Ben Parr of Mashable writes a very exciting post today for those who currently have and hope to find a job in social media, myself included. Ben discusses the current popular status of social media jobs, and his outlook for the near future. Ben writes:

“Even if the title changes, the role of the social media marketer or manager is not going anywhere. Building community, reaching out to potential customers, building stronger relationships, creating buzz - they are fundamental goals to every company. So long as people use social media to share their thoughts and their complaints, the need for people to fill social media jobs will continue to grow.”

This is good news. For one, it validates that social media as a whole is very valuable to marketers, and will figure to be increasingly prevelant as more of us social media junkies get hired and do our trade. Social media should continue to grow despite the weak economy and fact that many companies are slashing marketing spending. Why? Most social media opportunities are free, or very inexpensive. Even hiring just one coordinator to run your blogs and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook is much more cost effective at establishing relationships with consumers than blowing tens of thousands of dollars on a local cable spot, for example.

Additionally, consumers are much more price sensitive today and look to the internet for price saving information. Social media has the opportunity to inform consumers of sales and discounts via microblogging updates,(see Dell’s Outlet on Twitter) and keep loyal customers involved through blogs and social networking sites. Add the fact that people are staying at home more due to high gas prices, consumers will be spending more time online-which means more face time with your brand.

Note: Parr’s post provides a link to a Jeremiah Owyang post that is an unbelieveable resource of social media professionals and the companies that employ them. Jeremiah also has some pretty good links for job seekers and employers looking to connect; see them here.

I hate writing posts where I slam people for shitty work because ‘What do I know?’ I don’t really have much experience. But sometimes the criticism is warranted. Take for example the many blunders from Yum Brands.

Most recently, they requested 50 Cent to change his name to 79, 89 or 99 Cent for a day to help promote T-Bell’s new value menu. The payoff? A pathetic $10,000 donation to a charity of 50’s choice. Are you kidding me? Anyone with the financial stability of 50 Cent is going to laugh at your offer; they’d rather donate the 10K to charity to have Taco Bell leave them the hell alone.

But this isn’t the first piece of excellent work on Yum’s behalf. Oh no, KFC offered Rihanna and Chris Brown free wings if they showed up at one of their stores.  Wonder what dinosaur thought of that gem. I just can’t believe how that ridiculously prejudicial idea even made it to the editors.

One last beaut, apparently KFC also offered to donate $260,000 to its own educational foundation if an NFL player ‘flapped their wings’ in the end zone during the Super Bowl. Glad to see it takes an act of stupidity by someone else for Yum to donate money to their own foundation.

To Yum’s credit, they did plan one decent promotion of late. During March Madness, if a bottom-seeded team advanced to the Final Four, Pizza Hut would give away free pizza to that campus. Of course, this feat has never been achieved, and likely never will. I don’t love this promotion, but it doesn’t place the brand in a compromising position, and even aligns the brand with underdog teams which I don’t think occurs enough.

I’m all about donating money through creative avenues, and I know you can’t just give all your profits away on a whim, but these acts of stupidity leave me wanting to avoid being associated with their brands.

I pulled the vitals of this post from an article on Ad Age. Give them some love too!