Member Article

The ‘new’ jobs market - Rise of the social media and Pinterest consultants

Bored of your job and looking for something new? How about becoming a Pinterest Consultant or an online dating profile writer? Freelance workplace websites are witnessing a boom in ‘new’ jobs spawned by the rapid evolution of the internet and growing influence of social media.

In the past 12 months, they have seen a massive growth in jobs that did not exist five to ten years ago.

Online freelance marketplace PeoplePerHour says there has been an eight-fold increase (854 per cent) in people hiring social media managers to come up with witty Facebook statuses and tweets, a 684 per cent increase in Pinterest consultants and a 504% in online dating profile writers.

It seems coming up with entertaining status updates and tweets for our Twitter feeds is an exhausting business as more of us turn to professionals to get more likes or retweets. It’s also perhaps little wonder with more than 1400 dating websites available in the UK, online daters want to stand out from the crowd.

Four years ago, Pinterest, a ‘pinboard’ photo sharing website, was a germ of an idea among three entrepreneurs, but today the website is used by millions of people . Off the back of the website’s popularity, the Pinterest consultant was born.

Meanwhile, the staggering success of Facebook and Twitter has spawned its own jobs market.

More than ten years after the the social networks started, Twitter and Facebook consultants are one of the biggest growth areas - with the number of new consultants/social media managers registering in the past 12 months up 290 per cent.

PeoplePerHour has also seen a three-fold (352 per cent) increase in ‘virtual personal trainers’, who specialise in helping people achieve their health and fitness goals online via Skype.

Some of these new jobs are relatively high paying, with people charging up to £34 an hour for their services, the equivalent of £272 a day.

Xenios Thrasyvoulou, founder of PeoplePerHour, which has 750,000 registered freelancers, said: “Turn the clocks back to 2003 - the huge potential of the internet was only starting to be realised, and social media was in its infancy. Today, just 10 years later, we exist in an entirely different world. The internet has evolved at a staggering pace and is now an integral part of most of our our lives.

The influence of the internet is not better illustrated than by the impact it has had on the landscape of the jobs market. Pinterest consultants, Google analytic consultants, personal social media managers – theses are all jobs we’re seeing huge growth in.“ What’s particularly impressive is how fast specialists ‘pop-up’ the moment a new internet-technology is launched.“

The internet revolution hasn’t just changed the way we work, it has also spawned a new and vibrant jobs market, that could have a massive influence on the career paths of future generations, and ultimately change the career landscape forever.

‘Other new unusual roles seeing big growth include family tree researchers, personal shoppers, mixologists (cocktail makers), speech writers and date planners.’

Table: Growth in new jobs in past year and hourly rates charged:

Personal social media manager—- 854%—- £21

Pinterest consultant—- 684%—- £27

Online dating profile writer—- 504%—- £19

eBook cover designer—- 420%—- £32

Virtual personal trainer—- 352%—- £26

Mobile app developer—- 329%—- £34

Professional blogger—- 305%—- £22

User experience designer—- 302%—- £17

Facebook/Twitter consultants—- 290%—- £28

Online tutor (via Skype)—- 177%—- £18

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by VP .