This article teaches you how to become a LinkedIn marketing and social media manager earning between $55,000 and $85,000 per year.
LinkedIn is an amazing place of opportunity when it comes to social media networks.
When you develop solid LinkedIn marketing skills, you can generate significant income because the market demand for LinkedIn social media expertise is incredibly high.
How Much Can a LinkedIn Social Media Marketing Manager Make?
A good source of salary data for social media managers with LinkedIn marketing skills on Payscale.com
In New York, the media base pay for a Social Media Manager is $57,000 and it goes up to $80,000. 
In Los Angeles, the median base pay is almost $63,000 and it goes up to $92,000.
These are well-paid jobs for business-savvy individuals with the right social media and lead generation skills.
Best of all, acquiring professional-level LinkedIn marketing skills doesn’t require a $100k college degree and 4 years of your time. It’s very low risk and has a very high return on investment!
If you’re ambitious, you can make $100,000 / year as a small LinkedIn marketing agency owner with some hustle.
Why Are LinkedIn Marketing Skills So Valuable?
First of all, LinkedIn is HUGE. There are over 470 million business people on LinkedIn, and most want to grow their businesses.
Second, LinkedIn members are highly engaged. Over 60% log in at least once per week. They are accessible and responsive.
Third, there are over 350,000 businesses in the United States with between $1 million and $50 million in sales revenue. Most, if not all, of these businesses are trying to grow, and LinkedIn is the center of the B2B networking world.
Fourth, LinkedIn members have huge buying power. The average salary for someone on LinkedIn is between $75 and $100,000. And they run companies with big marketing and sales budgets to spend.
Fifth, marketing on LinkedIn takes a lot of time and skill. Executives don’t have time to do it, so a service that does it for them is really valuable. They hire social media managers as paid employees or outsource their LinkedIn social selling work to independent consultants or marketing agencies.
As a Social Media Manager or Social Media Consultant, your job is to help business-to-business companies market and generate sales leads from LinkedIn. Both of these career paths can earn between $55-$85,000 per year.
Companies that hire Social Media Managers for their LinkedIn marketing skills are typically profitable B2B businesses with significant marketing budgets and high value customers. This means they pay more money for LInkedIn skills than Facebook or Instagram skills, because the value of the customers on LinkedIn is much higher.
How to Land High-Paying Work as a LinkedIn Social Media Manager?
The basic steps to landing lucrative work as a LinkedIn Social Media Manager are:
1) Learn the LinkedIn skills you need by investing in a LinkedIn course (preferably with a professional certification) run by a successful LinkedIn marketing agency like FunnelProfit.
2) Optimize your LinkedIn profile.
3) Decide if you want to be an employee working directly for a company (or marketing agency) or be an independent consultant. Position your profile and messaging with the appropriate goal in mind.
4) Target and network with potential employers or clients on LinkedIn. What better way to prove you’re great at LinkedIn social media skills than to invite people into your LinkedIn network and engage them on LinkedIn? Connecting with and reaching out directly to CMOs and Directors / Heads / VPs of Marketing is the single best approach to cutting through the noise and getting noticed. Make a list of 30-50 target companies, research them, analyze their performance and marketing on LinkedIn, and reach out with an insightful LinkedIn message to your ideal prospects.
(NOTE: You will probably need a LinkedIn premium account like Sales Navigator to implement this strategy. But you’re going to need it anyway for your job, so it’s best to make the investment. You can write it off on your taxes as a job search or business expense.)
5) Pitch your skills and potential benefits to your prospects. If you’re a content writer, focus on that. If you are good at connecting and messaging people, or you know enough to manage a LinkedIn Group, focus on that. If you’re an industry niche expert, or just have a passion for the market, present that. Focus on your strengths and interests and how they can benefit your prospects’ company in tangible ways. For example, time saved, leads generated, engagement increased, etc. (Hint: Use your own LinkedIn account as a case study and produce a performance report you can share with prospective employers or clients.)
6) Follow up outside of LinkedIn. LinkedIn marketing is different than Facebook marketing. Professionals don’t share their personal lives on LinkedIn and don’t message back and forth. Instead, they quickly get off of LinkedIn Messenger and onto phone and email. To be successful landing LinkedIn work, you must do the same.