Social Media Manager Payscale

[Ben B]

Hey everyone,

I am trying to determine how I should be getting paid or what I should be getting paid. I am in the process of completing my E-Marketing and Design degree.The store I am at currently has about 350 new and used.
Currently I handle
-Social media accounts youtube, facebook, instagram etc.
-Videos and photos for social media. Attending events, quick inventory videos and social media promo videos.
-Website related changes, updates or issues by working with website provider. Also handle the blog.
-All inventory photos
-Anything marketing or advertising related such as creating banners, signs, campaigns etc.
-I do not handle facebook ads or google adwords both being handled by outside agencies.

I am making a few dollars over minimum wage. I have no idea if that is decent pay for what I am doing and if there is room for growth with this position.
Any insight is appreciated.

 

[ChrisR]

I'll just throw this out, when I was training people to shoot photos at dealerships across the country (2005), they received a salary of $25k/year plus 2% of the gross billed amount of inventory units photographed. Charges were $7/car (6 photos) to $65/car (50 photos), and would do 20+ cars per day.

 

[Brittany]

As someone who just finished their degree and performing almost the same functions as you for a BDC solution and enhancement company, I would be very hesitant of that pay.

It's not at all uncommon for companies in any industry to use students to get work for extremely cheap, and sometimes free, just because of their "student" status and in the name of experience (think paid and unpaid internships). I got an English degree and encountered too many places that want to underpay you because you can do the same work as someone a few years older but that requires more pay simply because they know what they're worth to a company.

You can also check places like the Occupational Outlook Handbook to see what those in similar positions to you with similar responsibilities are making. That way you have physical data to look at, and it's in a digestible format.

Good luck! Don't ever undervalue the skills you have just because you're in the process of getting your degree.

 

[Ben B]

I'll just throw this out, when I was training people to shoot photos at dealerships across the country (2005), they received a salary of $25k/year plus 2% of the gross billed amount of inventory units photographed. Charges were $7/car (6 photos) to $65/car (50 photos), and would do 20+ cars per day.

Thank you for your response. If I am only focusing on car photos I can get about 10-15 done in a day if I only have to do minor touchups and not fully wash the exterior. If I am doing photos and advertising I get about 5 cars done a day.

 

[Ben B]

As someone who just finished their degree and performing almost the same functions as you for a BDC solution and enhancement company, I would be very hesitant of that pay.

It's not at all uncommon for companies in any industry to use students to get work for extremely cheap, and sometimes free, just because of their "student" status and in the name of experience (think paid and unpaid internships). I got an English degree and encountered too many places that want to underpay you because you can do the same work as someone a few years older but that requires more pay simply because they know what they're worth to a company.

You can also check places like the Occupational Outlook Handbook to see what those in similar positions to you with similar responsibilities are making. That way you have physical data to look at, and it's in a digestible format.

Good luck! Don't ever undervalue the skills you have just because you're in the process of getting your degree.

Thanks Brittany,

I think that is the hardest part for me is determining what I am worth. There are not a lot of job listings in this area for anything related to social media marketing to gauge pay scale.

 

[Jason]

Hey Ben,

I'll share with you what I can from my own personal experience, but please note while my circumstances were similar to yours at the start, there are some differences which I'll note below.

Back in 2011 I became the Social Media Manager for an automotive group with 13 locations (at the time) here in Michigan. My primary responsibilities included:

-Social media accounts youtube, facebook, twitter etc.
-Videos and photos for social media. Attending events, quick inventory videos and social media promo videos.

I was paid $50k per year to do that job. It was strictly social media, and it was for 13 rooftops within the auto group.

Pretty quickly I started taking on more responsibilities for the group, including:

-Website related changes, updates or issues by working with website provider.
-Anything marketing or advertising related such as creating banners, signs, campaigns etc.
-The company blog

And that got me a raise....

From there I took the initiative to add paid search, SEO, email marketing, video production and more to my repertoire. By the end of my five year tenure with the group, my salary was over six figures.

A few things to note, just to not set unrealistic expectations.

1. I had been with the group for about a year in a sales / internet manager role, so I had already established myself as a hard working, dedicated employee.

2. It also helped that I had a pre-existing relationship with the then eCommerce Director that went back to my very first days in the biz with another group. So I had his support to even get the gig.

3. Did I mention I was doing this for an auto group, not a single point dealer lol? Started with 13 rooftops, and by the time I was done we were approaching 20.

4. This group was (and still is) what I'd consider progressive. They weren't looking to hire a social media manager as it was all still relatively new back then. It was an idea that I pitched to the eCommerce Director, and after a 6 month trial at the dealership I was still selling cars at, I proved that being active on social media had a positive ROI for that one store. We then took the results to ownership for the one store, and made the case that they needed this position at the group level for all the stores. Luckily for me, they saw value in that initiative and for me as the person to head it up.

5. Once I got the gig, I never stopped learning / acquiring new skills. Because this was a new role in the group and the industry in general, I was constantly looking to prove my value to the group and become an indispensable asset. Amusingly enough, it was in that never ending quest for information that I really became active on these very forums here on DealerRefresh!

6. When I took on more job duties, I didn't say "hey, if you give me $X more, I'll start doing Y & Z". I just started doing those things, and when it was time for a performance review, that's when I'd talk about getting a raise.

I've been out of the dealer side of the biz for almost four years now, but it paved the way for my current career and it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

While the salary numbers may not equate 1:1 to your particular situation, you are worth a lot more than a few bucks above minimum wage. Hope that helps in some small way, shape or form and feel free to drop me a line if you have any other specific questions!

Best of luck to ya!

 

[ChrisR]

Thank you for your response. If I am only focusing on car photos I can get about 10-15 done in a day if I only have to do minor touchups and not fully wash the exterior. If I am doing photos and advertising I get about 5 cars done a day.

For sure, was hoping to at least give a baseline for what that aspect of the job would pay, on the vendor side.

I've made a wide range of incomes doing the same list of tasks, and then some.

 

[Photoscopes]

Is your dealership's online inventory able to stay up to date with you only shooting 5 cars per day ?

 

[Ben B]

Is your dealership's online inventory able to stay up to date with you only shooting 5 cars per day ?

No. Our dealership is located in the northwest so weather plays a big part in getting photos completed.

 

[Ben B]

Hey Ben,

Jason,
Thank you for the valuable and in depth feedback!