Being a Social Strategist – What Does It Take? [Infographic]

Posted by Marlene Friis Sep 26th, 2011

With the increasing number of businesses using social media, there’s now great focus on the role of being a social strategist.

But who are the persons in this type of job and what does it take? That is what the infographic below tries to answer.

I found the infographic on Mashable. It’s called “Social Media for the Career Minded”, and it portrays the personality, education, career paths and responsibilities of today’s successful social media strategists.

What it takes for a strategist
As stated in the infographic, 79% of corporations now use some aspect of social media, and naturally this also means that there’s more need for employees working with social media. Companies are on the look for profiles that can manage and foster the relationship online to customers. Therefore, I think this infographic can be interesting for both brands and potential employees to take a look at. It creates an overview of what characteristics that are important to consider when hiring a social strategist, and thereby what skills are required for the applicant.

For example, it’s first of all the responsibility for a social strategist to evangelize a new initiative. It’s crucial for the person to be able to develop a strategy and a plan and manage a team that can be on board in the process. Having an eye on competitors and trends is something that takes up time as well, since you need to make sure that you are different from other players in the field. And this is only to mention some of the job responsibilities of a social strategist! As it says in the infographic, for social strategists that are able to look forward, adapt to and adopt new technologies and forms of online communication, and see how these can be integrated into their businesses at multiple touch points, their future looks very bright.

The statistics in the infographic were pulled from LinkedIn data, job listings for positions in the field and a report by Jeremiah Owyang of Altimeter Group. There are some very good information in it, so take a look at it and let us know what you think about it. What do you look for in a social strategist?