Free Your Interns! Understanding the Value of Social Media Professionals
Social media is one of the most important parts of running a business in 2025. And we’re not just saying that as a social media marketing agency! The stats back this up, showing that about 5.42 billion people use social media, and 48% of consumers say they’ve increased how much they use socials to interact with brands compared to six months ago. With every business hopping on Instagram and TikTok, it stands to reason that someone needs to be in charge of this vital part of the marketing machine. But the question is: Who?
Previously, we’ve tried to demystify the different types of social media experts that businesses hire. But one thing we didn’t cover in much detail is the dreaded fate of the multi-hyphenated, jack-of-all-trades ‘marketing professional’ with a job description that seems to expand by the day.
Younger readers already know what we’re talking about here. Over the past few decades, it’s become all too common for a company’s youngest (and presumably, coolest) employee to become the de facto social media marketer for the brand in addition to their actual job. Typically, these responsibilities don’t come with much of a pay raise (if any) because many people simply don’t understand how much time, effort, and knowledge it takes to see social media success. But after 10-odd years of undervaluing these social media skills, companies are finally realizing that this is a specialized service that requires experienced, dedicated professionals—not just an indentured, fresh-faced intern silently toiling away in the content mines.
In this article, we’re diving into the evolution of the corporate social media manager, looking at the way this role has become a high-paying, executive position instead of the tacked-on side hustle it’s been considered as for so long. Let’s dive in.
Putting a Price Tag on Social Media Success
Between the constant ebb and flow of different platforms, the lightning-quick expiry of online trends, and the ever-shifting algorithms that rule it all, we don’t blame busy business owners who don’t fully understand social media. We all understand how it works as a personal user, but unlocking the secrets of Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok for business is a whole other conversation.
But when done right, social media can be the difference between tepid professional progress and a meteoric rise in sales and visibility. Whether it was Red Bull using early social media to promote Felix Baumgartner jumping to earth from basically outer space, Duolingo’s infamously chaotic Instagram presence, or the notorious Gen Z brand voice of Wendy’s Twitter account, these big businesses understand that investing in someone who actually knows how to use social media is one of the safest bets they can make.
You might not have a million-dollar TikTok budget like some of these companies, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take a cue from their successes to make better use of social media for your brand. For this to work, it all begins by realizing a simple, humbling fact: You don’t know how much you don’t know.
The Deceptively Tricky World of Social Media Marketing
We can talk about Duolingo’s social media presence, and you’ll probably know what we’re referring to. The language learning app is famous for chaotic, edgy, risque content that feels like more of a meme page than a corporate representative, and it paid off in a major way. Duolingo understood that their thousands of pages of brand guidelines, corporate identity, and so-called core values really don’t translate to the average person’s feed. People don’t care that your app is statistically proven to teach you languages faster than other methods. They want to be entertained, and Duolingo delivered.
Duolingo’s now-famous social media director, Zaria Parvez, was hired as a new grad and thrown straight into managing the brand’s content marketing with very little experience in the corporate world. Coming with far more experience in consuming content than making it, her Gen Z inexperience would actually become the brand’s greatest asset. She understood what people actually want to see on their feeds, and, guess what? It’s not corporate jargon and stuffy infographics. By approaching Duolingo’s marketing from a grass-roots, content-first perspective, Parvez was able to redefine corporate social media marketing for all time.
Does this mean that the secret to social media success is just hiring some overworked, underpaid marketing grad fresh out of school? Probably not. Because Parvez’s work wasn’t some fluke. It was a calculated effort based on her deep working knowledge of social media from the user’s perspective. That experience, even if it wasn’t gained in the professional world, is what helped her leverage Duolingo’s existing foundation into something far greater and wider-reaching.
Understanding the True Value of Social Media
Let’s get one thing straight: Your social media presence can’t be the same identity you put out in webinars, ebooks, or even your website. These other mediums are professional, late-in-the-pipeline parts of the process, reserved for people whose attention you’ve already earned. But on social media, where capturing attention is the name of the game and success is measured in seconds, your marketing team needs to understand social media on the most granular level.
In other words, you’re not going to succeed on social media just because you’re great at explaining your job and your skills to professional peers or potential clients. Success on these platforms requires years of experience, an eye for the trends and transitions these platforms cycle through so quickly, and a flexible approach that can change when it needs to. Put another way, your poor, overworked teenage intern is (probably) not the answer to your social media troubles.
Instead, you need to understand that the best examples of social media success only look easy. In reality, they took years of experience, fine-tuning, and on-the-ground knowledge from a digital native who lives and breathes these platforms. With this in mind, it’s clear to see why so many companies are investing so much into their social media professionals, including Duolingo, which famously listed a salary of $342,000 for one lucky candidate to replace Parvez after her departure from the company.
Every business owner understands that you need to spend money to make money, but there’s an occasional disconnect when connecting this idea to social media. After all, these apps are often looked at as a frivolous luxury instead of the marketing powerhouse they really are. But by educating yourself on the universal need for social media, the many incredible success stories showing the value of investing in it, and the nuanced, careful approach that’s really needed to make an impact, you’ll see that social media marketing isn’t some job to be pawned off to a random team member. It’s an executive position, requiring a lifetime’s worth of skills and knowledge, and should be compensated accordingly.
Of course, if you’re looking for executive-level social media marketing that doesn’t break the bank, we know a team that can help! If you’re looking for tailor-made social media solutions that help your brand stand out from the rest while still keeping that central thread that makes it yours, the BNL team has you covered. Get in touch with us to learn how our office can help you cut through the noise and start seeing the success you deserve.