One of the fastest growing careers is one that you can do from home with no prior experience and that can earn you up to a six-figure salary.
It’s social media marketing, a profession that involves working with influencers and businesses to better connect them with potential customers.
Typically, this means helping them create engaging posts with lots of SEO-friendly keywords on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
Job boards like FlexJobs and Freelancer.com list an increasing number of remote, hybrid, and freelance digital marketing positions. CNBC reported.
Fiverr, a platform that connects freelancers with clients, also has many such jobs, most of which have flexible hours as long as project deadlines are met.
Jennifer Shealey, 46, a social media marketing and graphic design specialist at Fiverr, said she has logged more than $600,000 in sales since she started in 2014.
Jennifer Shealey, a social media marketing and graphic design specialist, earned $100,000 last year working full-time as a freelancer.
Digital marketing wasn’t always Shealey’s main job. She started doing it on the side while working as a project manager at a tile company.
But when she lost that job a few years ago because she was bored and constantly distracted by her phone, Shealey decided to try to make her side of her full-time job.
To support himself, he worked three part-time jobs while honing his craft.
Over time, she expanded what she offers clients, which now includes website design, content creation for Instagram, and SEO writing for YouTube videos.
Shealey earned over $100,000 freelancing on Fiverr, but beyond the lucrative salary, she also enjoys the freedom she has in her life and work.
“It’s the kind of work you can do from home, from a van or on the road while traveling,” he told CNBC. ‘If you like creativity, analytical work and constantly learning new things, it’s a great field to enter. We certainly need more people in digital marketing, even I can’t keep up with the demand.’
Certainly, sacrifices have to be made to get to where we are now, according to Shealey.
“I just used the extra free time I had, which was probably a little bit in the evenings and basically my weekends,” Shealey said. “I sacrificed all that, I didn’t go to parties and I said no to a lot of things because I wanted to focus on Fiverr.”
Within four years, he was making more money than he made at his three part-time jobs combined. To her, that was a sign that social media marketing had become her full-time job.
Toni Frana, FlexJobs’ top career expert, told CNBC that it’s much more important for people to develop their social media marketing skills than it is to obtain an applicable degree.
More generally, demand for jobs in the digital marketing sector – which includes social media marketing – could grow up to 8 percent annually, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
By 2030, there could be 200,000 more jobs for online marketers.
Some of these jobs prefer applicants to have a bachelor’s degree, but formal education is not necessarily required to succeed in this industry.
Toni Frana, chief career expert at FlexJobs, told CNBC that it’s much more important for people to develop their skills.
This means you need to be good at SEO or search engine optimization, data analysis, and social media advertising.
Many hiring managers also look for people who can shoot and edit videos, manage online communities, build lasting relationships with influencers and develop successful marketing campaigns, said Sebastián Siseles, vice president of international at Freelancer.com.
All salaries depend on experience, with entry-level positions reaching around $50,000 per year.
Social media strategists or managers who have been in the game the longest and have a track record of profitable advertising campaigns can earn over $120,000 a year.
Sebastián Siseles, vice president of international at Freelancer.com, said people who can shoot and edit videos, manage online communities, build lasting relationships with influencers and develop successful marketing campaigns are attractive to hiring managers.
To get started in this booming field, you can start by taking online courses to earn certifications in specific skills on platforms like LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, HubSpot, or Google.
You can also take advantage of the many free tutorials on YouTube from social media marketers turned influencers.
Milou Pietersz is just one of these types of educators.
Originally from the Netherlands, Pietersz has been in the United States for 10 years and now runs a YouTube channel that focuses on how to get into social media marketing.
In multiple interviews, he has said that he had great difficulty at first when trying to build his marketing company, Simply Multimedia.
Like Shealey, who worked several part-time jobs to allow his side hustle to thrive, Pietersz has said he used to deliver food with Uber Eats to generate enough income to survive.
Now his agency works with all types of brands in different sectors to increase the number of followers and traffic to their websites.
Milou Pietersz, founder of social media marketing company Simply Multimedia, has also become an influencer to teach her followers how to acquire the same skills that made her successful.
The most popular videos on his channel are ‘How to Become a Social Media Manager in 2024 (Even Without Experience)‘ and ‘What does a social media manager REALLY do?‘
In these videos, he explains which websites beginners should visit to find job opportunities.
It also breaks down what a social media manager actually does throughout the day.
“You are responsible for managing and monitoring the social media pages” of your clients, he explained.
This means that it will check your pages for spam comments or reviews and make sure that when your business is tagged in posts by other social media users, it reflects positively on them.
According to Pietersz, you will also have to work with your clients to come up with a marketing strategy. A successful strategy will allow you to generate content that resonates with your customers.
Fiverr data suggests that this exact job is becoming more desired than ever.
Between May and October, searches for “social media content manager” increased 493 percent on its platform.
Searches for setting up, managing and editing social media account content also increased.
