Social Media Lead

Location: Hybrid London, City of, UK (2 days a week in our London Office)

Team: Production

Seniority: Senior

• Closing: 11:55pm, 27th May 2025 BST

Perks and Benefits

• Work from home option
• Life Insurance
• Wellness programs
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave
• Paid emergency leave
• Sabbatical Opportunities
• Mentoring/coaching
• Payroll giving
• Salary sacrifice
• Team social events
• Extracurricular clubs
• Cycle to work scheme
• Free fruit

Candidate Happiness

8.56 (10,146)

Job Description

This role is offered on a hybrid contract giving you the opportunity to also work from home three days a week.

Comic Relief reserves the right to close the role early if a large number of applications are received.

Purpose of Role

We are seeking a dynamic and strategic Social Media Lead with proven experience in developing and embedding social media strategies, leading teams, and driving innovation in digital engagement. This role goes beyond day-to-day social media management; we're looking for someone who can lead the strategic growth and development of Comic Relief's social media presence in line with our organisational strategy.

Working closely with colleagues across the organisation and in conjunction with the Head of Social, you will shape and deliver Comic Relief's social media strategy. You will lead the social team to deliver compelling, audience-first content that elevates our brand, deepens engagement, and increases income, ensuring social is embedded across our campaigns, communications, and fundraising activity.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the evolution of Comic Relief's social media strategy, ensuring it is 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.
• Embed the social strategy across the organisation, working closely with colleagues to ensure social is integrated into all 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.
• Manage, mentor, and inspire the social media team.
• You will be hands-on with the management of our social media, 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 the Head of Social to shape team priorities, manage capacity and resourcing, and ensure alignment with the wider communications strategy.
• 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.
• Collaborate with content creators, designers, writers, and videographers to deliver engaging, inclusive, and impactful multimedia content that drives reach, engagement, and income.
• Oversee the content calendar, ensuring it reflects organisational priorities, responds to trends and cultural moments, and supports both planned and reactive storytelling.
• 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 conversations and proactively manage risks, using sound judgement to respond to sensitive issues or reputational threats.
• Lead on social reporting, analytics, and audience insight using data to inform strategy, optimise content, and demonstrate impact to internal stakeholders.
• 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 practices for social media, ensuring tone of voice, accessibility, brand, and safeguarding are understood and upheld.

Person Specification

• Strategic leadership of social media - proven ability to design, implement, and embed multi-year social strategies that align with organisational goals and drive clear outcomes in engagement, audience growth, and brand visibility.
• Team leadership and development - a track record of building and managing high-performing teams, with evidence of fostering a collaborative, creative culture and delivering strong results through others.
• Crisis and reputational management - hands-on experience managing real-time issues or reputational risks on social platforms, with examples of how your judgement and leadership helped mitigate impact or restore trust.
• Insight-led performance optimisation - ability to use data and audience insights to shape strategy, optimise campaigns, and measure return on investment. You must be able to show how your analysis informed decisions and delivered results.
• Delivering results through social - demonstrable success using social media to drive meaningful action, such as generating income, increasing donations, or mobilising supporter engagement at scale.
• Evidence of embedding Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) into your social strategy, content, and community management and of measuring its effectiveness in reaching and resonating with diverse audiences.
• Examples of leading successful cross-functional projects involving teams such as fundraising, creative, partnerships, or brand where social played a central, integrated role.
• A portfolio of high-performing content, showing strong copywriting, storytelling, and audience-specific tone of voice across a variety of social platforms.
• Experience managing social media strategies across international or culturally diverse audiences, demonstrating sensitivity to local context and global relevance.
• Experience in the charity sector, with an understanding of how social media supports fundraising, supporter journeys, and values-based storytelling.
• Background in entertainment or broadcast with the ability to operate in high-profile, fast-paced environments and connect with wide audiences through culturally relevant, timely content.
• Don't meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of colour are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Comic Relief, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Why work at Comic Relief

There are many reasons to join us at Comic Relief. You can read more about our employee benefits, such as our commitment to flexible and hybrid working. We ask staff to come to the office twice a week, typically on agreed team days, to facilitate collaboration and community building. Our office is based in Whitechapel, London. There are numerous opportunities to develop your skills and experience, including becoming a Mental Health First Aider or participating in our Employee Network Groups focused on fostering inclusivity.

Disability Confident Employer

As part of the Disability Confident scheme, we take positive action by providing first-round interviews to candidates with a registered disability, provided they meet the role's minimum criteria, as demonstrated on their CV or application. Candidates interested in this scheme should email us to be considered.