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The status quo of social media management as a professional field: An empirical investigation of challenges, objectives and measurement strategies of social media managers
Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing,
11
(4),
379-390
(2024)
Abstract
The advent of social media has led to radical changes in the marketing and communication activities of companies, with social media management emerging as a key professional field. Although social media management is now established as a standard practice for companies, there has been little research into the specific job profiles of social media managers (SMMs). This study attempts to fill this gap and presents empirical findings from a survey of 225 SMMs. The results show that the fast pace of social media is seen as a key challenge by SMMs. Building brand awareness is their most important communication objective. The majority of SMMs rely on user comments, likes and shares to measure the success of their activities. The practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Keywords: social media management; social media marketing; professional field; job profiles; communication objectives; social media channels; communication controlling
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Rosemarie Nowak works in the Department of Knowledge and Communication Management at the University for Continuing Education Krems, where she is Course Director for Digital Communication and Change Management. Within her department she holds the positions of Board Member and Coordinator of Methodologies. She studied political science at the University of Vienna and at the Andrássy University Budapest, where she received her PhD. Her present research fields are social media, digital communication, internal communication and political communication.
Christian Rudeloff is Professor of Media and Brand Management at Macromedia University of Applied Sciences. He received his PhD from the University of Hamburg. Prior to his academic career, he spent several years working as a senior communications consultant and corporate communications manager. His current research interests include brand management, strategic communication and entrepreneurship.
Birgit Sedlmayer-Gansinger is responsible for business development at Virtual Identity, where she has worked for the past 13 years. Drawing on more than two decades of online marketing experience, including years of account and project management and consulting for various agencies, she now helps clients use digital marketing and social media to drive business success. She has studied marketing and management at Johannes Kepler University in Linz and ESC Brest.
Michael Oppermann is a senior data consultant at the digital marketing agency Virtual Identity. He holds a PhD in computer science from the University of British Columbia, where he specialised in the field of human–data interaction. He has previously worked as a visiting research fellow at Harvard University and Tableau Software. His research interests lie at the intersection of data visualisation, machine learning and human-centred design.
