Social Media Manager

This role will work cross-organisationally, specifically with colleagues leading our web development and our digital marketing to contribute to a holistic digital brand experience that leverages the uniqueness of Comic Relief’s position in the UK charity marketplace, blending comedy and compassion to grow generosity across generations and drive impact towards a just world free from poverty.  

Working closely with colleagues across the organisation you will shape and directly deliver Comic Relief’s owned and earned social media strategy. You will manage a small direct team, but your impact will be greater through your collaboration with others.  You’ll deliver compelling, audience-first content that elevates our brand, deepens engagement, and increases income by ensuring our social engagement is embedded across our campaigns, communications, and fundraising activity. 

• Working with colleagues, contribute to the evolution of Comic Relief’s social media strategies and activities, ensuring they are insight led, future facing, and aligned with the broader communications and brand strategy to reflect changing audience behaviour, emerging platforms, and innovations in digital storytelling and engagement

• Collaborate across the organisation to embed and engage teams in the social strategy working closely with colleagues to ensure it is integrated into and value-additive to public facing projects

• Develop and track clear objectives, KPIs and performance frameworks for social media activity to ensure effectiveness, growth, and alignment with organisational goals.  Lead on social reporting, analytics and audience insight using data to inform strategy, optimise content, and demonstrate impact to internal stakeholders 

• Manage, mentor and inspire direct reports, including temporary resources at critical campaign periods and other digitally-focussed roles across the organisation 

• Working with the Content Strategist and other key colleagues, oversee the owned and earned content calendar, ensuring it reflects organisational priorities, responds to trends and cultural moments, and supports both planned and reactive storytelling 

• Collaborate with content creators, designers, writers and videographers to deliver engaging, inclusive, and impactful multimedia content that drives reach, engagement and income

• Directly deliver our social media activities, including writing, scheduling, and posting content across platforms. You will oversee content creation while ensuring it aligns with the overall strategy, engaging directly with audiences and ensuring smooth community management. 

• Work closely with colleagues to shape team priorities, manage capacity and resourcing, and ensure alignment with the wider strategies and campaigns 

• Develop tailored approaches for each platform based on user behaviour, analytics, and campaign priorities, identifying opportunities to launch on or grow presence within emerging channels

• Ensure all content and community management activity upholds Comic Relief’s brand values, safeguarding policies, and accessibility standards

• Lead on the delivery of community management approaches that build trust, loyalty, and meaningful two-way interaction with supporters and audiences

• In partnership with the Supporter Services and PR teams, monitor social conversations and proactively manage risks, using sound judgement to respond to sensitive issues or reputational threats

• Embed a test and learn culture within the social team, championing experimentation and encouraging data-led decision-making

• Maintain and evolve robust social media policies, platform guidelines and safeguarding procedures to protect Comic Relief’s reputation and ensure consistent standards across teams

• Provide training and advice to colleagues and partners on best practice for social media, ensuring tone of voice, accessibility, brand and safeguarding are understood and upheld. 

Essential Criteria:

• Extensive experience of designing and delivering innovative social media strategies and activities with a proven ability to design, implement and embed multi-year social strategies that align with organisational goals and drive clear outcomes in engagement, including revenue generation; audience growth and brand visibility

• Experience of managing or supervising others, ideally, with some wider team management experience, able to demonstrate how you foster creativity; collaboration and personal growth in others 

• Demonstrable success in fostering and building relationships with a wide range of content creators and social media influencers, able to show examples of personal leadership in identifying and managing those relationships 

• Able to demonstrate experience of identifying reputational risk issues and escalating appropriately with hands-on experience of managing real-time issues on social platforms 

• Proven ability to use data and insight to inform performance optimisation – including to shape strategy, optimise campaigns, and directly design activities that respond directly to insight 

• Competent in financial analysis, including ability to measure KPIs incl. return on investment and campaign specific performance metrics

• Able to demonstrate a current and deep understanding of the social media landscape, including platforms, trends and the changing nature of measuring the impact of social media, including evidence of creatively responding to the marketplace with cut through social strategies and activities.

Desirable Criteria: