BusinessWeek article on Social Media Directors
Monday, July 19th, 2010http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_30/b4188064364442.htm
“Twitter, Twitter, Little Stars – July 15, 2010
As customers make or break brands online, companies rush to hire social media directors…and figure out what they do
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Pete Cashmore, who runs the blog Mashable, is a sort of life coach to the social media industry. Recently he declared June 30 to be Social Media Day. Teaming up with Meetup, a website that enables online communities to have face-to-face get togethers, Mashable helped its readers organize some 700 celebratory powwows in more than 90 countries around the world. In Manhattan, a crowd packed into The Mean Fiddler, a bar in Times Square, to network with their peers over $4 draft beers. At the back of the room, a manager for an eco-consulting firm swapped social media stories with a creative director for a watch wholesaler. Jeanette Espinosa, a 25-year-old “social media project manager,” introduced herself to a chatty group and said she did social media work on behalf of an agency that represents various liquor brands. “It’s an absolutely booming industry,” says Cashmore, whose site includes robust job listings. “There are more positions than people right now. There are a lot of companies waking up to it and realizing that they need to have a social media strategy.”
