There are millions of people across the globe, working in this field of social media, doing analysis, management, research, strategizing, planning, development and so on. There are a number of roles in this field.
If you want to get in this field, first you need to understand the roles and then decide which one will be suitable for you given your skills. Once, you are clear on your goal, you can start looking for resources to utilize for writing your resume. In addition to reading this article carefully, you should also check out our resume examples.
What is a social media resume?
A social media resume is a resume that is targeted specifically for jobs in the field of social media.
- Social media manager
- Social media executive
- Social media developer
- Social media analyst
- Social media researcher
- Social media planner
- Content writer/creator
- Copywriter
- Social media marketing manager
- Digital marketing manager
- Social media strategist
- SEM & SEO officials
and many more such roles that are related to or centered around digital marketing and social media. Usually their responsibilities surround the tasks of social media marketing, social media campaigns, social media execution, social media content creation, social media strategies, social media management etc.
Anything and everything to do with social media platforms can be covered in this area. All you need is some basic social media skills related to communication and mass psychology.
What to write in the Social Media Resume?
A social media resume has the sections such as education, experience, skills, certifications, summary and hobbies/interests. The sections may seem same as any other resume however the details you write has to be thought of carefully. Let's go over each section and learn all you need to in order to write a perfect social media resume to land you your dream job.
Education
Usually, in the education section you mention your degree and highlights of your education such as any awards won or programs you participated in and extra curricular activities that might be relevant to the job title you are applying for.
There are not many mainstream degrees that can be defined as social media career -degree.
Journalism
- Mass communication
- Literature
- Language
are some of the degrees that can be defined as closely qualifying for social media career path.
However, social media career doesn't necessarily require those degrees, all you need are the skills and they are quite simple and many people have them.
For example, many people who have engineering degree or MBA degree, choose the social media career. You can have any degree and still go for social media related career as long as you the skills. Unlike medical field or law field where you need medical or law degree to create a career.
Most hiring manager require relevant wok experience, understanding and skills related to social media and some basics such as creativity, command on language and so on.
If you have relevant degree, you can relate it to the job title and its responsibilities, reflect how you have built a solid foundation with theories learned during your studies.
Explain how you are genuinely interested in the field and fascinated by the power of social media and digital media for marketing, advertising and generating desired results.
If you don't have a relevant degree, you can note some of the relevant subjects (i.e, The engineering coursework usually has a subject of communications and so on).
You can describe how you got inspired and decided to go for this career path. Ensure you relate your skills and reflect confidence that you are a suitable candidate for the position.
Experience
The experience section is a bit tricky. You might be wondering whether to mention your past professional experience that may be irrelevant to the field of social media.
For example, you are an engineer who has worked in a software development company for a year before deciding to change the career path and go to the social media industry.
In such scenario, you should recall your role in the engineering company and think of the responsibilities you had, all the exposure you had from your surroundings. If you were strictly working on engineering related tasks and did not observe anything else, you might not want to add that experience to your resume.
However, chances are that you coordinated with the company's marketing department or advertising department and interacted with your colleagues who were responsible for company's marketing campaigns or social media presence and such.
You may have had some responsibilities even that could be deemed relevant to marketing area or such. In this case, you should definitely mention your experience in the resume. You should explain how you have gotten familiar and fascinated by the area. How that exposure made you interested in the field of social media, in first place.
Now, if you have relevant experience, things are simple. You should point out your achievements, successful performances, positive feedbacks. Try to write from the perspective of- what you contributed to the company, what difference did your contribution make for the company.
There are various aspects such as B2B, B2C, software development industry, IT industry and such specifics that may be listed as required experience in the job description. Do not forget to add all the relevant and applicable aspects in your resume.
Mentioning specifics will ensure the hiring manager that along with the skills, you also have good knowledge of the industry.
Skills
As mentioned before, social media field is such that may not require particular degrees but does demand certain skillset, knowledge and capacity to grasp the concepts and ever-evolving digital media world.
You must mention all the relevant skills you have that could be helpful for the career in social media field. You should also refer to the job description and include all the skills required that you have.
- Communication (Mass, Interpersonal, corporate etc)
- Strategic planning
- Creativity
- Crisis Management
- Language proficiency
- Understanding Mass Psychology
- Writing content
- Analysis
- Research
these are some of the skills that are very useful for various roles in the social media field. Ensure to mention all the skills that make you look like a candidate who knows the industry and more than that- understands the industry!
Certifications
Certifications can be useful for you especially if you don't have relevant education or experience background. There are a number of certification courses available that you can take, on the internet.
These certifications help you convince the hiring manager that even if you don't have the relevant education, experience and background, you still understand the industry and are familiarized with it.
You can also mention the topics covered in the coursework such as SEO, SEM, marketing, advertising, content creation, key performance indicators, google analytics and so on.
How to Write the Social Media Resume Summary?
Writing the summary of social media resume is important. You should make sure you cover all the keywords. Use bullet points. Keep it crisp and short with important details only.
What to write in the summary?
In your summary, you should start with the title of your position. If you don't have prior experience and never held a relevant position you can mention your name in the place of title.
After that, your first point would be your cumulative relevant professional experience, followed by the key skills related with your key achievements. You can mention some of key and relevant responsibilities that you performed with effective and unique skills.
Make sure you use numbers, quantify your performance. Mention what difference you made with your performance for the company and include numbers.
Try not to use any jargon or fluff details. Your summary is supposed to be very short so stick to the crisp details.
You can close the section with your goals going forward. How do you wish to contribute going further with your skillset and acquired knowledge.
If you are a fresher, you can mention your education and key achievements acquired during the studies. You can also mention any relevant coursework and your performance in the relevant subjects.
If you don't have a relevant experience, you can mention the aspects that led you and inspire to the field of social media. Mention the relevant skills you have.
What to avoid in the summary?
Always avoid fluff details and paragraph style for your summary. You should use bullet points, limit the details to 3-5 bullet points or 3-5 lines of content.
You sentences should not have pronouns and write not just the summary but the whole resume in third person and past tense.
Avoid writing what you 'will do' if given the job. Only mention what you 'have done' and 'can do' backed by skills and numbers.
For example, never write-
'I will boost the company's social media presence by acquiring 10k followers for Instagram , Facebook and Twitter platforms.' -This sounds very unreliable and fake. Instead you can write-
'Boosted the company's social media performance with 25% increase in the social media engagement rate.'
Tips for Writing Social Media Resume
If you have decided to make your career in social media field, you couldn't be closer to the best decision for your career. With the digital world evolving everyday, multiple social media platforms have become the most important medium for marketing.
From small start up to corporate giants, everyone is on social media and social media consumption has sky rocketed. In 2023, it estimated that 4.89 billion people, across the globe, use social media. Source: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-statistics/
Keywords
If you are familiar with digital world, you would know that all the recruiters these days utilize the Applicant Tracking System and that means you need certain keywords in your document if you wish it to pass through he filters of the ATS software.
You must research your job title, job description, job responsibilities, job industry and the company that you are applying to and note down all the keywords.
Now, use all these keywords in your resume and make sure you don't stuff them but use them with regard of the readability of the resume.
Language
Any social media role requires basic skill of communication and communication requires good command on and proficiency of language.
Rule of writing resumes is that you use third person and always use part tense. Do not use any pronouns. Try to use more action verbs and power words.
Document format
Your resume document should have easy readability and access. For ATS as well as hiring manager's ease, you should always save your resume in PDF format.
You can also keep it saved in other formats for when you need to update your resume. However whenever you share your resume with recruiter or in job application, make sure it is in PDF format.
Numbers
Make sure the achievements, skills, knowledge and other details you mention are measurable and quantifiable. Use numbers wherever you can.
For example, you should write the percentage of which the company's performance improved rather than writing that you 'significantly' improved the company's performance on social media platforms.
Always avoid, ambiguous and vague statements. Especially when you are describing your achievements.
Accuracy
Everyday, we see news of how some celebrity or a corporate company tweeted something or wrote something on Instagram which had errors such as spelling, ambiguous statement which can be interpreted in a way that would make the statement problematic and/or offensive.
Sometimes such errors are of fact-checking as well. The lesson to learn is that on social media and digital media platforms, the accuracy of content is everything. It reflects your credibility and your reputation is built on the same.
Any resume should also be error-free whether it is spelling, grammar or details. Although, being a social media professional, you need to pay extra attention, you cannot afford even any tiny mistake in your resume.
Make sure your resume is perfect with double proofreading.
Conclusion
Social media resume writing is simple and easy. You just need to keep in mind the tips mentioned in this article.
You can also find many social media resume templated and social media resume examples, you can refer to them however make sure you don't copy any of them entirely.
Your resume should reflect your authenticity and credibility with your real writing and details. When you are writing your resume, make sure the details are in sync with the particular job title and its job description.
Although similar, not all roles in social media field have the same responsibilities and required key skills. A social media executive might not be responsible for social media strategizing and a social media analyst might not need content creation skill.
Meaning a social media manager resumes are different than social media strategist resume. Social media managers require whole different set of skills etc than social media strategist.
The level of employment can also make a difference. A senior social media manager would have different details in their resume than a junior social media manager.
Make sure you research and understand the particular role carefully.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Do I need a particular degree for social media jobs?
No, you do not. Few degrees are deemed relevant for the social media roles and most hiring managers require you to have the necessary skills and particular education level, not a particular degree.
I don't have a social media background, can I still apply for a social media job?
Yes, you can. Social media roles usually require certain skills such as understanding mass psychology, being proficient in communication, having command on language and so on.
Hiring managers usually look for skills rather than particular degree or background.
Although, if you wish you can pursue some of the online certification programs of short duration or long duration to add on your resume. You will also get confidence and necessary exposure for the role in social media field.
Is the social media field a good career path?
Absolutely. There are people who are doing social media jobs from the comfort of their home, along with their studies, as a part time or freelancing gig and so on.
With the digital marketing and social media platforms booming, the industry has wide scope for employment.
