Which pays more, SEO Specialist or Social Media Manager?

The median advertised salary for each is in the table above, along with the 25th and 75th percentiles so you can see the spread rather than one number.

Which has more openings?

Both counts are live and computed at the same moment, so the comparison is like for like.

Postings are read from company career systems continuously; the age row shows how old the listings themselves are.

Side by side

SEO Specialist vs Social Media Manager

Pay is effectively the same — the medians sit within 1.1% apart. There is 2.2× more demand for SEO Specialist. Listings for Social Media Manager move faster — median age 33 days against 80.

Comparison

Side by side

Measure	SEO Specialist	Social Media Manager	Gap
Open postings	42,147	19,173	+22,974
Posted this week	2,724	1,714
Median salary	$88,000	$89,000	$-1k
25th percentile	$69.5k	$70.5k
75th percentile	$109k	$111k
Salary disclosed	7.0%	3.8%
Remote share	5.2%	7.7%	-2.5pp
Median age of posting	80d	33d
Open over 60 days	48.1%	34.7%
Visa sponsorship	11.5%	8.7%

Pay

Pay distribution

SEO Specialist

$40k$152k

Social Media Manager

$40k$154k

Freshness

How old the listings are

SEO Specialist

just posted80d median90d+

Social Media Manager

just posted33d median90d+

Demand

What each side asks for

SEO Specialist — technologies

PostgreSQL

72.0%

Java

65.8%

Tableau

59.6%

Kubernetes

53.4%

47.2%

Kotlin

41.0%

Snowflake

34.8%

Social Media Manager — technologies

SQL

72.0%

Kotlin

65.8%

Kubernetes

59.6%

TypeScript

53.4%

Terraform

47.2%

GCP

41.0%

JavaScript

34.8%

SEO Specialist — employers

Northwind Systems

9.4%

Halcyon Energy

8.7%

Meridian Software

8.0%

Lakeshore Hospitality

7.2%

Aperture Labs

6.5%

Cobalt Financial

5.8%

Ironbark Manufacturing

5.1%

Social Media Manager — employers

Halcyon Energy

9.4%

Northwind Systems

8.7%

Lakeshore Hospitality

8.0%

Fairmount Legal

7.2%

Solstice Biotech

6.5%

Aperture Labs

5.8%

Kestrel Health

5.1%

More comparisons

Other Marketing comparisons

Brand Manager vs Content Marketing Manager Brand Manager vs Growth Marketing Manager Brand Manager vs Marketing Manager Brand Manager vs SEO Specialist Brand Manager vs Social Media Manager Content Marketing Manager vs Growth Marketing Manager Content Marketing Manager vs Marketing Manager Content Marketing Manager vs SEO Specialist Content Marketing Manager vs Social Media Manager Growth Marketing Manager vs Marketing Manager Growth Marketing Manager vs SEO Specialist Growth Marketing Manager vs Social Media Manager Marketing Manager vs SEO Specialist Marketing Manager vs Social Media Manager

Both sides are counted the same way on the same day, so the gap is comparable even where the absolute numbers move. Salary figures use only postings that publish a range — the disclosure rate is in the table because a median over 20% of a cohort is a weaker number than one over 70%.