How to Get Hired as a SMM

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Good morning!

Welcome to Social Studies.

Here’s the agenda for today:

• How to get hired as a SMM

• Other Wednesday musings

I’ve had a few people reach out asking how to go about getting a job as a SMM.

With layoffs happening left and right, it’s always good to have a game plan.

Plus, I just started a new role as Head of Social at Benzinga, so the whole job search process is fresh on my mind.

1) Don’t sleep on LinkedIn

I know I know… this is not original advice. And given that 90+% of my email subs come from LinkedIn, you probably already know this.

But building a personal brand on LinkedIn is without a doubt the most influential thing for my career.

LinkedIn drives my email subs, my side hustle gigs, and most recently my new full time gig.

I’m not gonna waste your time talking about how to optimize your LinkedIn profile.

Just make it look like you’re ready for the job that you want.

This feels applicable…

2) Have a body of work

This one should go without saying.

You need to be able to point to something and say, “I did that.”

Everyone knows how to grow an audience in theory. You have to prove that you can do it in practice.

A few months after I got hired at Tyson Foods, my boss, Mr. Keith, told me, “If you could win an award for having the least number of words on your resume…. you’d be the reigning world champion. 🏆️ 

A little confused, I asked Mr. Keith… “Then why did you hire me?”

“Well,” Mr Keith started, “You hadn’t done much, but what you did do seemed to be effective at building an audience.”

Moral of the story… Proving that you can build an engaged community will be more effective than any resume writer.

3) Build systems

Like every Twitter bro… I read Atomic Habits by James Clear and can’t shut up about how “you don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.”

Here's my favorite system to get a smm job.

• Go to LinkedIn (remember your profile is optimized now)

• Set up a targeted job search

  • (Location, FT/PT, industry, tc.)

• Save the search and get alerts when a new job drops

• APPLY! (But don’t stop there. Find the hiring manager and shoot them a message. Use tangible examples and make is specific. Show that you’re a real person with real skills.)

  • “Hey! Just applied to your open social media role. Big fan of what you guys are doing. Your short form video, on Instagram specifically, is really clever. The hooks are really powerful. I’m trying something similar on the account that I’ve grown LINK HERE. Would love the opportunity to chat and see if you think I’m a good fit!”

• I really hope that the following is common sense.

  • Research the company you’re applying for. Be personable. Ask relevant questions. Get to know the people. Do they have kids/dogs/weekend plans?

4) Dream job vs real job

Idk what your current situation is, but maybe this anecdote would be helpful…

My first job out of college was working in video content creation for Mizzou.

• Amazing coworkers. Doing something I loved. Not the perfect location. Was in Columbia, Missouri, and my wife and I were dead set on wanting to get out of our home state and try somewhere new.

My next job was social media at YouVersion.

• Culture could not have been better, but again… not the perfect location. I was based in Edmond, Oklahoma, but we were starting to have kids and wanted to be near family.

My next job was in digital marketing at Tyson Foods.

• Now, we were super close to family. Loved my team. Best boss I’d ever had. The big, corporate culture taught me a TON about how to pitch your ideas and navigate competing interests to drive tangible business results. But I also learned that a big conservative company isn’t where I wanted to be long term.

As of a few weeks ago, I’m the head of social at Benzinga.

• Still in NW Arkansas by family, but I’m working for a smaller org with a startup feel (way more up my alley). The team is great and I’m really enjoying what I do. Will this job be perfect? No. There’s no such thing as a perfect job….

When I was in college, a pastor at the church I went to told me this:

“If you think you don’t like your job, try this… Every day that you would call a 'bad day’ mark it on a calendar. Do that for a few months. At the end, count how many bad days you had divided by the total number of work days.

If you’re at 60% ‘good days’ then you’ve got a good job.

If you’re at 70% ‘good days’ then you’ve got a great job.

If you’re at 80% ‘good days’ then you’re in a DREAM job.”

There’s never going to be a perfect fit. Every job at every company has pros and cons, but EVERY job will provide an opportunity to get better at something and sharpen you where you are weak.

Happy hunting!

Other Wednesday Musings

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