairin echoed Justines prediction that VR will play a major role in the future, but

suggested that Facebook will continue to grow. Whatever the case may be, these interviews teach

one important lesson: to keep up, you have to pay attention, always be learning, and be willing to

experiment.