Not comics, and yet still somehow related to ongoing discussions over how to make money off of your creative endeavors, Media Jobs Daily reports that jobs in social media are growing, meaning you can now make a living fiddling with Facebook and so on, and lists the following salary chart:

The five most common positions and their salaries, by the way, appear below.

Community Manager: $60,000 – $90,000
Analyst/Strategist: $40,000 – $60,000
Product Developer: $75,000 – $100,000
Editor/Publisher: $30,000 – $45,000
Executive: $80,000 – $110,000


We’re not sure what a “community manager” does that an “editor” doesn’t, but obviously one pays a lot more. TWICE AS MUCH. And it pays best of all to be an executive who makes the hard decisions. Obviously we need to phase out these low paying editor/publisher jobs.

More here.

1 COMMENT

  1. As an editor/publisher working in social media, I couldn’t agree more… assuming that means I am de facto moving up to the rarefied air of an “executive.”

    Interesting, Heidi. Thanks for posting.

  2. A community manager, among other things, handles the comments sections of websites to keep them from going toxic.

    Think what your comment section would be like if 200 expats from Newsarama showed up in your threads.

    Now imagine 200 expats from 4chan.

  3. Glenn – 200 expats from 4chan does indeed sound like a living hell but that’s still an awful lot of money for comment moderation, which I was under the impression people did for the hell of it. Are you sure that’s all they do? If so, sign me up.

    Five or ten years ago, this stuff was just called “dicking around online” where you were paid a grand total salary of 0.00 per year and your job title was “Unemployed Loser”.

  4. A community manager has to maintain the company’s voice online, keep things civil, prevent civilians from “hulking out” and spreading malicious mischief about your company elsewhere, while keeping the place cool enough for people to visit.

    Think that’s easy? Here’s your test before you’re hired: moderate the comments thread on a random Yahoo news feed.

    Community is your bread and butter for a website. Some people might stop by and read a few pages, but if you can get them hooked with comments and forums (I can stop anytime!) then that’s more page views, more ad revenue, and THEY are providing your content, not the company. They’re essentially paying YOU (via ad revenue) to write something.

    For webcomics, community is the second most important item, after the actual comics. Your community of True Believers is where you get your venture capital for trades and t-shirts and coffee mugs.

    If a site goes toxic, then people stay away. I respect Newsarama, but I rarely visit. There’s someplace else where I can go to get my fix.

  5. Wow. Back when I was a community manager in the days when we ran the internet by beating rocks on drums, I was considered pretty lowly in the company hierarchy, barely worth paying at all. I also wasn’t called a community manager… What was I called…? Do I even remember…? I think I was called that girl with 1/3 of a desk by the door.

    Actually, I loved that job. I loved interacting with and developing a complex online world and its denizens. It was a challenging crash course in diplomacy (I’ve forgotten all that now), with immediate feedback and a large circle of… well, community. There were plenty of rewards beyond the tiny paycheck, and I miss that now.

    But, I want the big bucks, so sign me up for an executive job please. I don’t mind having to make the hard decisions, plus I own several coins that have both heads and tails.