Community and Social Media Salaries Remain Relatively Steady Despite Economic Downturn
Forum One Networks' second annual Online Community and Social Media Compensation Study delivers important data points to help set benchmarks and build standards for community and social media roles, responsibilities, and compensation.
San Jose, CA (PRWEB) November 10, 2009
Forum One Networks’ second annual Online Community and Social Media Compensation (http://store. yahoo. com/cgi-bin/clink? yhst-83793679721952+uCGBcg+index. html+) study indicates that only 17% of the respondents’ salaries have decreased in 2009, while 43% had a salary increase and 40% had no change in their salaries. Additionally, job satisfaction among respondents was still fairly high at 4.1 out of 5 and only slightly lower than the 4.2 reported in 2008’s study.
The study included 370 participants comprised of 52% female and 48% male respondents who work in social media and online community. Unfortunately, the gap between the average male and female salaries widened from last year, with male respondents averaging $86.5k in 2009, up from $85.5k in 2008, and females averaging $75.5k annually in 2009, down from $77k in 2008.
“It’s discouraging to see the reported disparity in male and female salaries and even more of a concern that the salary gap widened in 2009. However, we were very pleased to see that despite a very difficulty economy, most respondents were earning the same or more than they were last year.” says Bill Johnston, Chief Community Officer at Forum One Networks.
“One key challenge with online community and social media salaries is that the industry continues to suffer from a lack of benchmarks and standards for compensation, coupled with clearly defined roles and responsibilities,” says Johnston. “The goal of these reports is to establish much-needed benchmarks and standards so that organizations may understand fair compensation for the community and social media roles.”
One respondent shares an opinion of how many companies are unclear of the value of community and social media roles, “Unfortunately I feel that most companies are still unable to fully grasp the importance of a dedicated social media team. They do not see a direct correlation between social media and ROI, and therefore are hesitant to put as many resources (both people and money) into social media as is typically necessary.”
The complete Online Community and Social Media Compensation 2009 (http://store. yahoo. com/cgi-bin/clink? yhst-83793679721952+uCGBcg+index. html+) report is available for purchase or included in membership to the Online Community Research Network (http://ocrnmembership-comp2009pr. eventbrite. com), a members-only professional network for community and social media practitioners. The report includes detailed data and analysis on respondent, age, gender, geographic location, organization and department size, location and size of community team, years of experience, education, average number of hours worked per week, compensation structure, benefits, salary, salary increase, job satisfaction and additional advice from respondents.
About Forum One Networks
Forum One Networks (http://www. forumonenetworks. com) is a division of Forum One Communications (http://www. forumone. com), a web strategy and development group based in Alexandria, Virginia, with offices in the California Bay Area. Forum One Networks produces events, conducts research, and provides networking and strategic consulting for online community and social media professionals.
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