Social Marketing Compensation 2009

The Social Marketing Compensation Survey was initiated in December of 2009. The intention of the study was to get a broad look at the emerging field of social media marketing, and specifically, to explore issues related to compensation in the area of social marketing.

We received approximately 224 responses. Participants represent a healthy swath of the types of organizations participating in online community building activities, including: large software companies, large community destination sites, niche community sites, platform providers, interactive marketing firms and independent consultants.

A sample of the 220+ organizations that participated include (with their permission): HP, Nielsen, Community Partners, Satmetrix, ComBlu, Avid, Fanscape, ZAGG, Bumbleride Inc., Vemma, PEMCO Insurance, Xorcom, Procter & Gamble, GlobalGiving, Hallmark Cards, Inc., Culligan, and Open Text.

Several key issues pertaining to the compensation of marketers working in social media surfaced during this report, including:

• On average, the female participants earned an annual salary of $64k, which is significantly lower than the average annual salary for men, which was close to $104k.
• Less than a third of the respondents, 31% (69), indicated that they received a salary increase in the past 12 months, and 19% (42) said they had actually taken a decrease in salary within the last year.
• On average, participants are somewhat satisfied with their current salary, with an average satisfaction score of 3.2 (where 1 = Dissatisfied and 5 = Very Satisfied) and a median score of 3.5. The male participants, on average, are slightly more satisfied with their overall salary amounts than the female participants.