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Walker Sands is looking for a Director, Social Media to lead our social media team within our Strategic Communications department out of our Chicago office (hybrid).
Why on earth would someone engage with a B2B brand on social media — let alone follow them? Do you have a perspective? Let’s hear it.
As Director, Social Media at Walker Sands, you’ll take charge of crafting and directing social media strategies for B2B brands chasing a range of marketing objectives — from driving top line awareness and steady growth over time, to nurturing affinity among an already engaged community, to earning validation and advocacy from third-parties, including influencers, reporters, partners and customers.
Beyond the assumed (specifics below), we’re looking for three things:
- Industry perspective: You can articulate what makes for great (B2B) social media — and how that perspective has changed over time — with confidence and concision.
- Technical prowess: You are deeply experienced managing social media channels, using advanced social listening to shape content strategy and performance data to optimize strategy.
- Strong leadership: You can build, nurture, and grow relationships with both clients and a team of budding social media professionals through proactive communication, regular mentorship, and creative problem-solving.
Responsibilities:
- Extend and enhance Walker Sands’ approach to creative B2B marketing
- Become an industry leader in B2B relationship marketing — via social media, influencer marketing, community engagement and creative content creation
- Invent new ways for B2B brands to utilize TikTok, influencers and other emerging and/or traditionally B2C tactics and channels, to nurture audience relationships, drive virality, build brand affinity and earn credibility from leading industry voices
- Lead, shape and grow our department of two social media managers, proactively offering recommendations to optimize career paths, team org, staffing models and workflows per the needs of your strategy
- Serve as lead social media strategist on high-value programs; oversee strategy development and execution led by your team, consistently engaging on daily basis to ensure quality and troubleshoot issues
- Source relevant trends, topics and insights through social listening to inform content calendars and brainstorms
- Develop and manage content calendars for brands’ social media channels to support “always on” evergreen content and timely campaign needs
- Partner with the creative team to ideate on fun, relevant content and campaigns that ladder up to established program strategies
- Manage the day-to-day flow of content across all touchpoints and platforms
- Assist with monthly, quarterly, and ad hoc reporting to measure and optimize for success on a regular basis
- Take an agency-first mindset to support business growth, including leading proposal development for new social media business, developing sales and marketing enablement materials and regular, proactive collaboration with cross-functional agency services leaders
About you:
- You have 5–7 years of experience leading social media and influencer relations programs for B2B clients in an agency setting
- You are certified in social media management tools, such as Sprout Social and Sprinklr, and experienced with related social listening tool, and are able to identify trends and readjust overarching strategies as needed
- You have a strong understanding of influencer management tools, such as CreatorIQ, Upfluence, and Tagger, with experience in utilizing analytics features to identify influencers, track performance and optimize campaigns
- You can adapt to various brand voices, messages, industries and creative expressions
- You’re comfortable managing multiple programs at once to meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment
- You have a basic understanding of Google Analytics, with a desire to get certified if you’re not already. Bonus points if you’re certified in Adobe Analytics.
- You have a desire to stay up to date on the latest developments and best practices in social media
- You are relentlessly curious and constantly pursuing opportunities to better your craft, including valuing feedback as a critical means for personal and professional growth
- You have experience directly managing junior team members with a specific focus on client work, professional development and prioritization/time management
- You’re a self-starter with high ambitions and higher standards. You take direction and run with it, you can defend your recommendations and are comfortable voicing ideas to colleagues and clients
Compensation & Benefits:
- We strive for salary range transparency in our hiring process. This is a major step towards not only complying with regulations where required, but also to make sure pay equity and DEI are top of mind during the hiring process. Base salary is only a part of the total rewards package – this role will also be eligible for a bonus based on company performance, as well as benefits. Below is the starting salary for this role:
Starting Salary: $100,000 – $104,500 a year - Placement on the salary scale will be determined by various factors, such as, but not limited to, relevant qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, seniority, geographic location, performance, education, business or organizational requirements and internal equity.
- Starting salaries are not inclusive of a full range of compensation for this role and are instead meant to reflect the expected beginning salary for a new hire. Merit-based increases can be earned after time in role.
- Total Rewards Package:
- 🩺 Health Coverage: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans, plus mental health resources, pet insurance, fertility benefits, and more.
- 💰 Retirement Savings: Employer-matched 401(k) and access to financial planning services.
- 🌴 Flexible PTO: Take time as needed for vacations, mental health, or personal days. Includes 8 paid holidays, half-day summer Fridays, and a week off between Christmas and New Year.
- 🏡 Hybrid Work: Mix of in-office and remote work, with tools to stay connected across teams.
- 🎉 Milestone Sabbatical: Celebrate five years with a two-week sabbatical and a $2,000 gift.
- 👶 Family Support: Generous paid leave for new parents and caregivers, plus policies for pregnancy loss, adoption challenges, and more.
- 📚 Growth Opportunities: Clear career paths, mentorship programs, and learning events to help you grow professionally.
- 🌟 Culture: Our agency values our supportive, collaborative culture where we work hard to achieve the best outcomes for clients. Read more on our website here!
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