Social Media Marketing Salary: How Much Does a Social Media Manager Make?

lauryn preston

If you’re seekinga career path in social media marketing, the amount social media managers earn is important. With so many social media managers and related job titles in the job market, potential social media marketers aren’t sure what to expect regarding salary ranges.

The social media marketing professionals at KIOPI can help! This guide helps examine a few of the important factors that can affect the average salary of a social media manager.

What is the Social Media Manager Average Salary?

According to Payscale.com, the average social media manager makes $53,221 per year.

However, the total pay can vary widely depending on the location, education level, industry, the amount of content creation expected, the size of the organizations, and growth or success provided by the social media manager.

The example above shows the bottom 10% of social media managers make around $36,000 and the top 10% earn over $82,000 in total pay.

Many social media managers choose to specialize in specific industries, offering unique skills for their target company’s social media strategy. Having specific social media marketing expertise allows a social media manager to negotiate a higher social media manager salary.

Factors that Affect Social Media Manager Salaries

Social media manager salaries can vary greatly. So, look into the various factors that influence how much you could earn as a social media manager.

These factors include:

Marketing Education

Like virtually any job title in the job market, your level of education could influence the pay you could earn as a social media manager. However, your degree choice isn’t the deciding factor. Acquiring something as simple as an online certificate for social media marketing could help boost your average base salary.

What do we mean by this?

So, for example, those with a master’s degree in marketing can potentially negotiate higher salaries than those with only a bachelor’s degree in the same area because they have more education.

In contrast, if you don’t have a bachelor’s degree in marketing, you can raise your average base salary by taking several social media marketing courses online.

Having a bachelor’s degree can help you land a spot as a:

If you have a master’s in marketing, you could secure a position as a:

With social media marketing, more education isn’t the largest factor in determining salary. In many cases, total pay depends on how much you can help the company growth through social media marketing strategies.

So, don’t let a lack of marketing education hold you back from becoming a great social media manager!

Social Media Manager Experience

The more years of experience you have, the more money you can expect in total pay as a social media manager.

Additionally, the more proof you have of gaining more experience, the more you can justify asking for an increased social media manager salary, or at least average base salary. Business owners expect to see proof that you can bring in a decent ROI before they feel comfortable paying you above the market median salary.

Salary for Social Media Managers by Experience

According to Glassdoor, a social media manager with no experience in a related area can earn $45,563 average base salary, with the opportunity to make up to $72,000 per year.

This brings us to our next point.

A social media manager with at least four years of experience should average $58,414 in average base salary per year, with the opportunity to make up to $91,000 per year.

Social media managers with over 15 years of experience, even without an advanced degree, should make a median salary of $94,576, ranging from $154,000 in total pay.

Social Media Marketing Skills and Talent

For a successful career path in the social media marketing industry, you must possess various skills, especially regarding social media measuring.

These social media manager skills include:

strong in communications
graphic design skills
knowledge of how social platforms operate
strong understanding of social media measuring and data
keyword research skills
content strategy implementation

Location

Location is a huge factor in determining social media manager salaries. If you can work remotely, target companies located where salary ranges are higher per year, such as New York, Washington, and San Francisco.

Employers and Organizations

The industry-leading digital marketing agencies always strive to recruit the best social media managers. These companies will pay exponentially higher than the average total compensation for impressive social media managers.

If the digital marketing company is large and reputable, you’ll likely work with at least one enterprise client. In this case, employers can pay higher salary ranges for top talent in the prime of their careers.

Bigger marketing firms usually offer higher average social media manager salaries than smaller marketing companies because they need to keep top talent. This ensures employers continue attracting the best social media managers and remain industry leaders.

Social Media Manager Salary by Industry

Some social media managers choose to focus on one specific industry to help raise their average total compensation.

When making career choices, knowing which industries are paying the higher salaries for a social media manager like yourself is important. Thinking “How much CAN a social media manager make?” instead of “How much does a social media manager make?” is the key here.

Social media managers earn the most in these top industries:

Social Media Manager for the Tech Industry

Tech public relations and IT companies tend to pay their social media managers higher than average because having an online presence is critical to its success. This applies to social media managers and tech PR salaries.

According to Comparably, if you’re a social media manager for a tech or IT company, you can expect your median salary to fall within the range of $58,000 to $93,500, as the United States median salary for a social media manager in this industry is $63,265.

Social Media Manager for the Healthcare Industry

Many young adults turn to social media channels for healthcare information. This makes social media managers in the healthcare sector exponentially more valuable to corporate business entities–and we all know they have the money to pay!

According to Comparably, the median salary for a social media manager in the healthcare sector is $71, 230.

Social Media Manager for the Finance Industry

We know that finance marketing on social media platforms may not be the most entertaining position to exist, but finance companies generally pay their social media managers more.

According to Zippia, the average social media manager makes $74,173 per year when they’re trying to reach consumers in the finance sector.

Social Media Manager for the Government

According to Indeed, the median salary for a United States Government social media manager in an entry-level position starts at $47,930, 8% below the national average social media manager salary.

However, a senior-level social media manager strategist position offers an annual salary median of $162,465 per year. This is 86% above the national average for a social media manager.

Job Growth for Social Media Managers

As social media platforms grow, so does the demand for social media managers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for social media managers should increase by 10% from 2021-2031.

This is faster than the average increase for other job title outlooks.

How KIOPI Can Help You Increase Your Social Media Manager Salary

If you want a career in communications or to become a social media manager, you must have excellent time management skills.

Account management for different companies takes time. Most believe social media managers scroll aimlessly through the news feeds, posting occasionally.

This isn’t the case.

If you’re a new social media manager, have systems that help you organize all the jobs and tasks you’re responsible for. Creating a well-oiled system is how you can eventually earn a higher social media manager salary.

KIOPI helps make this possible.

Social Media Content Calendar

One of the best ways to start is to create a social media content calendar. This will save you time, help keep you organized, and ensure you’re always one step ahead.

A social content calendar is possibly the best way to ensure your clients receive consistent, high-quality content.

With KIOPI, you can schedule and overview all of your upcoming and completed posts. This helps you track what you’ve already posted, plan social posts ahead of time, and coordinate your efforts to ensure your efforts are exceeding your client’s expectations.

Social Media Content Scheduling

With KIOPI, you can plan out your content and then schedule it across either a single platform or multiple social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google My Business, with KIOPI’s social media content scheduling tool.

Whether you’re managing multiple social accounts or just one, the content scheduling tool will make the job much easier!

Social Media Analytics

One of the biggest hurdles for social media managers is the inability to acquire data from social media platforms to support their social media marketing decisions. This is the notion of “social listening.”

Creating content is useless if it doesn’t reach your clients’ audience or drive more business. You need to make data-backed decisions for optimal results.

If you want to increase your social media manager salary, the best way to accomplish this is to take the data from KIOPI’s social media analytics dashboard and use the data for the most precise content creation possible.

AI Social Post Generator

Kiopi’s AI social post generator helps those looking to boost their social media manager salary. By leveraging this innovative AI caption generator tool, you can significantly enhance your skills and value as a social media manager, potentially raising your salary.

With one of the best AI programs for social media, Kiopi helps you manage content across various related job titles and companies, focusing on both single-platform expertise and multi-platform proficiency. This advanced approach to content creation is one of the important factors that can influence your total pay.

Being paid more isn’t just about your work hours; it’s about the knowledge and skills you bring to your companies. Kiopi’s AI tool empowers social media managers and social media marketers to deliver high-quality content efficiently, making them a more valuable asset in the competitive social world.

Get a Better Social Media Manager Salary With KIOPI

The answer to “How much does a social media manager make?” boils down to years of experience, location–are you in New York or a small town, and ability to bring a company profit.

Managing better social media campaigns can translate to having a higher social media manager salary.

With KIOPI’s help, you can improve your social media manager skills! Start your free trial today.

Ready to try KIOPI? Start your free trial today.