Template for (Full-Time) Social Media Job Description

Jamie Schneider Domm

Digital Strategist for the North American Division.

What should you expect from a social media manager?

If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood, sweat, and tears.
­–Simon Sinek

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You, as a leader, see the value of social media in ministry, and you want to hire or assign the right person for the job. Here is an overview of what you should expect from a social media manager on a full-time, part-time, or arranged-time basis. This is a guide for you, and we hope you find it helpful!

Position Description Template

General Duties:

• Digital property management: maintain best practices with regard to account access and intellectual property laws.
  
• Content creation/curation: create and identify relevant, high-quality media for posting; copy-write and design posts for social media platforms.
• Editorial calendar: create a regular publishing schedule to manage content across all platforms and plan specific campaigns.
• Cultivate social media partnerships: build community with similar organizations for cross-promotions.
• Strategy development: set goals, determine objectives, design a strategy, and implement.
• Social advertising: place ads, manage the budget, and track performance.
• Brand management: develop brand awareness and reputation, online visual identity, and track competition. Manage audience engagement and perceptions; identify threats and report to appropriate management.
• Reporting: monitor social insights and campaign performance, monitor KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), and tweak strategy as needed. Compile reports that demonstrate ROI for administration; analyze results and make recommendations for optimizing social media, content marketing, and social advertising campaigns.
• Member care: monitor and respond to comments, engage fans and followers in conversation, and provide customer service as needed.
• Skill development: Monitor trends in social media tools, applications, channels, design, and strategy; test new ideas and techniques and adapt strategies accordingly.

 
Qualifications and Skills:        

• Enthusiastic about social media and familiar with the various “cultures,” unique “language,” and function of each platform
• Possesses knowledge and training in marketing and/or communications. A degree in either field is welcomed but not required with relevant work experience and/or demonstrated aptitude.
• Creativity and strong problem-solving skills
• Excellent research and writing skills
• Professional demeanor, as well as strong organizational and communication skills
• Ability to work independently and complete assigned tasks within identified time frames
• A team player, confident enough to assume a leadership role and guide other employees when needed, and humble enough to work within the system to accomplish goals
• Ability to toggle between the creative side of communication and the analytical side, while being able to clearly communicate ideas in both areas
• Keen attention to detail when proofreading, copyediting, and fact-checking
• Comfortable utilizing Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Tumblr, Hootsuite, and Snapchat, as well as web content management systems like Squarespace, Wix, and Typepad, and data platforms like Google Analytics. Plus willing to learn new platforms as they arise.
  
• Familiarity with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook
• Good technical abilities; able to learn new skills quickly
• Ability to take and upload digital photos­. Photography and/or design experience is a plus.
• Demonstrates empathy, patience, advocacy, diplomacy, and strong conflict resolution skills in regard to member care

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But wait, what if your organization can’t hire a full-time social media person?

Social media doesn’t have to be daunting. For most Adventist entities, social media manager is just one of many hats an employee might wear. We understand this reality, and have created a tiered checklist to help you determine priorities based on the number of hours you can dedicate to your social media strategy each week. Please note that your priorities might change based on your organization’s goals, campaigns, events, and time of year.

If a large organization is going to have a successful digital communications strategy, appropriate time and resources must be allocated. Most organizations should have at least a half-time employee dedicated to their digital communications. Do not under-estimate the work-load or value of a good social media manager. Because social media has only recently been realized for its communication potential, many organizations underestimate how much work goes into these efforts.

Starting to Grow
1-4 hours per week
With this time investment, your focus is content management and member care. This level is appropriate for just getting started in the process.

Here’s what you should be doing:

• Account management
• Plan out your content strategy based on what else is happening at your organization or in your field.
• Schedule original content and/or curate content for your social media channels.
• Maintain and update visual branding as needed.
• Check in on all social media platforms and monitor engagements and messages; respond as needed. Aim to respond within 24 hours during business days. I recommend spending 10 minutes per day, 3-5 times a week. Resolve urgent issues.
• Check social insights for best times to post and review your demographics monthly.
• Monitor KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) on a quarterly basis to understand growth and engagement. Reevaluate content strategy as needed.
• Place paid ads for select campaigns like event promotions, and monitor ad performance; optimize as needed.

Nurturing Growth
5-8 hours per week (up to 1 quarter of a 40 hour work week):
For this many hours, your focus is content management, member care, and basic strategy.

Everything above plus:

• Develop online partnerships for cross-promotions and cultivate these relationships.
• Check social insights weekly.
• Create content (blogs, video, images, etc.) in addition to curating and scheduling across various platforms. Work with print, PR, marketing, fundraising, etc. to repurpose their materials for digital communications.
• Develop and manage an editorial calendar to be shared with teammates and/or across departments.
• Place paid ads for campaigns (like event promotions or community awareness campaigns), monitor ad performance, and optimize as needed. Manage your ad budget and track performance. Create reports for management.  
• Research the social media industry and look for updates and developments relevant to your brand platforms.
• Set broad goals and devise strategies that will help support the overall mission and activities of your organization.
• Develop or work with a design team to create and manage the brand look of social media profiles.

 

Strategizing Growth
9-12 hours per week (up to 1/3 of a 40 hour work week; this is a good maintains level):
For this many hours, your focus is content management, content creation, member care, strategy, basic analytics, and reporting.

Everything above plus:

• Monitor the “competition” or other similar organizations’ social media for information and ideas.
• Pull social media analytics and Google Analytics reports weekly. Compare to key drops/events in the overall communications strategy. Interpret results to optimize campaigns.
• Set measurable goals for each platform and each campaign.
• Follow back those that follow you and search for related profiles to follow.
• Develop relationships with brand ambassadors online and encourage colleagues to advocate for your mission and organization online.
• Design images; take & edit photos/videos.
• Collaborate with other departments on strategy, campaigns, and the content calendar. If they have their own social media platforms, plan to strategically leverage each other’s digital influence for shared goals.
• Cover live events by live-tweeting, taking pictures/video, and responding to online viewer comments; work with event coordinators and communication staff to promote a branded hashtag.
• Implement automatic inbox messages and other relevant tools.
• Research digital strategies, read articles, test new technologies, keep up with platform changes, and stay informed about new platforms/channels and trends. Make necessary changes to social media profiles as needed.

 

Expanding Growth
17-20 hours per week (1/2 of a work week or part-time employee):
For this many hours, your focus is content management, content creation, member care, grand strategy, analytics, reporting, budget planning, and audience development.

Everything above plus:

• Study and review trending topics, evaluate appropriateness for your brand’s social media channels, and develop content to take advantage of what is trending.
• Study the demographics of your followers and then compare to global social media demographics and Google Analytics data. Conduct surveys and develop audience personas.
• Plan out and build an overarching (integrated) social media campaign strategy that takes into consideration all channels of communication, along with audiences, goals, and resources.
• Manage the digital promotions budget: track and report results and create proposals for future investments.
• Create presentations. Report weekly, quarterly, and yearly.
• Develop a strategy for live event coverage, promote engagement online in advance, manage participant expectations, and evaluate performance afterward.

 

Owning Growth
30-40 hours per week (full-time employee):
Honestly, everything listed for the part-time employee is really a full-time job, but we have found that many entities are starting with a part-time position (due to budget restraints) with the above expectations. While this is doable, a longer time-frame should be allowed for development of items such as grand strategy. Depending on the size of an organization, content creation and member care might take up to 15 hours a week for a large organization with a large following.

Everything above x2 plus:

• Set policy and develop guidelines for organization and employee social media conduct.
• Manage social media editors and permissions.
• Experiment, test, and report on results to optimize future strategies and campaigns.

 
These are guidelines to help you shape your social media management expectations. Social media is a dynamic and ever-changing environment; there are no hard and fast rules. Please adapt these guidelines to your needs. Feel free to ask questions and enter a dialogue about current and future needs!

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Additional Resources:

Check out this social media check-list from Buffer for more information on how your social media manager can make the most of his or her day.

Looking to hire a social media manager? Here are some questions you should ask.

View the Social Media Competency Levels to help determine your expectations for a position based on the level of the candidate.