Social Media Officer

Social Media Officer
Location: Flexible remote (with monthly meetings / team days at our office in Horsham, West Sussex) with a requirement to attend events in person
Salary: £28,000 per annum FTE
Level Grade 4 and B
Part-time: 21 hours per week (to include Tuesday)
Contract: Part-time, Permanent

Who is Born Free?

Born Free is a UK registered charity that works tirelessly to ensure that all wild animals, whether living in captivity or in the wild, are treated with compassion and respect, and are able to live their lives according to their needs. We oppose the exploitation of wild animals in captivity and campaign to keep them where they belong – in the wild.

About This Opportunity

Are you excited about incredible content and the reaction it gets from an audience? Do you know what works, what doesn’t, and why? Do you thrive by creating engaging stories? Do you understand strategy for social and best practices on how to bring it to life? Do you know how to harness and amplify a brand message to create authentic experiences and interactions with our community?

We are looking to recruit a Social Media Officer who can take our captivating stories, spanning nearly 40 years of conservation and wild animal welfare, and deliver them to today’s diverse audiences in exciting, creative and contemporary ways, engaging people of all ages.

Under the leadership of the Digital Marketing Lead, working alongside the Creative Content Officer and with the support of the Communications Officer, you’ll deliver the workplans to the Digital Marketing strategy, develop and deliver all Born Free’s social media communications, including – but not limited to – fundraising appeals, adoption stories, stories from the field, including conservation and animal rescue and relocation, and news stories from the policy team.

You will have the incredible opportunity to translate our powerful narrative, outstanding achievements, and ambitious plans to all touchpoints on social, working directly with our programmatic and marketing teams and the Co-Founder. You’ll build and grow our engagement and conversions by tailoring content to our different audiences.

Working alongside our external agency and the Digital Marketing Lead, you will also be proactively engaged in our paid social activity.

The Social Media Officer will need to have the energy and hands-on attitude to thrive in a lean, fast-paced environment with strong focus on outstanding content, accuracy and performance. This role requires a truly collaborative approach, embracing all aspects of the Foundation’s overall work, and an understanding of how your work affects, and is affected by, the work of everyone around you.

Responsibilities & Duties

• Working under the direction of the Digital Marketing Lead, design and deliver creative and engaging social media plans
• Ideate, curate and collate holistic content that reflects the history and diversity of Born Free, tailored to the interests of our followers, harnessing the unique aspects of each platform.
• Schedule content on Sprout Social
• Ensure content is adapted / suitable for specific channels / audiences
• Monitor, track, analyse and report on performance on social media platforms using tools such as Sprout Social, Google Analytics and Facebook Insights and recommend improvements to increase performance.
• Identify consumer trends to help with planning social media campaigns.
• Optimise content to further encourage community interaction and engagement.
• Research and evaluate the latest tools and techniques in order to find new and better ways of measuring social media activity.
• Analyse competitor activity.
• Set targets to increase brand awareness and increase customer engagement and loyalty.
• Create a flexible, proactive and reactive content calendar for all social that enhances the broader programmatic, marketing and leadership plans.
• Ensure that the BFF’s brand is consistent across every platform
• Live and breathe our brand voice and style guides, and continue to develop them through content, alongside our creative team.
• Assist with content creation where needed (e.g. other staff on leave)
• Respond to social media community
• Track, analyse and share KPI reports to optimise content performance and audience growth, and take advantage of opportunities, and adjust or pivot strategies, tactics and content development as needed.

Our Ideal Candidate

• Lives and breathes social – thrives on creating content and communications that genuinely connect with audiences.
• Inclusive, creative, courageous, discerning, curious, and devoted to Born Free, its Mission, and its followers.
• University degree in marketing or related subject or, a minimum of 3 years in a similar role, with a proven track record.
• Strong writing and editorial skills with utmost attention to detail.
• Comprehensive, nuanced understanding of all social platforms, including emerging creative sensibility and a keen eye for look and feel; editorial storytelling experiences a big plus.
• Results-driven with the ability to analyse data and deduce implications for social and engagement strategies.
• Highly-motivated self-starter; capable of working independently, yet collaboratively, within a fast-paced environment.
• Quick-thinking, agile, creative, hands-on, resilient, stress-tolerant, problem-solver.

Required Skills

• Social media-focused technologies and apps, with an eye on what is emerging as well as attention to what currently exists, including Sprout Social, or similar scheduling software.
• A genuine curiosity and interest in both current affairs, wildlife related news, and sector-wide developments.
• Ability to create engaging visual content as needed
• A solid understanding of the use of a range of social media platforms
• Strong copywriting and editing skills suitable for each platform, from knowing how to write a successful X post to using effective storytelling techniques.
• Knowledge and understanding of algorithms and search engine optimisation.
• Creative skills for contributing new and innovative ideas.
• Strong communication and people skills for articulating ideas to colleagues and the wider organisation.
• Excellent teamworking, collaboration and networking skills.
• This role will have a duty for safeguarding the welfare of children and young persons in relation to online activity and will be required to adhere to all Born Free policies in relation to safeguarding, including participation in specific safeguarding training sessions.

Further Information:
Note: This job description outlines the roles, duties, and responsibilities of the post. It is not intended to detail all specific tasks. Born Free reserves the right to alter the content of this job description to reflect the changing needs of the organisation but is a correct reflection of the main duties of the post at the time of writing. Please note this role will require working outside of normal working hours from time to time.

Our excellent benefits package includes opportunities for continuous professional learning, a generous annual leave entitlement, working from home with regular team meetings to help you maintain a healthy work-life balance, wellbeing support, and a competitive pension.

The closing date for applications is 17.00 on Friday 1st November 2024.

Early application is encouraged as we will review applications throughout the advertising period and reserve the right to close the advert at any time.

Interested?
If you would like to find out more, please click the apply button. You will be directed to our website to complete your application for this position.

Born Free is an Equal Opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates, regardless of age, sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital/civil partnership status, or pregnancy and maternity. We welcome requests for flexible working.

Born Free politely requests no contact from recruitment agencies or media sales. We do not accept speculative CVs from recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.