In late October Forum One Networks put out a white paper titled "Online Community and Social Media Compensation." I applaud their efforts, but, I think they create an unrealistic view of the job space in online media.
One, I think the surveyed companies over-represent corporate jobs.
Answers Corp., Autodesk, Avid, Best Buy, Cartoon Network (Turner), Consumer Reports, Electronic Arts, hi5, IBM, KaBOOM!, Nokia, Quest Software, Sage Software, Seesmic, Sony Online Entertainment, The Knot, and Yahoo!
Their average respondent is in a department of 9-people and have at least one sub-ordinate. I suspect the truth of the job landscape is that there are far more web jobs (social media, web design/development, SEO, PPC and web analytics) in small business than in large corporations.
Two, they fail to address critical issues like education, work experience and job duties.
Forum One claims that in social media the average woman makes $75,624 and the average man makes $86,644. I feel simply looking at the averages is too shallow to make a good argument about compensation.
So, I am doing something about it. I think the SEOmoz community has a wide range of people and will contribute a broader, and more realistic, perspective on what jobs on the web really look like. I put together an 18-question anonymous survey (it will take less than 5 minutes to complete) to create a better look at salary and compensation on the web.
Once I collect the data we will make all of the findings transparent, free to download and creative-commons so you can use the data freely. Help the community by creating better data resources.
Under 25
26-30
My 25-year old self doesn't know where to go, so I'll assume you wanted me in the former category!
I assume being in the UK when I enter a numerical figure you're going to realise I mean pound sterling? Thanks
Edit: Also, I don't meant to be rude but I reckon you missed a trick you could have compared in-house SEO to agency SEO salaries.
Thanks, we are aware that some number crunching will be necessary. We will definitely separate UK. We feel that it is easier to deal with currency programatically AFTER the data is collected.
Nice job and looking forward to the results.
My challenge always with these surveys is that I am salaried and have my own business, and both are in the same industry. And I imagine that isn't entirely foreign, so it always leaves you wondering whether you just report the dominant one, which I did, or both, which may skew the results.
The flipside would be very interesting to see as well....the work force for the industry, based on employment and skills.
Separate out the angency, in-house, self-employed (and combinations of), as well as skills (SEO, SEM, SMM, design, development, etc. and combinations of), and the all important: employed, looking, and what may be the most overlooked category that even the SEOmoz Marketplace misses, employed but "open to opportunities."
I think the "open to opportunities" would be an interesting metric as I think there is a lot of loyalty within the industry, but countered by a strong desire to continue to expand skillsets, expertise, experience and development of the personal brand.
Im in, would love to see the UK results broken out from the rest. Survey monkey makes these kind of thigns so easy - I have been a long term user..... good choice!
We will definitely make that available.
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Humbled, it looks like you have a fan.
Thanks for taking the survey.
i cant wait to find out about the uks results either
Have any of you visited itjobswatch.com? They give a really good overview of pay, area, profession and covers a bit. According to them, depending on which discipline I want to focus on (as it seems i do a few) i genereally am underpaid ;)
Great link, Bradley. It's bookmarked.
Can you inflate the numbers please? I want to ask for a raise and need some supporting data.
Thanks,
Chris
Great idea! Can't wait for the results. I just completed the survey.
Completed the survey, too! :) Thanks for putting this out and I'm really curious what the results are. I'm wondering what the income of an SEOer is today considering how new it is, and how vital it is with this kind of technology as costs for overhead get lower and lower.
If you know more women in the industry please encourage them to take the survey. Right now they are under represented in the data.
You got it!
It may make sense to ask respondents about other sources of income. Individuals in our industry have the capacity to earn considerable income outside of their 9-to-5, which could be helpful in qualifying base salary results.
Took the survey. Interested in the results as well!
a good place~
Took the survey. Can't wait to see the results, especialy specific to the UK.
Thanks
How does volunteerism versus sampling impact the results of a survey such as this? Is it still representative or does it suffer from the same problems as the study you are looking at?
Well, I am looking at collecting at least 1,000 responses. Barring that we will close it in early January.
Also, we have an under representation of women right now. If you know ladies in the industry encourage them to contribute.
But is it that there's an under representation in the survey or in the industry? (Hoping I didn't just hijack this comment thread)
Under representation in survey respondents. Right now we have 4 male reponses for every 1 female. Based on other surveys I feel these numbers aren't representative.
We would like to have a larger pool of female respondents so we can have more valuable data on gender.
Thanks for the article! Regarding the salaries, I'm currently looking into SEO jobs in London as I have to move back to Europe by the end of this year. According to my research agencies in London pay about 25k-30k GBP base for an SEO Specialist and about 30k for an SEO Executive, no information on in-house so far. I would like to stay in the States as salaries seem to be much higher here!
When are you going to close off the survey? Wondering if there is a timeline for people to respond? (Or... maybe I'm blind?) :)
Got involved; be interested to see the results.
I like the idea of this survey. I think it will give people a better idea value to skillset when hiring these type of positions. I would like to see more of these types of surveys!
Thanks
I love numbers data about our industry and I know I'm not alone. Betcha that if you write up your results in the form of a post, it'll go main blog in less than three days.
Looking forward to seeing it.
Excited to see the results and see how they compare with the other study.
Looking forward to the results! It's been awhile, hope you're doing well Carlos.
I can't wait to see the results. This is something that I often wonder, how things compare regarding employment especially within this industry.
Took the survey... let's see what the numbers will say.
Until now how many did it?
Very nice survey and quick to do. Some of the benefits felt a little US specific, but had all the vital information on there.
Looking forward to seeing the results (espeically a UK specific version, or sub-set if possible).
One of the problems with creating this type of survey is balancing speed vs depth. Our hope is to answer a few (mainly demograph) questions well and quickly.
Just took the survey. Looking forward to seeing the results.
when I saw this post here at a glance for a second I thought that the results were in already
Did the survey and looking forward to the results.
Good stuff! Looking forward to the results! :)
Hey Carlos!
I noticed in the demographics there's no option for Hispanic/Latino. In case that matters.
Good article!
Sarah
I think your survey (or survey link) is broken.
Hmm, it works ok for me.
Try clearing your cookies. I sent a message to Survey Monkey to as about this issue.
You're right. My mistake or cookie issue.
yes definitly, if you set it to accept a single response from each person only you will be takken to the page the creator has opted to redirect completed survey takers to if you visit the link a second time after pressing the done button
I'm biased because I work for the company, but you should have considered using SurveyGizmo rather than monkey. Looking over the survey, even our free plan would have covered you (up to 250 responses), and the link wouldn't stop working randomly. It's too late now, but next time let me know I'd be happy to help you out directly. My email is my first name @sgizmo.com