Partner Article

The New Jobs Market - rise in Instagram marketers.

The New Jobs Market - 450% rise in Instagram marketers.

With UK self-employment reaching a 40 year high in 2014, and continuing to grow steadily, there comes a time when you have to ask the question, ‘what are all of these people doing?’

Not so long ago, self-employment was largely the remit of the tradesperson: builders, plumbers and electricians dominated the field, but with the changing face of technology has come a whole new way of working for specialists in a huge number of disciplines, which in turn has led to the creation of a myriad of jobs that hadn’t even been dreamt of ten years ago.

The UK’s leading online freelance marketplace, PeoplePerHour, is the perfect venue for tracking the new positions being forged, and the areas that have garnered most interest in the business world… Those in the social media know, won’t be surprised to learn that Instagram is currently leading the way in freelance job creation.

Having gained more than 300 million users in the five years since it was ‘born’ in 2010, Instagram is one of the most successful social media platforms of the moment, and shows no sign of waning popularity. With such a phenomenal audience reach, it’s hardly astounding that savvy businesses started to use their Instagram page as a digital marketing platform.Step forward the Instagram Marketing Expert.

Charging as much as £30 per hour, freelance Instagram Marketers have practically exploded on to the scene, and as Instagram has recently launched an advertising programme, the demand for their services has soared. If you know how to capture a mood with an image, or how to target a fixed audience with a picture, turning their clicks into cash, then it seems that you have a strong chance of becoming the flavour of the freelance month!

Although Instagram is the latest and most popular of the social media darlings to impact upon the freelance market, PeoplePerHour indicates that there is still a high demand for marketers and designers specialising in other platforms within the sector, all of them offering services at a rate well above the national average.

• LinkedIn Marketing - £30
• Facebook/Twitter designers - £28
• Pinterest consultant - £27
• Twitter consultant /social media manager - £21

While social media is proving to be one of the biggest growth areas, numerous other positions have sprung up from almost nowhere in the last few years, spawned by either new technology or new digital services.

2015 has seen the advent of the Apple iWatch App Developer, who charges an average of £45 per hour, and joins the less-specific Mobile App Developer (£35 per hour) who entered the self-employed ranks around 2008-2009. The eBook Cover Designer (£23 per hour) also continues to be in demand as more and more people take advantage of self-publishing opportunities, using the likes of Amazon Kindle to get their biographies and works of fiction out to the public without running the publishing house gauntlet.

Other popular freelance positions are found under more generic titles - Image Retoucher (£37p/h), Professional Blogger (£22p/h) and the increasingly lucrative Online Security Consultant (£40p/h), whose role has evolved with the demands of the internet – no longer do they focus purely on avoiding cyber-attacks but they can help clients remove unflattering data from search engines, such as Google.

Xenios Thrasyvoulou, founder of PeoplePerHour, comments: ‘The way we work – and live – has changed dramatically since the creation of the internet, so it’s little wonder that the freelance market has also transformed. ’

‘The internet, and freelance marketing platforms like PeoplePerHour, give a home to those with the ingenuity and flexibility to take advantage of emerging trends. The business world is always one step behind society’s wunderkind, and with the vastly enhanced audience that the World Wide Web and mobile technology can bring, the visionaries have their chance to go out and stake their claim on the world. Our latest figures seem to show that they’re not just doing it, but doing it well!’

Table: Growth in new jobs in the 6 months and hourly rates charged:

• Instagram marketers—- 450%—-£32
• Security consultant (help securing websites, executing removal from Google search etc) 382%—- £40
• Apple iWatch app development—- 372%—- £45
• Pinterest consultant—- 299%—- £27
• Image retoucher—- 254%—- £37
• Twitter consultant /social media manager—- 215%—- £21
• Facebook/Twitter designers—- 207%—- £28
• LinkedIn Marketing—- 177%—- £30
• eBook cover designer—- 169%—- £23
• Mobile App Developer—- 150%—- £35
• Professional Blogger—- 146%—- £22
• Dating profile writer—- 134%—- £18
• Google analytics consultant—- 129%—- £32
• Online tutor (via Skype)—- 120%—- £18
• User experience designer—- 119%—- £17

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