‘Social Media Officer’: £ 4 old jam?

One of the many publishing proposals we’ve been touting for years is a lifestyle magazine called Cushy Numbers. It’s aimed at readers who have landed jammy jobs of one kind or another – dream positions that involve no arduous graft of any kind, are highly paid, and loaded with perks. Such sinecures have become hard to secure in these economically-straitened times, so hats off to Phil Hunter, who supplies further arguments in favour of the role of Social Media Officer. As Phil sagely suggests, such an executive would be there to prevent reputation damage such as when links to YouTube videos of the chief executive dancing naked on the Tube on the way home from an inebriate Christmas party. Says Phil: “A Social Media Officer would report directly to the CEO rather than to the CIO, as it is not purely an IT function, but embraces marketing, sales, customer service, and human resources” – and, presumably, reports to none of them. Just spends all day whispering in the CEO’s ear that to ignore the rise of online social networking sites would be tantamount to planning corporate suicide, etc.  “I can do that”, as old Yos’ used to say…