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Craig Carter

Resume Qualifications that Show Your Business Doesn’t Know a Thing about Social Media Marketing

| February 16, 2011 | View Comments

A new job description has popped up in the last few years. Some call it Social Media Manager or Social Media Specialist or Social Media Coordinator. Whatever you call it, it’s important to have one, but if you want to attract the best people available, you need to make it seem like your company is “with it.” NOTE: using phrases like “with it, hip, and the Facebook” automatically give you away.

In other words, you need to show prospective employees that you have a positive attitude toward social media and the willingness to foster its development. Unfortunately, there are quite a few companies out there who don’t demonstrate these characteristics. I have therefore compiled some resume qualifications NOT to include on your job application. After all, what purpose do bad examples serve if you can’t learn from them?

5+ Years of Social Media Experience

This one just makes me laugh. When I was applying for jobs out of college, I remember  seeing this on applications thinking, “What?! Who do they want? One of the founding members of Twitter?” YouTube turns six this month. Facebook opened up to everyone in 2006, the same year Twitter launched.

How do you expect to find a human being who has five OR MORE years of real-world experience? At the risk of belaboring the point even further, here’s some more perspective. Ignite Social Media is one of the first social media agencies in the United States and it was started three years ago. At this point, the most you can realistically ask for is 2, 2+ if you’re feeling extra saucy. Even if they could possibly have been in the biz for 5 years, everything’s changed so dramatically most of the things they learned in the beginning are now obsolete.

A Passion for Social Media

This one applies to job applicants as well so take note, future social media-izers (I’ll think of a better name). Employers aren’t asking for anything special here. At this point, it’s like putting Word and Excel under “Skills.” Ignite’s President, Jim Tobin, elaborates: “People who tell me they’re ‘really passionate about social media’ don’t move me like they did 3+ years ago. Back then it was rare. It was a differentiator. Today, lots of people do that. As we’ve gotten bigger, I need to find folks with very specific skill sets (copywriter, art director, programmer, SEO person, account manager) who are also into social.” Which brings me to my next point.

Everything Under the Sun

When you see “Blogging, Social Media Marketing, Public Relations, Customer Service, JavaScript, HTML, SEO, Crop Dusting, Blacksmithing etc. etc.,” it’s a dead giveaway that this company is not familiar with the field. If you can find someone who has experience in all of these fields, it’s probably limited. To echo Jim’s point, you’re much better off looking for specific areas of expertise.

As an organization, you need to do some research and find out exactly what your business needs help with, whether that’s community engagement, metrics, website development, social campaigns, or something else. Only then can you find the best person for the job.

So now you know to steer clear of a few specific pitfalls. Stay Tuned for Part II: Resume Qualifications that Show Your Business ‘Gets’ Social Media Marketing. I’ll be delving into some skills that will prove to be actually useful.

What are some qualifications that you can’t stand seeing in job descriptions? Share in the comments below!

 

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  • http://twitter.com/craigrcarter Craig Carter

    Hey Seth,
    The personal social experience has been around for a while with chat rooms and email. However, this post is about social media marketing. The act of brands engaging with consumers in a public-facing and interactive way is a new thing. Although chat rooms are social, they are not social media. There’s no global connection and their potential to become viral is severely limited.

  • Anonymous

    Craig,

    It’s funny you bring this up. The other day after I came across your post the first time I decided to and look at a few job descriptions. Sadly, some of the biggest agencies all were looking for things like “8 years of social media experience.” I couldn’t help but think “no wonder half these companies suck at social media.” I actually recently wrote a post at Mark Schaeffer’s blog about why personal blogs are so much more interesting than company blogs. IN many ways I think putting somebody without a blog in charge of social media marketing is like putting a fry chef in charge of brain surgery. Rather than look at resumes companies should be actively monitoring the social media footprints of the candidates they want to hire and be asking the following

    1) Does this person know what creating good content is?
    2) Does this person really understand what it means to engage with people?

    I have a reasonably successful personal development blog and I run a podcast called blogcastFM where I’ve interviewed over 130 of the most successful bloggers, but I would be ruled out for many social media jobs based on my lack of experience. Strange huh?

    The everything under the sun is a huge gripe of mine too. A recruiter recently contacted me about an analyst position and my guess is she read the words social media in my profile and thought I’d be a fit. IF she had taken a closer look, she might have seen that I’m a content creator and putting together research and reports would be an awful fit. Anyways I’ll get off my soapbox about this.

    I think this is actually a great subject that needs further examination. Looking forward to reading part II. Hope you don’t mind but I’ve included a link below to the article I mentioned above:

    http://www.businessesgrow.com/2011/02/16/how-to-make-your-company-blog-connect-like-a-personal-blog/

    Also, if you’re interested I’d love to interview you for BlogcastFM.

  • http://twitter.com/craigrcarter Craig Carter

    Hey Srinivas,

    Thanks for the comment. Although it’s bad to hear that others are having a difficult experience, it’s nice to know we aren’t alone. I completely agree with you about the importance of blogging. It’s going to be one of the focal points of part II. Hopefully, I’ll have it posted next week. I’d be happy to do an interview. Shoot me an e-mail (craig@ignitesocialmedia.com)

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