Sr Social Media Strategist

Reporting to the Director of Brand, the Senior Social Media Strategist is a seasoned social media marketing professional who will develop and execute an institutional social media strategy and help build a social team from the ground up. This is a senior level position that requires strong experience coordinating people, projects and a variety of social media accounts and marketing strategies to achieve successful outcomes. 

The Senior Social Media Strategist will lead strategy development and execution on the social team and will be responsible for content development, content distribution, account structure, brand management, promotions, and community engagement in partnership with the Marketing, Digital, and Creative teams.  

In all facets of this role, this position endeavors to integrate and advance the University’s commitments to equity, diversity and inclusivity.

This position understands, fulfills, and promotes the health, safety and environment responsibilities identified in university policy.

Key responsibilities of this role include: 

• Responsible for the development, implementation, and management of an institutional social media marketing strategy in order to increase brand awareness and grow engagement, online reputation, and traffic to all U of A social media properties.
• Develop the University of Alberta’s online voice - consistent with our brand and voice guidelines - in order to create a holistic social media program that integrates brand awareness and engagement, storytelling, fundraising, demand generation, and communication priorities to achieve program and institutional goals.
• Work collaboratively with various Marketing and Communications Directors to develop and execute social media strategies, plans, organic/paid campaigns, responses, and reports.
• Manage and oversee content, postings, comments, and reviews on our social media platform.
• Develop processes and implement tools to enhance communication and visibility across our external markets, creating a workflow for social content that will improve our agility.
• Develop an institution-wide social media policy and governance structure in partnership with the External Relations leadership team.
• Build and implement a cohesive institution-wide account structure by infusing brand management best practices and developing long and short term strategic plans.
• Track social trends, along with movement in narratives and cultural trends that can help expand online tactics to help grow brand reach and engagement of our key audiences (including but not limited to students, faculty and staff, alumni, donors, the media, and the larger U of A community).
• Respond expertly to our social media audience in ways that are on-brand and provide a high level of service (comments, questions, messages).
• Establish, define, track, and communicate the most important social media KPIs
• Work closely with our Digital and Creative team to ensure social content is compelling, informative, engaging, and meets objectives. 
• Research and stay up to date with current technologies and trends in social media, design tools and applications
• Liaise with the Market Planning Strategist to ensure the right messages reach the right audiences at the right time.
• Collaborate with the Director of Marketing Research and Insights to conduct competitive research to identify new strategies and opportunities.
• Foster and support a community of practice across campus to share social media best practices to strategically position the U of A and align our various digital sub-communities.
• Provide strategic communications guidance to the marketing and communications team with regard to public sentiment and tone.
• Report regularly on social performance and communicate results with others. Identify opportunities for improvement.
• Serve as an expert resource to institutional leadership. Leads complex, specialized work on behalf of the marketing team.
• Analyze problems or issues in a systematic way to identify underlying causes. Engage in a range of approaches to generate possible resolutions. Provide holistic solutions.
• Generate original ideas, formulate strategies, propose projects and initiatives, and develop innovative solutions based on professional and discipline- specific expertise.
• Proactively identify and interpret information that potentially can impact the University’s strategic direction and area plans.
• Identify new projects/ work assignments required due to current or future directions. Propose initiatives and projects based on these discoveries.
• Consider multidimensional problems, situations or issues, where no precedents may exist.
• Develop conceptual frameworks to guide analysis.
• Identify trends, generate ideas and test solutions. Evaluate alternative responses systematically before making a recommendation. Assess all possible risks and implications of recommendation.
• Create important, explanatory information from complex quantitative (e.g. financial or statistical) or qualitative data.
• Integrate analysis and experience into a complete and comprehensive response.
• Maintain an intimate understanding of client area(s) in the interest of building productive and effective ongoing relationships.
• Use networks and partnerships to promote and create new initiatives, forward goals, identify opportunities, gather information and seek input.

To be successful in this position, the incumbent will possess the following experience, knowledge, skills and abilities:

• Bachelor’s Degree in marketing, communication, business or related field is required
• At least 5 to 7 years of experience growing and managing cross-platform social media programs with a large follower and subscriber base, including content strategy and design, strategic audience engagement and growth, budget management etc.
• 5+ years leading strategy within a social team. Working for a large, complex organization is an asset.
• Strong understanding of social media as a paid advertising platform, including budget, audience targeting, and return on investment analysis.
• Strong expertise in a range of social media platforms and channels, with a proven history of adapting tactics, metrics, innovation and outcomes in line with social trends and platform-specific nuances.
• Excellent understanding of social media KPIs, including how to prioritize them and communicate them clearly with key stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of and experience in how social media is used to provide customer service and handle issues on a large and targeted scale.
• Strong understanding of social media and its impact on overall online reputation
• Strong organizational and time management skills, detail oriented with the ability to focus and work efficiently in a demanding, fast-paced team environment
• Excellent interpersonal, communication skills both written and oral and ability to work with all levels of staff and management
• Demonstrated experience collaborating with creative teams and contributing your own ideation to bring strategies to life
• Consistent record of staying on top of marketing trends and developing high impact campaigns
• Understanding of search engine optimization and web traffic metrics
• Experience using social media management tools (Hootsuite, Sprinklr, Sprout Social, etc.) would be considered an asset

In accordance with the Administrative and Professional Officer Agreement , this is a full-time continuing position offering a comprehensive benefits package  with a salary range of $69,627 to $116,043. Salary will be commensurate with experience and qualifications.

We thank all applicants for their interest; however, only those individuals selected for an interview will be contacted. 

While this position welcomes applications from the public, please note that preference will be given to current employees at the University of Alberta. Please indicate your internal status using the "Advertisement" drop down menu when applying.

COVID-19 Vaccination: Proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 in compliance with the University’s COVID-19 Vaccination Directive. Fully Vaccinated means a status an individual achieves 14 days after having received the recommended number of doses of a COVID-19 vaccine approved by Health Canada or the World Health Organization, and requires the individual to maintain the recommended number and type of vaccine doses as updated and required by Health Canada thereafter.

Note: Online applications are accepted until midnight Mountain Standard Time of the closing date.