Ugh. "Social Media Strategist" remains a real job, and even city governments like San Francisco think they need one.
Per SF Weekly we learn that the city's Department of Technology had a job listing up in January for one such professional Twitterer compensation: $102,206.00 - $130,468.00/year and whoever they hired just started on Monday.
Look: They started off the week by wishing Twitter a happy birthday, and congratulating @sfgov for reaching 100,000 followers (which: pfft).
Not our birthday, but 100K+ followers is reason to celebrate. Also, #HBDTwitter And many more 🎉 #LoveTwitter pic.twitter.com/yravmG0Gwa
— City of SanFrancisco (@sfgov) March 21, 2016
Since then there have been four tweets, and a couple of retweets, like this one retweeting something about an SFMTA open house. So they're really paying someone over $100K for this??
I'd also like to point out that despite being on the job three full days now, there apparently hasn't been any time to revive the city's Instagram account, which hasn't seen any activity in over two years and only has 305 followers. I would also like to point out that the city has an intractable homeless problem and aging infrastructure and very little affordable housing and being good at Twitter isn't something someone should be getting six figures for.
The Department of Technology's deputy director of communications, Kathleen Clark, says that the official Social Media Strategist role is "really critical... for improving and enhancing the City's communications, response, and engagement with the public."
Totally! Just look at how BART's equivalent Millennial communicator has been getting down to brass tacks with the public, and how his candor, coming from a government agency, earned national press attention because of its rarity.
Something tells me, though, that @sfgov isn't going to be getting real about City Hall corruption or what Ed Lee mutters under his breath when he passes Peskin in the hall anytime soon.
Related: Man Behind BART's Honest Tweets: 'Public Transit Has Always Been About Politics'