By RJ
I was only in the beginning of my youth when social media first took shape. Online Chatrooms and interactive social platforms where I could connect with my friends easier than ever before.
The first platform that truly swept me away was YouTube. I discovered a utopia of never-ending entertainment in whatever genre I felt like tuning into and unlike TV it was even ad-free! (Hard to believe huh?)
It didn’t take long before watching YouTubers after school became what I spent most of my time doing and with that came a fascination of video creation.
I started playing around with my own video creations at home and even went as far as to try my hand at running a YouTube channel and creating content for it. And I’m sure that anyone who also dipped their toes into making videos in the early days of social media can relate to me when I say that those videos are in a very special place now… erased from the surface of the earth never to see the daylight again.
But regardless of how embarrassing it was, it was nevertheless what pushed me to where I am today.
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. all rose from the ground around the same time and I was there through it all learning the ways of the mechanics behind each platform and the community and content that inevitably defined them.
Later on came Vine (rip) which changed the ways of both social media and video creation and gave people a platform to easily create videos and even become Vine stars as they gained immense popularity. Sadly, the beloved app shut down in 2017, but its legacy continues to influence the social media we know today. and most recently we have all borne witness to the rise of TikTok that took the world by storm during the pandemic.
So how did I end up here? Scrolling aimlessly through TikTok for hours doesn’t land you a job. Or does it?
All jokes aside there’s more to it than that and just like any other profession it requires lots of hard work. But having a deeper understanding of social media, not just theoretically but also practically, is what makes me a Social Media Specialist. And here I am roughly 15 years later and I’m now working professionally with social media for InnoGames where I manage games such as Sunrise Village, Elvenar, and Grepolis. Maybe you know of these games? If not, we have several social media platforms for which we create content about our games you could check out to see what they’re about or you could just try them out for yourself on mobile or browser respectively.
Now you may think that all a social media specialist does is make social media content, which yes, we do make content such as videos for our YouTube channels and posts for Instagram and Facebook and even copywriting in the form of eye-catching captions. But our work goes deeper than that. Because just like the everchanging sky social media continues to evolve. I recall just a few years back there would be a new trend around every month. Nowadays we see new trends almost weekly. What worked before might not work the next time and we must constantly adapt to stay on top. We spend just as much time and energy into researching platforms and trends and target groups and following this research, we adapt our strategies and adjust our workflows so we can create even more engaging content for our followers.
It’s hard work but it’s so rewarding to see our players and our followers engage with us through these social media platforms and feel the connection to them so directly.
And for me personally, it is so much fun. Not only do I get to do what I enjoy every day but I get to learn from the talented people around me and I get to grow through the challenges I’m faced with.
And thinking back to little me in her room with a camera trying to direct a music video for the single of one of my favourite music artists (yes that really happened – No the video is no longer with us, thank god) I can’t help but feel so proud of her for holding onto what she was passionate about, especially as social media was not seen as a sustainable profession at that time. And I’m sure if she knew where it would take her, she would be proud as well.
– RJ-
Social Media Specialist, InnoGames
Fiene 
Hernan Diaz