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Social Media Marketing as a career an option? 7+ years experience. No degree.
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hello, so this may be a bit long but I really appreciate any feedback I can get. I'll give some backstory and where I'm at now.
I'm 26, I started a small business out of highschool at 17. I took some classes in marketing and sales during college at the time but was also working a 2nd job to get by. I even took a social media marketing class. I never finished college per my business taking off more than expected, having a child, etc. and I'm wondering if doing social media marketing as a career would be an option.
So my business -- I imported specialty car parts and sold them over the web. I grew a massive organic following on all social media and this is what led to my success. I used some of what I learned in school, and with trial and error how to use ads, targeting, getting my website seen/visited and it worked. I did great for about 5-6 years for my age. After kind of hitting a wall with my business -- wasn't happy with the work I was putting in for 50-65k per year in my pocket @ 80+ hours a week and a lot of overheads with 2-3 employees doing some serious manual labor sometimes. I didn't see it lasting forever. I sold it after running it for 7 years.
In the final year, a large local LED lighting company reached out to me about how I grew such a large following on social media and noticed how I got more than 95% of my sales basically through the ads I'd put up on social media. He was a really good friend of mine and I showed him a couple things. Within a year his company more than quadrupled in sales throughout the US when he had never shipped anything out of state before this. He had only done local installs really. I should have probably tried to get a job, but luckily didn't, as he sold the company for a massive amount within about 18 months.
After my company was sold, I began working in sales and distribution with Pepperidge Farm. I do okay, but it's tough on me. I work 3am to 10am (sometimes longer) 7 days a week. It's very difficult to get off for vacation and the schedule has been pretty grueling on me. About 1.5 years ago an old customer that owned a well known RC car company across the country reached out to me about a similar thing that my friend did with social media, and how they noticed what I did etc, but they weren't able to figure it out. This company had always been huge, but he could never figure out how grow a following on social media even posting every day. He's a bit more old school but total hustler. This guy offered to hire me. in 1.5 years I've made him very happy with what I've done. I've grown his following organically quite big quite fast and he's feeling it. I work from home, he pays me weekly and well for what I do (only Facebook and Instagram), but now I wonder, is it something I can make a career out of with another company -- something even more corporate?
I feel like I'm very good and understand everything that comes with the job. When I see job ads for a social media marketing career a lot of them list what they'll need you to do it and all sounds like a cake walk to me -- but in the requirements most require some form of a bachelors degree minimum so it says. So -- is this an option for me without having to go back to school since I have some experience to show for it? If not / if so what would you recommend I look for when searching for a job in this field? Where would you look? Indeed.com, etc?
Thanks so much for any input.
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June 23, 2018 at 03:28PM