So What Does It Take to Work In Social Media?

Should You Pitch Yourself to an Advertising Agency?

When I tell people I’m a social media strategist for an advertising agency, they inevitably respond with something along the lines of, “Oh, cool – so you get to play around on Facebook all day!”

Well, kind of. I am on Facebook for a good portion of my day, as well as Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and LinkedIn. But I’m not playing around. As the job title suggests, I’m strategizing. I’m updating statuses, writing blogs and interacting with social influencers with the goal of growing our clients’ social communities and ultimately driving traffic back to their websites and bringing them up in search results.

However, just because I’m not playing doesn’t mean I’m not having fun. First of all, I’m working with cool, creative people in an great office space complete with a pool table, a video game machine, and a state-of-the-art studio that, on occasion, doubles as a weekend dance club. And I get to wear jeans to work every day. As far as work environment, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Second, I love the work itself. It’s rewarding to see a client’s Facebook likes steadily rising, or getting a great response to a blog post and knowing you had a hand in it. Nobody likes to be bored or stagnant at a job, and that definitely doesn’t happen here. Each day, I’m busy with work I enjoy, and each day I learn something, either about the constantly changing social media landscape or about an aspect of a client’s business.

Working at an ad agency isn’t for everyone, but if you have the right skills and personality, it’s a great career path to consider.

So what are the right skills and personality?

Here are a few of the key elements we look for when hiring:

Personality

We need fun, creative people who can go with the flow and play well with other fun, creative people. It’s not an accounting office. If you’re the kind of person who’s more comfortable wearing a suit to work every day and hiding in a cubicle while you work (and yes, some people do enjoy that atmosphere), this is probably not going to be a good fit for you.

Organizational Skills

You’ll be working with several different clients and will have a lot of balls in the air at one time, so the ability to organize and prioritize your workload is crucial.

Attention to detail

Even though the job is fast paced, accuracy is still of the utmost importance. We need people who can work with minimal error and have the ability to spot and fix errors quickly.

Writing Skills

We write blog posts for nearly all of our clients, so you need to be able to write copy that is relevant, engaging, and, of course, grammatically correct.

Creativity

Before we can write anything for our clients, we need ideas. Part of your job will be brainstorming with us to produce creative blog ideas and new strategies for our clients’ social media programs.

Work ethic

This is a place where every employee’s contribution is essential, and one person slacking off puts the whole team behind. We want people who are prepared to come in on time and ready to work.

If you feel like you fit the bill, we’d love to see your resume and possibly schedule some time to chat with you. You can find a list of the positions we’re currently looking to fill here: https://www.ilfusion.com/careers

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