ABSTRACT
The term “social media manager” appears with ever greater frequency on job search sites, but there is a lack of clarity and consistency in the job description and even the actual name of the position. The Creative Group recruiting firm lists fourteen separate positions, all with different names, under the “social media” umbrella. These include: blogger, community manager/online community manager, director of social media, interactive project manager, interactive strategist/social media analyst, podcaster, SEM (search engine marketing) specialist/manager, SEO (search engine optimization) specialist/manager, social media account manager/channel manager, social media coordinator, social media planner, social media project manager, social media specialist, and Web analytics specialist.1 Most of these positions are new as of the last several years, and while they share several similarities and they can all trace their origins to the same trends in the media job marketplace, they are not all the same. Each represents a company’s specific interpretation of what might generally be called the job of social media manager.
