For college students looking ahead to a bleak job market, there's at least one piece of good news: Spending hours on Web sites like Facebook.com and Twitter.com may not be a waste of time.
As companies tweet about their latest products and non−profit organizations gain awareness through "Fan pages," job opportunities involving managing various social media updates have become more prevalent. The position of social media coordinator has blossomed to fill a growing need for managing these outlets.
"Companies, from startup to [Fortune 500], are harnessing the power of social media to reach their target audiences. A Coordinator role would give a new professional an opportunity to showcase his/her talents with Web 2.0 platforms and, in particular, social media sites," Director of Career Services Jean Papalia said in an e−mail to the Daily.
"I've heard of companies definitely wanting to use more social media, and that probably translates into jobs," said senior Daniel Enking, who interned with the nongovernmental organization Joint US−China Collaboration on Clean Energy, which maintains a Twitter account.
Senior Charlotte Steinway has had several jobs involving new media and currently works as the social media coordinator for the Tufts Summer Session office.
"So far, what I've been doing with that is I created a Twitter account and I started following other Tufts Twitter accounts," she said. "I realized there is a Twitter for everything at Tufts — for example, anthropology majors, the Jackson Jills and a lot of different niches. I've been tweeting, but also primarily working on a blog where we upload content about Summer Sessions."
Steinway said that she believes this type of advertising is effective and has plenty of future potential.
"It's an important use of marketing," she said. "No one really reads print anymore and if it's done through these social networking sites, it is more subliminal marketing and it infiltrates through a social niche you have already established."
Among the various forums that are used by organizations for marketing, there is some debate as to which works best to get out a message.
"I think Twitter is more effective," Steinway said. "The job that I've had that's really been focused on social media was last summer [at Viva Swag, an online shopping company, and my official title was marketing manager. I had to friend random people [on Facebook], which was bizarre, and it wasn't very effective on the Facebook front. I think Twitter works well with promotional items. I know that a local cupcake bakery in L.A. has had a lot of great success with Twitter. They'll tweet a code word and if you say it, you get a free cupcake when you go there. It's great for marketing because people on Twitter are expecting a lot of updates whereas Facebook is more personal."
However, senior Kailah Hayden−Karp, who uses Facebook frequently in her job at the Women's Center, believes it has been a useful tool.
"I'm definitely more comfortable using Facebook," she said. "It feels natural because I use Facebook outside of work as well. It's kind of fun and a really effective way to advertise, we've found."
With entry−level jobs becoming more competitive in the downturned economy, Papalia said that this emerging field has distinct benefits.
"Entry level positions in social media, such as the coordinator role, are a valid route for those interested in breaking into marketing, public relations, and advertising," she said. "In particular, new college graduates have a competitive edge because they have come of age using these tools. They can leverage this expertise now to land a job."
Many students agreed that college students often are more qualified than older colleagues when it comes to social media expertise.
"I definitely feel like I have an advantage," Hayden−Karp said. "My supervisor, who is in her 30s, has her own Facebook, but she definitely trusts my opinion and lets me make decisions about Facebook things because she doesn't really understand Facebook."
"For us, it's completely easy to make any of these sites or to update these accounts," Steinway said. "It's so integrated into our lifestyle already. Between texting, Facebook and AIM, we grew up sharing and hyperlinking. For us it's easily comprehensible, but for another generation it's really daunting."
Enking said that it is comforting to know that there is at least one skill set in which college graduates might have a leg up.
"Everybody I've ever worked with aged 30 and above does not know the first thing about how to work with Facebook and Twitter," Enking said. "The way the world is going, our generation needs some kind of advantage, especially in today's job market."
But not every student feels that an abundance of social media positions would be entirely positive.
"I personally wouldn't really enjoy that all that much," senior Heather Buckner, who updated Facebook pages for the environmental non−profit Will Steger Foundation last summer, said. "I feel like if that was my job, it wouldn't feel like a very meaningful job to me. There are upsides and downsides with the fact that people are using social media sites all the time. It makes it easier for companies to advertise, and it's useful for nonprofits since it's sort of like free advertising. But at the same time, it just is feeding into the fact that people are living their entire lives on Facebook and Twitter, and it probably takes away more direct contact and communication."
Hayden−Karp also stressed that college graduates should not feel that a job using Internet marketing will be as simple as using social media for personal life.
"I think those jobs are misleading because I think there's a lot more to those jobs than having your own personal Facebook, and young people might not realize that," she said. "I think it can be really difficult to represent a professional organization at all times in social media because it is such an unprofessional, anything−goes sort of arena. It can be difficult to have to use that no−rules, out of control medium to be professional because so many of the people that are on it aren't thinking professionally."
Despite the challenges of integrating social networking sites into a professional environment, many workplaces are currently moving in that direction, with top companies like Toyota, Google and Pepsi all having a presence on Facebook and Twitter.
"I feel like its pretty inevitable, and it is a good way to reach people," Hayden−Karp said. "From the side of someone who does it for work, it's really effective. But from the side of a personal user, it can be too much at times. If people get oversaturated, they won't respond to the information."
