I made the prediction last year that by 2012, social media specialist would be in every PR, Marketing and Advertising firm or department, or the list of skills for those positions would all include social media.
So far, the corporate world seems to be asking for social media skills, but hiring people who are specialists. All of my evidence is anecdotal, but if you read job descriptions regularly (and I do daily), you'll see that many companies are asking for information on blogs, social networks, Twitter, Facebook, and the every popular "Web 2.0." Social media positions tend to only be advertised on social media boards, but the broader population is seeing the language of social media show up in their job postings.
Salespeople, marketers, executives - even customer service, reporters, and writers are finding companies hoping to hire someone with social media experience.
The problem is that social media isn't something that can be measured on a corporate level if it doesn't have clear goals. Hiring a salesman with experience on Facebook isn't something managers are measuring, so it's impossible to know what the effect of hiring someone with/without Facebook experience has on job performance.
As social media moves like a pig through a snake through the general population, it will be interesting to see what's more important - the Title or the Skillset?
