ES Lifestyle newsletter The latest lifestyle, fashion and travel trends Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive trends and interviews from fashion, lifestyle to travel every week, by email Update newsletter preferences

Ghost Tweeter

How many people does it take to compose a tweet? That depends who it’s for. At Farringdon social media agency We Are Social, 15 writers and editors work with account managers, researchers and strategists to create tweets for clients including Heinz and Evian. Each day starts with a ‘newsroom’. The morning headlines are discussed and talking points chosen. Then the writers pen engaging updates. These of-the-moment posts supplement others planned up to a month in advance. ‘The researchers compile profiles of each client’s customer; we find the correct tone of voice,’ explains writer Charlotte Miller, 23. Starting salaries in the sector are around £19,000, with managers earning around £35,000. It’s not just brands hiring ghost tweeters. Pilar Nalwimba, a 27-year-old former marketing coordinator, runs My Social Media PA, which she founded in June 2012, from a shared office in Croydon. She’s paid by musicians and DJs, as well as local businesses and entrepreneurs, to tweet on their behalf, charging £10 to £25 per hour. She sends a minimum of three to five tweets a day, as well as working on blog updates and social media strategy, among other things. The keys to a winning ghost tweet? Authenticity — ‘You need to speak the client's language,’ says Nalwimba — and discretion. ‘People don’t necessarily want others knowing that they don’t write their own tweets.’

Social Media Censor

Rihanna and Scout Willis had their accounts suspended earlier this year after falling foul of Instagram’s no-nudity rules. But who decides what goes and what doesn’t? Instagram and Facebook combine in-house moderation with work done by contractors in Europe and Asia. At Tumblr, trust and safety manager Nicole Blumenfeld, a former lawyer, heads a team of 11. They’re alerted to problematic photos by users and make decisions according to the site’s ‘community guidelines’. ‘We usually allow nudity, but if your private photos are posted by someone else, we’d take those down.’ Posts promoting self-harm and copyright infringement are other no-gos. ‘You see things that aren’t pretty,’ says Blumenfeld.

Troll Hunter

Ever noticed a rude comment on a forum that suddenly disappears? That will be the site’s troll hunters — sorry, moderators — at work. ‘We review content, reacting according to the site rules,’ explains Kelda Wallis of Tempero, which moderates for the BBC, The New York Times and ChildLine among others. ‘On news sites, we might look for defamation or contempt of court; on children’s forums we make sure no one’s bullying or giving away personal details, and keep a close eye out for grooming.’ Repeat offenders may be blocked, though some are persistent: ‘I had a troll on one forum, we’d block him and he’d come back with a new username.’ The Clerkenwell-based company has more than 100 moderators, who mainly work from home. Most are full-time, but some actors and writers use it to supplement their income. Average rates are £10 to £12 per hour.

Troll hunters — sorry, moderators — at work

Pinterest Consultant

You might think compiling Pinterest boards is for brides-to-be with too much time on their hands, but Pinterest consultant Vivienne Neale, who works from home, gets more than five commissions a month. ‘Pinboards are part of people’s online identity and they give organisations a human touch.’ The 54-year-old signed up to the social media site shortly after its 2010 launch and began consulting after losing her job as a PA in late 2011, advertising on freelance website PeoplePerHour. For £45 an hour she’ll suggest improvements to existing boards, and train you to use the site. For a £75 flat fee, she’ll create a profile and build five boards, mainly for small companies. High-quality pictures are important, but the real art is in writing captions. ‘If you just post a photo of a beach and say, “This is nice,” it’s like “So what?” If you point out a detail, you’ve caught people’s attention.’

Ethical Hacker

If a company’s computer system isn’t secure, the results can be disastrous. A growing number are paying ‘ethical hackers’ to assess their vulnerability by deliberately breaking into their network. ‘You get resistance; IT departments think you’re trying to show them up,’ says Andrew Davies of Deloitte’s Cyber Risk Services, which conducts ethical hacking for businesses and government departments. He also performs ‘social engineering’ tests, tricking employees into divulging information such as their passwords by sending ‘phishing’ emails convincing them to click on a malign link. He splits his time between Deloitte’s City office and clients’ headquarters. Testing hours are erratic. ‘Clients want their systems checked when traffic is low. That could be between 2am and 4am.’ Davies’ background is in computer science, but his fellow hackers have studied everything from psychology to physics. Entry-level salaries range between £25,000 and £32,000, with team leaders earning more than £80,000.

Ebook-cover designer

You may not be able to judge a book by its cover but Google can. ‘It could be the best book in the world, but if the cover doesn’t have the right words on it, it won’t show up in searches,’ says ebook designer Jan Cisek, 52. The idea is to cram in as many searched-for terms as possible. Hence a recent cover he designed, for a book titled Canapés, came with a four-line subheading incorporating 12 synonyms. The cover font and layout are also important: ‘Amazon displays thumbnail images, so everything must be visible in that format.’ A designer with three decades’ experience, Cisek went into ebooks five years ago and charges £250 to £1,000 per cover. He works from his Kensington home, speed-reading every book. ‘I love reading and I love designing. It’s the perfect job.’

Damage Controller

Thanks to the internet, past misdemeanours are permanently available for public consumption. Enter digital reputation managers, whose job is to clean up clients’ online profiles. ‘Google is so influential, but it doesn’t always give a balanced picture,’ says Laura Toogood of Digitalis Reputation. The Mayfair company was founded five years ago by digital entrepreneur Dave King after he predicted that people would become increasingly concerned about negative content online. It has 35 employees, mostly computer technicians or former business and media types. Clients include politicians, celebrities and ordinary people. ‘We might have the victim of a smear campaign, or someone whose ex-partner publishes indecent images of them.’ The solution? Manipulating the first six pages of Google results — for instance, by creating new, positive websites and adjusting their coding to ensure they’re picked up. Fees begin at around £5,000. Graduate salaries range from £20,000 to £30,000.

Not getting any interest on Match.com? Why not hire a professional to revamp your profile?

Online-dating profile writer

Not getting any interest on Match.com? Why not hire a professional to revamp your profile? Laura Gub, 45, juggles her marketing job at a Marylebone hotel with penning up to 50 profiles a month. She set up her business, Brand You, in 2010, after growing tired of scrolling through dull profiles as an online dater herself. Clients sign up through her website. For £127 she’ll write a complete profile — the trick is to pique curiosity by mentioning an interesting fact without going into detail — and edit five photos, cropping and lightly airbrushing them. The hardest part? ‘It’s important to capture a client’s natural voice, so I send a questionnaire to find out their interests. A lot of men respond with one-syllable answers.’ And the best? ‘When you help someone who’s been single for a long time, it’s heartwarming.’