Jobs. Trends. Insights.

Do you know who you compete with for talent? Find out with the Hiring Scale™
Search

Most Commonly Required Social Media Skills by Job

By Abby Lombardi on November 20, 2012 in Hiring Demand Indicators.

Social media skills are still in-demand and growing. In fact, a new record number of job ads that require social media experience were seen online in October – more than 65,000 job ads at a 73% year-over-year growth. However, we find that the skills and experience required to work in social media varies by job function. So, today we thought we'd look at what types of jobs require social media and the specific skills needed. The 4 job functions that most commonly require social media skills are: Marketing and Public Relations, IT, Sales, and Human Resources.

Hiring Demand for Social Media Skills – 4 Year Hiring Trend

Hiring demand for social media skills

Source: WANTED Analytics

Below are the 10 most commonly required skills that are mentioned in job ads by each of the major job functions. While the skills vary by function, there are also some similarities. Being detail oriented, a self-starter (or self-motivated), Microsoft Office are all required in 3 of the 4 functions. What other trends do you recognize?

Skills Required in Social Media Marketing and Public Relations Jobs:

  1. Detail oriented
  2. Microsoft PowerPoint
  3. Oral and written communication skills
  4. Project management
  5. Self-starting/self-motivated
  6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  7. Microsoft Office
  8. Digital marketing
  9. Product development/management
  10. Business development

Skills Required in IT Jobs that Specify Social Media Skills:

  1. Hypertext markup language (HTML)
  2. Website development
  3. JavaScript
  4. Detail oriented
  5. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
  6. Oracle Java
  7. Software development
  8. Structured query language (SQL)
  9. Oral and written communication skills
  10. Project management

Skills Required in Sales Jobs that Specify Social Media Skills:

  1. Sales experience
  2. Self-starting/self-motivated
  3. Oral and written communication skills
  4. Microsoft Office
  5. Work ethic
  6. Microsoft PowerPoint
  7. Goal oriented
  8. Work independently
  9. Customer relationship management (CRM)
  10. Business development

Skills Required in Human Resources that Specify Social Media Skills:

  1. Microsoft Office
  2. Oral and written communication skills
  3. Sourcing strategies
  4. Detail oriented
  5. Microsoft PowerPoint
  6. Applicant tracking software (ATS)
  7. Self-starting/self-motivated
  8. Project management
  9. Organizational skills
  10. Work independently

What skills do you require in social media jobs? Sign up for a free trial of WANTED Analytics to see hiring demand, talent supply, and get Talent Sourcing Reports to help you explain to hiring managers about current recruiting conditions.

Already an Analytics user? Log in, search for the social media skills you require in the skill search box, and add specific occupations or job functions. To generate a Talent Sourcing Report, click over to the Summary tab and download it!

Most Commonly Required Skills in Public Relations Jobs

By Abby Lombardi on May 19, 2012 in Advertising/Marketing, Public Relations.

Hiring in the public relations field is booming. Last month, there were more than 34,000 online job ads seen for Public Relations Managers and Specialists. This is a 22% increase compared to the same time period in 2011. Interestingly, the industry with the most demand for PR professionals was colleges and universities. Almost 1,000 jobs were seen online by these organizations, a 2% increase over last year. Other industries with high volumes of online PR job ads were civic and social organizations, family services, social advocacy organizations, and general medical and surgical hospitals.

Hiring Demand for Public Relations Managers and Specialists – 4 Year Hiring Trend

Hiring Demand for Public Relations Managers

Source: WANTED Analytics

We found that PR job titles can vary by company and role. Below are 10 job titles that are commonly used in online ads for Public Relations positions. Recruiters that are sourcing for PR professionals should consider searching for candidates with these titles. The phrase "Public Relations" is only used in one of the 1o job titles below. If you only look for this term, you could be missing a lot of potential candidates.

  1. Director of Development
  2. Communications Specialist
  3. Communications Manager
  4. Director of Communications
  5. Public Relations Manager
  6. Event Specialist
  7. Major Gifts Officer
  8. Public Affairs Specialist
  9. Media Specialist
  10. Community Relations Specialist

In addition, we looked at 10 common skills being required of PR professionals, which showed a variety of needs by employers. Public Relations Managers are often being required to have web-based knowledge, like search engine optimization and using content management systems, in addition to writing, blogging, and design work.

  1. Microsoft Office
  2. Microsoft PowerPoint
  3. Microsoft Word
  4. Adobe Photoshop
  5. Adobe InDesign
  6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  7. Customer relationship management (CRM)
  8. Salesforce CRM
  9. WordPress
  10. Content Management Systems

Are you recruiting for PR Specialists? Find out more about hiring demand in your local area and where you can find potential candidates with a free trial of WANTED Analytics!

Easiest Places to Source Social Media Skills

By Abby Lombardi on February 17, 2012 in Advertising/Marketing, Recruiters, Sales.

Yesterday, we posted that hiring demand for social media skills reached an all time high in January. With increased demand, many Recruiters struggle to find qualified talent with this skill set. So, we thought we'd provide some of the places with the largest talent pools and are currently the best markets to source social media skills in. We looked at hiring conditions for the 4 of the fields with high demand for social media skills: Marketing, Public Relations, Recruiting, and Sales.

As you can see by the below Hiring Scale™ snapshots, each national average for each occupation will experience varying degrees of difficulty. This depends on the hiring demand for those jobs and the talent supply of qualified potential candidates in the workforce. In these locations, Recruiters are likely to see more candidates per job opening, less competition with other employers, a shorter time-to-fill for open jobs, and a lower cost-per-hire. Recruiters that have hard-to-fill social media job openings (or are sourcing for several jobs) may find it beneficial to post ads and source candidates in these cities to expand their talent pools.

Consequently if you have social media skills and are looking to find work, these are likely to be the hardest places for you to find a job. Since there is lower hiring demand and a higher talent supply, you are likely to compete with more candidates for fewer jobs in these cities.

Best Places to Source Marketers with Social Media Skills:

  1. Santa Cruz, California
  2. Memphis, Tennessee
  3. Kingsport-Bristol, Tennessee
  4. Riverside-San Bernardino, Californa
  5. Knoxville, Tennessee

Hiring Scale for Marketing Managers with Social Media Skills in Santa Cruz, California (Easiest-to-Fill Location)

Hiring Scale for Marketers with Social Media Skills

Source: WANTED Analytics

Best Places to Source Public Relations Managers with Social Media Skills:

  1. Jackson, Mississippi
  2. Lincoln, Nebraska
  3. Sarasota, Florida
  4. Honolulu, Hawaii
  5. Austin, Texas

Hiring Scale for PR Managers with Social Media Skills in Jackson, Mississippi (Easiest-to-Fill Location)

Hiring Scale for Public Relations Managers with Social Media Skills

Source: WANTED Analytics

Best Places to Source Recruiters with Social Media Skills:

  1. Indianapolis, Indiana
  2. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  3. Atlanta, Georgia
  4. Phoenix, Arizona
  5. Portland, Maine

Hiring Scale for Recruiters with Social Media Skills in Indianapolis, Indiana (Easiest-to-Fill Location)

Hiring Scale for Recruiters with Social Media Skills

Source: WANTED Analytics

Best Places to Source Sales Managers with Social Media Skills:

  1. Memphis, Tennessee
  2. Detroit, Michigan
  3. Columbia, South Carolina
  4. Springfield, Missouri
  5. Phoenix, Arizona

Hiring Scale for Sales Managers with Social Media Skills in Memphis, Tennessee (Easiest-to-Fill Location)

Hiring Scale for Sales Managers with Social Media Skills

Source: WANTED Analytics

What other jobs openings do you have in your company that require social media skills and experience? Try the new online Hiring Scale to see how hard-to-fill the job will be in your area, average salary ranges, and who you are competing with for talent.

Hiring for Social Media Skills Begins 2012 at New Highs

By Abby Lombardi on February 16, 2012 in Advertising/Marketing, Occupations.

Now that we are more than halfway through February, we thought we'd review hiring demand for social media skills. It's been a while since we reported on demand and supply of this talent, and we wanted to see if it is still a prevalent skill being listed in job ads.

During January 2012, there were about 13,000 job ads posted online that included job requirements involving social media skills. This is an 87% increase compared to the volume of ads in January 2011. Despite some declines in the volume of ads in November and December (likely just a seasonal trend), hiring has steadily increased over the past few year and has now hit a new high. We think it is safe to say that social media is not "just a trend" and that this will continue as more business functions adopt social strategies.

Hiring Demand for Social Media Skills – 4 Year Hiring Trend

Hiring Demand for Social Media skills

Source: WANTED Analytics

As we see more social media platforms and ways to engage an audience online, the roles that demand these skills are changing. Marketing Managers and Public Relations Specialists are the 2 most common jobs that include this requirement in job ads. Marketers account for about 2,600 of the job ads at a 58% year-over-year increase. PR Managers and Specialists saw about 1,500 job ads, also increasing about 57% compared to January 2011.  Other common fields to require social media knowledge or experience in their job listings were Web Developers, Sales Representatives, Market Research Analysts, Recruiters, Software Engineers, Advertising Sales Agents, and Executive Secretaries or Administrative Assistants. These occupations also saw year-over-year increases in hiring demand. Sales Managers grew by more than 500% between January 2011 and January 2012 – the most of any occupation. Recruiters saw the second highest increase, up 131%.

Our Hiring Scale™ shows that social media skills are still moderately difficult to recruit. However, the degree of difficulty will vary by location depending on local talent supply and hiring demand. For example, Recruiters in Houston are likely to find these jobs harder than average to fill. The average duration of a job ad in Houston is 45 days – or just less than 7 weeks. In comparison, the average posting period across the US is about 6 weeks.

Hiring Scale for Social Media Skills in Houston, Texas

Hiring Scale for social media skills in Houston

Source: WANTED Analytics

Want to know where the best markets to recruit social media talent are? Check back tomorrow when we take a look at where you should be sourcing your talent from!

Are you recruiting for social media savvy talent? Try our free online Hiring Scale to see how conditions compare in your area, average salary ranges, and who you are competing with for talent!

Public Relations Specialists Hiring Demand Grows 10%

By Abby Lombardi on December 8, 2011 in Hiring Demand Indicators, Occupations.

Despite overall ad spend decreasing over the past year, Public Relations agencies reported growth in business and project additional increases next year. We looked at hiring for PR Managers and Specialists over the past 90 days, when Recruiters placed more than 21,000 new online job ads for these skills.  With more than 9,000 organizations recruiting for Public Relations professionals, hiring demand has steadily increased in 2011, now up 10% compared to the same 90-day period in 2010.

Hiring Demand for Public Relations Managers and Specialists – 4 Years

Hiring Demand for Public Relations Managers and Specialists

Source: WANTED Analytics

The industries with the highest demand for Public Relations professionals during this 90-day time period  are listed below. Of these five industries, Colleges and Universities placed the most job ads, with more than 1,700 at a 7% year-over-year increase. However, Family Services organizations experienced the highest growth at more than 16%.

  1. Colleges and Universities
  2. Civic and Social Organizations
  3. Family Services
  4. Public Relations Agencies
  5. Medical and Surgical Hospital

Metropolitan areas with the highest hiring demand for Public Relations Managers and Specialists during this period are also listed below. Of these 10 locations, nine experienced year-over-year gains in hiring demand. Washington, DC was the only area of these that saw a decline from the same 90-day period in 2010. Recruiters in New York placed the most job ads and currently averages the highest salary range. In New York, the average salary for Public Relations Specialists and Managers ranges from $56,750 to $100,000, which is higher than the national average salary range of $45,000 to $80,000

Location Number of Online Job Ads % Change vs. 2010
New York, NY 2,635 +6.3%
Washington, DC 2,062 -0.1%
Los Angeles, CA 935 +28.8%
Chicago, IL 856 +15.4%
Boston, MA 851 +9.7%
San Francisco, CA 748 +24.7%
Philadelphia, PA 458 +7.3%
Atlanta, GA 422 +27.5%
Seattle, WA 403 +12.6%
Dallas, TX 356 +45.3%

Recruiting conditions for Public Relations professionals are likely to be moderately difficult, with about 9 potential candidates in the workforce for every open job. However, conditions will vary slightly by location, depending on local talent supply. According to the Hiring Scale™, Recruiters sourcing for openings in Chicago are likely to experience the most difficult recruiting conditions of the above cities with the highest volume of job ads. While hiring demand has remained high in Chicago, the talent pool is slightly smaller than average, meaning that Recruiters are likely to compete more heavily to source candidates. In addition, it is likely that Recruiters in the Chicago area will see job ads listed online longer than many of the counterparts nationwide, where the average duration of a job posting is 42 days (or 6 weeks).

Hiring Scale for Public Relations Specialists in Chicago, IL vs. Nationally

hiring scale for public relations specialists in Chicago

Source: WANTED Analytics

Are you sourcing for a PR opening? Find out what recruiting conditions are like in you area and see where talent pools may be located with a free trial of WANTED Analytics™.

Footer
Company | Solutions | Press | Events | Investor Relations | Contact Us