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Is Social Media Management a Good Job?

The project that I was asked to undertake was to research a career that I want to peruse after university comes to an end. Since the beginning of my communication and media degree, I have always wanted to peruse a career in a social media management career. Through conducting secondary research and comparing different sources together in order to find out if this career is for me.

What is social media?

Social media can be thought of in a few different ways. In a practical sense, it is a collection of software-based digital technologies—usually presented as apps and websites—that provide users with digital environments in which they can send and receive digital content or information over some type of online social network. In this sense, we can think of social media as the major platforms and their features, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. We can also in practical terms of social media as another type of digital marketing channel that marketers can use to communicate with consumers through advertising.

In Hesmondhalgh and Baker’s book the Creative Labour Media work in 3 cultural industries breaks down the objective goals and attributes in deciding what good work is.

Self-Esteem/Self Realisation

Samuels’s ‘9 skills every social media manager must have’ illustrates the skill and technical abilities that are needed to succeed in this industry to become more employable, and also recommends additional sources to improve in the areas that the reader may need to improve on. The skills involve “communication, writing, creativity, efficiency, traditional and digital, customer care, making connections, agility, data analysis.  

Job Security

Appel’s ‘The future of social media in marketing. Which breaks down the future of social media marketing into three different predictions of the consumer, business, and public policy as well as looking at the immediate and long-term futures in these areas.

The Immediate future:

There are many interesting future research avenues to consider when thinking about the role of influencers on social media. First, determining what traits and qualities (e.g., authenticity, trust, credibility, and likability) make sponsored posts by a traditional celebrity influencer, versus a micro-influencer, or even compared to a CGI influencer, successful is important to determine for marketers. Understanding whether success has to do with the actual influencer’s characteristics, the type of content being posted, whether the content is sponsored or not, and so on, are all relevant concerns for companies and social media platforms when determining partnerships and where to invest effort in influencers. In addition, research can focus on understanding the appeal of live influencer content, and how to successfully blend influencer content with more traditional marketing mix approaches.

The Far Future:

There are early indications that social media might feel different in the future. As mobile phones are held in one’s hands and wearable technology is strapped onto one’s skin, companies and brands are exploring opportunities to communicate to users through touch. Indeed, haptic feedback (technology that recreates the sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations, or motions to the user; Brave et al. 2001) is increasingly being integrated into interfaces and applications, with purposes that go beyond the mere call or message notifications.

Current Issues in social media management

Covid 19

Mountifield, C & Sharpe’s paper ‘Managing Social Media Content During a Global Crisis: Interview With Ben Read, Social Media Manager at World in Motion’ explains how Covid 19 has affected social media content which is integral to learn about as it is most likely to affect my employment in the future and I need to stay up to date with the new techniques of social media marketing strategies to remain employable in the future.

Conclusion

Through conducting secondary research and comparing different sources together I have concluded that a career in social media management has succeeded in multiple areas that are portrayed in Hesmondhalgh and Baker’s book the “Creative Labour Media work in 3 cultural industries” and resulting is a job that I want to peruse after my studies at university.

References:

Appel, G, Grewal, L, Hadi, R & Stephen, AT 2020, ‘The future of social media in marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 79–95, viewed 1 July 2021, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=141133003&site=ehost-live&gt;.

Samuels, R 2021, ‘9 skills every social media manager must have’ Sprout Social, weblog post, 26 March, viewed 25 April 2021  

Hesmondhalgh, D & Baker, S 2011, Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries, Routledge, London.

Mountifield, C & Sharpe, S 2020, ‘Managing Social Media Content During a Global Crisis: Interview With Ben Read, Social Media Manager at World in Motion’, International Journal of Sport Communication, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 300–306, viewed 1 July 2021, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=145727424&site=ehost-live&gt;.

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Design Process Blog 3

Logo Design

I wanted to design a photography magazine that showed off my business account Aquilah Productions and with this I created a logo in adobe illustrator using the techniques that we learnt in the early stages of this subject using the image trace tool and considering colour, shape and type to create these logos I decided to go with the first design to go on the front page.

Image Trace

I used photoshop to turn one of my photos into a black and white photos to then image draw in illustrator to see if a Armin Hofman type of magazine would be interesting, but unfortunately i didn’t like this design and decided to go with my original idea.

Front Page

Here is the progression of these designs:

Conclusion

Ultimately, this was an extremely enjoyable project and I feel that throughout the course of this design project I have learnt a lot. I have improved upon my technical skills, most notably with Indesign and Photoshop. I have also learnt a lot about the design process, how there are many steps and often it is not linear, so you may have to revisit earlier steps for reworking as your project evolves. I have also learnt a lot about design layout and hierarchy.

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Twitter Review – BCM 325

This post will provide a critical self-reflection of my live tweeting ability during the movie screenings in BCM325 – Future Cultures, and the levels of engagement I achieved in my tweets. Despite being new to live tweeting while watching a movie, I felt that I missed key aspects of dialog or story as I was trying to make a meme or ask a thoughtful question to ask my peers but throughout this time I slowly improved.

Most of the engagement on my original tweets came from discussion about the film and its ideas about the future. I believe these tweets do well because a key component of the BCM325 sessions is to continuously unpack future cultures tropes and ask meaningful questions about the future that these films provide.

Other tweets that were based on funny comments or memes gathered better engagement this time around as I put more effort into my memes, comments and were based on film that were funny and relatable to my peers.

During the sessions I also live tweeted additional interesting sources about the films. Which received mixed levels of engagement, due to my peers were unlikely to read an article while also attempting to live tweet about the film as the same time. Posting additional sources is something I need to work on and do more often.

Finally, I found engage with other people tweets very interesting as we posed questions to one other about the movies we watched which lead to my own further research into what was being questioned furthering my knowledge of the topic that were being discussed about the film. I also engage in the tweets of other viewers through replies, retweets and likes. This something that I got a-lot better at during this assignments and found that i enjoyed the most.

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ReviewTime – BCM325

DA BETA

The first digital artefact what I will be looking at is James’s artefact on weather technology is detracting us from the beauty of sports.

James clearly displays his personal interest in sports in the blog and in the pitch. Which I relate to on a personal level as I enjoy watching sports also ands have never thought if technology is affecting our ability to watch and make the right decisions during the game.

I advised a website that talks about the future of the NRL to inspire a podcast or blog topic to discuss the introduction of forward pass technology as I would be interested his opinion on the matter

feeling beta than ever – UOW Visual Arts Society DA

The second digital artefact that I will be looking at is Emma’s project on creating a future business plan for the UOW Visual Arts Society.

Emma clearly displays her concept clearly both in the blog and in the beta. Beginning her beta with changing the direction of her digital artefact to design a long term business plan for the UOW Visual Arts Society. In terms of utility, her digital artefact is relevant to anyone this is running a club within a university.

I advised a link to a YouTube video of one of Gary V’s creating a successful digital social media presence as well as creating a successful online business.

The beta future of Beyond Branding

The last digital artefact I looked at was Amy’s blog on the future of her design company, ‘Beyond Branding’, and were studying BCM325 will take her in the future of her company.

I commended Amy on her company that she had been working on for quite some time, and her ability to set clear goals and expand her business. I also suggested a influencer Gary V who’s content is based around increasing personal socials media following, with the emphasise of the importance of research into new platforms and techniques to better her Business.

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Beta – BCM 325

In response to the feedback from my pitch video I immediately change the direction of my digital artefact to better suit the direction of BCM 325. So, for my digital artefact I decided to write three different blog posts based on what will impact my own personal future in becoming a social media manager and the prospects that Aquilah productions will have.

Check out Aquilah Productions

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY3m5aHKCCF26DkOR1bKocw

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aquilahproductions/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AquilahProductions/

Website: https://msha.ke/aquilahproductions/

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Design Process Blog 2

I have created multiple colour schemes that I was going to use in my photography magazine. At this point for my magazine, I have decided on a colour theme of black white and grey fro my texts as for the images i plan to edit my images with an orange and teal format.

I have also decided on a specific layout I want to stick to Brewster ‘My First Summer In The Sierra‘ design.

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Is Becoming A Social Media Manager In My Future

In this blog post, I am looking at my personal short term future career for when my university career comes to an end. Since the beginning of my communication and media degree, I have always wanted to peruse a career in a social media management career I, therefore, have decided to research this career to increase my ability to attain this career.

While conducting some research I discovered a ton of research has been done on social media being integral to a business to strive in the modern world as well as research into social media managers as an emerging career to peruse.

I found Jacobson’s paper ‘You are a brand: social media managers’ branding and “the future audience”’ looks at social media management as an emerging profession and what current employees treat their social media and how “always on the job market’ to maintain their employment.   

Another source found is Samuels’s ‘9 skills every social media manager must have’ illustrates the skill and technical abilities that are needed to succeed in this industry to become more employable, and also recommends additional sources to improve in the areas that the reader may need to improve on. The skills involve “communication, writing, creativity, efficiency, traditional and digital, customer care, making connections, agility, data analysis. 

While Marianna Sigala & Ulrike Gretzel’s book ‘Advances in Social Media for Travel, Tourism and Hospitality : New Perspectives, Practice and Cases, New Directions in Tourism Analysis, Routledge’ details the importance of social media in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry and explains the innovation and techniques that social media managers are recommended to succussed in their career.

Another source I found is ANZ, LH’s paper ‘Introducing the Newest Member of Your Hotel Marketing Team: The Social Media Manager’ presents the social media manager position and responsibilities that are required of her/her.

The final source of my research that I have done was Mountifield, C & Sharpe’s paper ‘Managing Social Media Content During a Global Crisis: Interview With Ben Read, Social Media Manager at World in Motion’ explains how Covid 19 has affected social media content which is integral to learn about as it is most likely to affect my employment in the future and I need to stay up to date with the new techniques of social media marketing strategies to remain employable in the future.

References:

ANZ, LH 2010, ‘Introducing the Newest Member of Your Hotel Marketing Team: The Social Media Manager’, HVS International Journal, pp. 1–3, viewed 26 April 2021, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=56567872&site=ehost-live&gt;.

Jacobson, J 2020, ‘You are a brand: social media managers’ branding and “the future audience”’, Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 715–727, viewed 25 April 2021, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=inh&AN=20202294&site=ehost-live&gt;.

Marianna Sigala & Ulrike Gretzel 2017, Advances in Social Media for Travel, Tourism and Hospitality : New Perspectives, Practice and Cases, New Directions in Tourism Analysis, Routledge, [N.p.], viewed 25 April 2021, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1560789&site=ehost-live&gt;.

Mountifield, C & Sharpe, S 2020, ‘Managing Social Media Content During a Global Crisis: Interview With Ben Read, Social Media Manager at World in Motion’, International Journal of Sport Communication, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 300–306, viewed 26 April 2021, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=145727424&site=ehost-live&gt;.

Samuels, R 2021, ‘9 skills every social media manager must have’ Sprout Social, weblog post, 26 March, viewed 25 April 2021 

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Peer Review Comments – BCM 325

DA 1: IS TECHNOLOGY DETRACTING FROM THE BEAUTY OF SPORT? BCM325 PITCH

The first digital artefact what I will be looking at is James’s artefact on weather technology is detracting us from the beauty of sports.

James clearly displays his personal interest in sports in the blog and in the pitch. Which I relate to on a personal level as I enjoy watching sports also ands have never thought if technology is affecting our ability to watch and make the right decisions during the game. One scenario I think of is the lack of frame in slow motion in order to decide if a try is awarded or not.

I advised a website that talks about the technologies that have been implemented in sports, to help with his research and DA blog posts.

I also linked James to our week 3 Paalumäki Heli 2001. ‘” Imagine a Good Day”–Bertrand de Jouvenel’s Idea of Possible Futures in the Context of Fictitious and Historical Narratives. Vol. 1: The Papers of the Nordic Conference on the History of Ideas.

DA 2: Is productivity-improving technology making us less productive? Digital Artefact Pitch

The second digital artefact that I will be looking at is Emma’s project on whether productivity-improving apps are improving our productivity or making us less productive.

Emma clearly displays her concept clearly both in the blog and in the pitch. Beginning her pitch with a rhetorical question attracts listeners to feel involved and appeals to the emotions. In terms of utility, her digital artefact is relevant and must be talked about in a modern day society fuelled by the increase of technology aiming improve productivity.

I advised a link to a blog article analysing the book that she has chosen to base her tic tok’s to hopefully give her an idea’s for her analysis.

I also linked James to our week 3 Paalumäki Heli 2001. ‘” Imagine a Good Day”–Bertrand de Jouvenel’s Idea of Possible Futures in the Context of Fictitious and Historical Narratives. Vol. 1: The Papers of the Nordic Conference on the History of Ideas.

DA 3: The Future of Beyond Branding

The next pitch I briefed was Amy’s blog on the future of her design company, ‘Beyond Branding’, and where studying BCM325 will take her in the future of her company.

I commended Amy on her company that she had been working on for quite some time, and her ability to set clear goals and expand her business.

I also suggested a influencer Gary V who’s content is based around increasing personal socials media following, with the emphasise of the importance of research into new platforms and techniques to better her Business.

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The Future of Social Media Marketing

Within this blog post, I will be researching the predicted future of social media marketing in the lenses of consumers, business, and public policy in the short and long term future which I the key aspects to the BCM325 future cultures. I will also predict where I think the future of social media marketing is going as well.

What is social media:

Social media can be thought of in a few different ways. In a practical sense, it is a collection of software-based digital technologies—usually presented as apps and websites—that provide users with digital environments in which they can send and receive digital content or information over some type of online social network. In this sense, we can think of social media as the major platforms and their features, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. We can also in practical terms of social media as another type of digital marketing channel that marketers can use to communicate with consumers through advertising.

The first academic paper that I read was Appel’s ‘The future of social media in marketing. Which breaks down the future of social media marketing into three different predictions of the consumer, business, and public policy as well as looking at the immediate and long-term futures in these areas.

The Immediate future:

There are many interesting future research avenues to consider when thinking about the role of influencers on social media. First, determining what traits and qualities (e.g., authenticity, trust, credibility, and likability) make sponsored posts by a traditional celebrity influencer, versus a micro-influencer, or even compared to a CGI influencer, more or less successful is important to determine for marketers. Understanding whether success has to do with the actual influencer’s characteristics, the type of content being posted, whether the content is sponsored or not, and so on, are all relevant concerns for companies and social media platforms when determining partnerships and where to invest effort in influencers. In addition, research can focus on understanding the appeal of live influencer content, and how to successfully blend influencer content with more traditional marketing mix approaches.

The Far Future:

There are early indications that social media might feel different in the future. As mobile phones are held in one’s hands and wearable technology is strapped onto one’s skin, companies and brands are exploring opportunities to communicate to users through touch. Indeed, haptic feedback (technology that recreates the sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations, or motions to the user; Brave et al. 2001) is increasingly being integrated into interfaces and applications, with purposes that go beyond the mere call or message notifications

My own prediction’s

The Immediate future:

I believe that social media influencer marketing will continue to slowly grow as well as the continuous paradigm shift of traditional marketing slowly burning out with major companies increasing their spending on social media marketing.

The Far Future:

I believe in the far future that we will have the technology that Elon musk is currently developing ‘The Neural Link’ which will allow us to connect to the internet without a device, which would be social media very interesting as It could mean that we could stream live videos without a device making a more immersive experience.

References:

Appel, G, Grewal, L, Hadi, R & Stephen, AT 2020, ‘The future of social media in marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 79–95, viewed 6 May 2021, <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=141133003&site=ehost-live&gt;.