Social Media Jobs

Allison Driscoll is a blogger for Mashable.com, and an interactive copywriter (still not sure what that is) and a social media consultant.  Particularly, she focuses on both Facebook and Twitter.  According to her bio on Mashable, "has parlayed her love of writing and fascination with Facebook into a career as a social media blogger and online strategist."  Well shit.  Isn't that what I'm trying to do?  

Inappropriate language aside, there is a professional network out there that values understanding social media as a tool to be implemented professionally.  There are people out there who are going into work places, pitching social media strategies, and then getting paid.  And they all are blogging.  At least they better be.  Recently, I have been posting links to interesting social media articles on my Twitter feed.  After my first post on social media, I acquired a new follower:  dreamsystems (Dream Systems Media), an online communication consulting firm.    

The word consultant seems to be the magical word.  It seems to have the perfect combination of ambiguity and pragmatism.  It seems like the perfect identity for a post-graduate professional writing major.  Professional writers (not necessarily technical writers) have a large body knowledge about communication and networks (not to mention equipped with the ability to write very clear and effective prose) that can be applied in multiple environments.  The problem often is we really can define what we do in a concrete cover-letter like manner without a job opportunity to provide context.   That's why I love the flexibility of the word consultant.  

Social Media Consultant seems to be a great way to define what we can do.  In addition, with the state of the web, online communication consultants are having to no less and less about coding (which is still helpful).  So, professional writers, who lack the coding knowledge of information architects and the technical knowledge of computer engineers or HCI specialists, can find their niche in a less technical web that requires sound communication practices.