In NYC, Social Media Specialists, Managers, and other digital marketers enjoy above-rate salaries compared to the national average. Social media managers in NYC make a median salary of over $75,000 annually and the city is home to companies with department managers in the advertising field making well over $125,000. While this isn’t a starting salary and it will vary from company to company (Goldman Sachs is going to pay its advertising managers significantly more than a small downtown pizza restaurant), the median national salary is over $100,000 for managing specialists, so there is a lot of room to make a comfortable income in NYC on the back of extensive social media marketing experience and training.
NYC industries that use social media marketing
Given how ubiquitous social media usage has become, you would be hard-pressed to find an industry that utilizes digital marketing in some capacity without having an element of social media marketing. Rather, the question becomes one of how various industries interact with social media and what kinds of skills and approaches you’ll need in order to become a social media marketer in NYC.
The main industry that relies on social media marketing in NYC is retail. The city positions itself as one of the great shopping hubs of the globe (locked in an eternal battle with Paris), and it is home to the landmark locations of multinational retail giants like Nordstrom, Macy’s, and Saks. These retail giants, as well as smaller boutique shops that line the streets of the city, utilize social media marketing as a means of keeping in touch with consumers and keeping returning consumers abreast of the latest retail happenings. They will also regularly work with paid content and sponsored social media content to keep their brand identities in the minds of prospective audiences. These retail giants are NYC institutions (to the point where it is easy to forget that the famed Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade exists as a marketing scheme), and as more and more retail is shifted to an online sphere, their social media marketing work is becoming more and more significant.
Another major industry that relies heavily on social media marketing in NYC is those related to the performing arts or to fashion and modeling. Not only are major agencies looking for online talent that can serve as prospective clients and/or performers, but there is also a demand for smaller independent creators and aspiring models to expand their reach through social media marketing. This is true on virtually every level of the industry, so social media campaigns are as important to the Gerswhin as they are to up-and-coming comedians looking to get a booking at the Comedy Cellar or the Gotham. Learning how to use social media as a tool for personal advertising can give aspiring professionals a leg up in their own field, or it can be the gateway to learning professional skills that are in high demand in other aspects of the creative field.
NYC is also the financial capital of the world, and while the use of social media marketing is less explicit than it is in a field like online retail, large firms and smaller start-ups are both incentivized to utilize social media marketing as a significant vector of their advertising budgets. For large firms like Merril Lynch or Goldman Sachs, the aim is to utilize social media as another arm of the advertising budget, an expansion of their traditional advertising efforts in other sectors of the attention economy. Smaller start-ups, particularly those utilizing new technologies and cutting-edge innovations, like AI consulting firms or FinTech start-ups, using social media can be a way to create more dynamic and organic engagement with prospective customers and build a more established foothold in the industry.
Social media marketing is also a key part of the political machine and the various non-profit institutions that make up the governing aspects of NYC. NYC would, by population, be the 12th largest state, meaning it needs a massive amount of government infrastructure to operate. Social media marketing plays an obvious role in campaign finance and operations, so if you are interested in becoming a political operative, NYC is second only to DC in terms of opportunities to pick up much-needed experience as a social media manager. Institutions and politicians alike both want to create social media identities and brands that they can use to drive attention toward themselves and their causes. Nonprofits and charities, for example, are going to have significant incentives to learn how to navigate social media platforms as a means of amplifying their reach. Even Central Park and museums like the MET have social media accounts that they use as part of direct advertising schemes to reach potential guests and visitors.
Finally, since NYC is such a tourist hotspot, any private event or business looking to make a name for itself is likely to employ social media marketing as a tool for building brand awareness and outreach. Whether you are talking about a Michelin Star restaurant (of which NYC has 73, including three-star restaurants like Per Se and Masa) or a small cocktail bar looking to attract those visiting NYC for the nightlife, social media campaigns are an important part of the brand awareness process.
Practical considerations when learning social media marketing
While you learn social media marketing, there are a lot of practical considerations that you’ll need to take into account. While it is important that you consider what kind of social media marketing you will be doing at a professional level and how the specifics of the industry are poised to impact your training, you will also want to consider more mundane issues, like how much the training will cost and how much additional time you’ll need to spend on other kinds of training in order to be successful at the level you hope to reach. If you are learning social media marketing in NYC, you can anticipate that you will have significantly more in-person training options than you might have at another location, but you can also expect the courses to be a bit more pricey, given the city’s higher cost of living. By contrast, this will pay greater dividends as the city offers a higher starting wage for most professionals than the rest of the country, so career-focused social media training courses will come out on top.
You’ll also need to factor in practical matters like how you will commute to and from the class and whether or not that is going to impact the structure and affordability of your enrollment. NYC has some of the finest public transit in the nation, but it can still add significant time to your commute to and from class if things aren’t necessarily running at the proper times. You may find that an online alternative is more to your liking if the commute might add an onerous amount of time or fee to your training course.
