Social media managers, it could be time to find a new title. Many employers are honing in on other terms—but don’t worry, your skills are still valuable.
Overall, jobs with social media in the title grew by 50% over the last year, a much slower rate than in the recent past. Meanwhile, jobs that mention social media in the description but not the title gained 89%, according to Indeed, the big jobs site. The data covers jobs listed from end of August 2012 to end of August 2013.
In the previous year, social media jobs grew twice as fast—by more than 100%. Indeed says that the genre is less seen as a separate entity within an organization and becoming more specific, and sprinkled within many departments.
Job seekers who search beyond the social media title will find 13 times as many jobs that include work connecting and sharing via the growing array of social media outlets, Indeed says.
Positions with photo sharing app Instagram in the title gained 644% and those involving Vine grew at 154%, according to Indeed.
“We are seeing an increased demand for social savvy candidates across the business – from human resources to product to customer service,” says Amy Crow, Indeed’s communications director. “In addition, we’re seeing this demand span many levels, from executive assistants to senior vice presidents.”
There has been debate over these titles before. For Buzzfeed, Rob Fishman argues for the death of the position in online media:
In speaking with higher-ups at outlets old and new, I heard from all of them that social was no longer peripheral, but core to their strategy. Concentrating authority in a single personage no longer made sense; Jennifer Preston and Liz Heron needed to get Twitter, but so too did reporters like Brian Stelter and David Carr.
Clearly some social media jobs are not growing at all, and may be even shrinking. Jobs titled Twitter fell by 22% in the last year, Indeed’s analysis shows.
The biggest gain within social media jobs: “social media expert”—yes that’s really a title—which Indeed says experienced a 1,600% growth in the last year. Many of the jobs show up on staffing sites or oDesk, or are found at auto dealers and direct marketing firms.