I've worked in a variety of industries in various marketing related roles, including: hardware, community, real estate, software, and now back to community and social media. I must admit, community and social media practitioners may well be the most passionate people I've ever worked with. Just attend any one of our events and you'll meet so many intelligent, motivated, solution-oriented people all in one space, sharing ideas, challenges and collaborating on solutions -- it's pretty amazing. Ironically, many people in the community and social media industry feel that they are under paid, under valued and under resourced, yet in the 2009 Online Community & Social Media Compensation report most respondents were somewhat satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs. I say it goes back to the passion and commitment that community and social media people have for the work they do. As the social media industry grows and companies identify the need for social media specific roles, they are looking to reports like the Online Community & Social Media Compensation report to help determine and set salary standards. However, the disparity in salaries leaves too much room for interpretation. Tom makes a really good suggestion for another way to communicate compensation the data in his post, Is There a Disconnect Between Social Media Job Descriptions and Compensation?. "For medium to large companies and established brands, the peaks on the high end make definite sense. The peaks on the low end are for non-profit and other volunteer-run communities and should not be included in the averages."

The Online Community & Social Media Compensation has started many conversations among the practitioners in the industry. I've included some of their posts below to get a flavor of the various opinions from the people in the field.

Men earn higher salaries in social media - Angela Connor
Online Community & Social Media Compensation - The Moderator Community
Social media salaries may not match the effort - Snoo.ws
How much do online community managers earn? - vator news
Is There a Disconnect Between Social Media Job Descriptions and Compensation? - Tome Humbarger
Social Media Salary Report: Ladies, It's Not Pretty - SocialMediaToday
#occomp09 - tweetmeme
Online Community & Social Media Staff: Satisfaction - OC Report
Online Community & Social Media Compensation - OC Report

The Online Community & Social Media Compensation report is on sale for only $99 until November 20th. The regular price is $349, so it's quite a deal!

If you have thoughts on the findings from the report, please share them.