People often think a career in social media is for those who failed in school, or perhaps just want to coast through life Tweeting all day. I’m here to tell you that having a career in social media is not a job for the weak. Let’s be honest, working in the social media field is quite literally a 24-hour a day job.

Have I deterred you yet? No? Good.

I started in social media a number of years ago. I was one of those kids that graduated University not having any idea what I wanted to do. In fact, back when I graduated, getting paid to do social media wasn’t even really a thing. It was often a duty added to marketing or communications specialists. For smaller companies today, it still is.

I got my first taste of it as a Communications Specialist at a not-for-profit company. I was handling all of the media relations, PR, internal and external communications duties and of course a part of that was social media. I instantly fell in love.

There’s something about the unpredictability of it, the ever-changing, ever-growing notion of it that I love. I think it’s what’s kept me entertained in full-time work for so long.

As I’ve now moved into a manager role and was recently responsible for hiring specialists in social media, it was actually difficult to find the right skill-set and traits on people’s resumes that made them a fit for the job. If you’re looking for a career in social media, this is the best advice I have for you:

Hone your skills

There are so many different social media platforms out there and the list is growing every day. You don’t have to be an expert at all of them but you do have to know the ins and the outs of many of them. It can be hard to start your career in social because many times a brand is looking for someone who has already worked in a brand capacity. How do you get experience when you don’t have any?

My biggest advice is to take courses. I have yet to come across a University that offers a specialized social media degree so you have to be creative. Alternative schools are popping up everywhere and employers are starting to recognize that above a Bachelor degree, having a specialized certificate matters. I found the Social Media Marketing Certificate at George Brown in Toronto to be an excellent place to start.

If you aren’t ready to go professional yet, try volunteering for a charitable organization on the side. It’ll be a great way to help with a good cause while working on your skills and getting real-world experience at the same time.

Walk the Walk

As a hiring manager, the social media specialists that found their resume at the top of the pile were the ones who worked to develop their social media presence in their spare time. Do you want to know the real reason why I started this blog? To advance my career. It worked.

There’s no greater way to learn the field of social media than to really get in it and get your hands dirty. I can’t tell you how many times I started out testing things with my blog to take them back to my job. If something went wrong with social, I could deal with it on my blog, the stakes are much higher in business.

Starting your own social channels and following also shows really great initiative. You can’t sit down for hours and hours posting, updating, scheduling, planning and analyzing social if you don’t have a passion for it.

Make mistakes

This comes with a caveat. Don’t make huge mistakes like posting inappropriate things on your social feeds or putting out confidential information but the little mistakes are okay. I find that half of the time testing is the best way to find out what works. Try different things. Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box.

It may be the posts you are the most unsure about that performs the best. For example, over the past year, my posts that have performed the best are the ones on Quebec City. Who knew? I spend so much of my time on social promoting and sharing photos of exotic destinations around the world it stunned me to find out a city so close to home is what people want to engage with.

Network and lean on your peers

Like any profession, it’s important to find like-minded individuals. These are the people that will give you insider tips on things they’ve tried that have worked. They are also the people that keep up with the social media news as much as you. Perhaps they’ve read something that you haven’t had the chance to see yet.

It’s also a really good idea to find influencers in your niche to follow. These are generally people with a much larger following than you that you look up to. Track what they do, what makes their posts perform well? What do they do differently than you? Find it, analyze it and use it.

Always be analytical

Lastly, everything you do needs to be tracked. A business can’t justify paying someone a salary to just send out stupid memes. That’s not a good business tactic. Find out how your success will be measured.

Does your company sell a product? Analytics could put a dollar value on your posts and how much money they generate the business. Perhaps your company just needs people heading back to their website or maybe you exist for brand awareness. Whatever it is, know that business’ are getting smarter and more critical when it comes to tracking social media so be prepared. It’s hard work converting an audience but it’s even harder if you don’t know what you’re doing.

So what do you think, do you have what it takes to work in social media as a career?