Bureaucrats in D.C. may not want to hear it, but if they want to get paid more to Tweet, they'll have to pack their bags and go further north.

Internet firm Onward Search, which specializes in social media careers, recently released the results of a survey of the top cities to work in for those working with social media.  Not surprisingly, they are incredibly urban, diverse and intertwined with mainstream and Internet media.

New York City tops the list.  With four of the ten largest newspapers by circulation located within the Big Apple, according to Wikipedia, New York is as much a Mecca for the politico as the nation's capital, which came in as the 6th best place to find social media work. In addition to big names like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, over 270 niche and alternative newspapers publish in nearly 40 languages, ranging from Hebrew to Mandarin, and authors as varied as Norman Mailer, Henry Miller, and libertarian thinker, Nat Hentoff, have held court at the Village Voice's offices at Cooper Square for well over a half century.

According to Internet World Stats.com, the state of New York also has one of the largest broadband penetration rates at 51 percent (D.C. has 51.97), and over 66 percent of households have some form of Internet access.  With literally hundreds of restaurants and bars offering WiFi access, bureaucrats looking to abandon their stuffy jobs for a career as a social media manager would have no problem Tweeting and pinning with ease.

New York is also the home of the United Nations, and with over 193 permanent missions and 113 consulates, diplomats looking to brush shoulders with the Twitterati will have no problem keeping their day job.

But there's more to love than New York.  Cities like San Jose and San Francisco also populate Onward Search's list.  The Capital of Silicon Valley, as San Jose is known, plays host to some of the biggest players in electronics.  Adobe has a home here, as well as Hewlett-Packard, TiVo, Verifone, and several others.

More recently, San Francisco has become a home for several social media companies.  Twitter, Craigslist, Instagram, Digg...they're all based here, as well as companies that make social media apps, like Path.  For those interested in brushing up their resume writing skills, LinkedIn also has a presence in Silicon Valley, employing nearly 1800 people.

Rounding out the list of best places for social media work is Boston, which has its own burgeoning tech industry.  But according to Onward Search Chief Operating Officer Ken Clark, the list has less to do with location and more to do with the skills employers in the tech sector are looking for.

 "Some employers are putting a very large, significant emphasis on social media and they just value the profession," Clark said.

A digital marketing project manager or PPC specialist can easily pull down six figures in a city like San Francisco-enough to compensate for the higher cost of living.  According to Onward Search's own survey, an experienced social media manager can pull in up to $117,000 a year.

But just because someone can Facebook with the best of them doesn't mean they'll get the big bucks.

"It is inaccurate to say that just because you have a lot of Facebook friends that you're going to get a lot of money just for doing that," Clark said.

© 2012 Onward Search