Head of Social Media

Company

Banijay stands as the largest international content producer and distributor; home to over 120 production companies across 22 territories, and a multi-genre catalogue boasting over 146,000 hours of original standout programming.

A collective of creative entrepreneurs, the group represents some of the biggest global brands including Survivor, Big Brother, Peaky Blinders, Temptation Island, MasterChef, Wallander, The Kardashians, Mr Bean, The Wall, Hunted, Black Mirror, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Deal or No Deal among others. Imagining and delivering high-quality multi-genre IP that was born locally and travels globally, the business offers the best stories told the best way.

Built on independence, creative freedom, entrepreneurialism and commercial acumen, the company, launched in 2008, operates under the direction of Chief Executive Officer, Marco Bassetti.

About this role

The Head of Social Media is the strategic lead for Banijay UK owned show accounts. Sitting within the central Banijay UK Communications Team, the social media team supports the promotion of its titles via social media, with a key focus on attracting audiences to the shows and building interest and engagement around our content.

Working closely with broadcasters and platform social media teams, as well as individual production teams, the role will oversee engaging social media experiences for shows. Working with a small inhouse team, including a role dedicated to Paid social media, campaigns should reach new audiences, reward existing followers and ultimately translate into viewing.

A core understanding of social media platforms and an ability to adapt campaigns to meet a broad range of objectives and productions is crucial to success in this role.  The successful candidate will be comfortable managing key senior stakeholders, building social media teams and campaigns around high profile shows and translating social media language and analytics into a clear plan of action. They will also need to be able create clear briefs for the social media producers and editors working on these campaigns, managing them throughout to ensure the delivery of the highest quality work.

As the Head of Social Media you will be the key decision maker in terms of priorities, creative strategy, staffing, budgeting and quality of the output.

This is an exciting role for an experienced TV social media producer with a passion for some of the UK’s biggest shows, including Big Brother, Survivor, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Interior Design Masters and SAS Rogue Heroes.

Duties

Strategy

• Work with key stakeholders (including broadcaster and show Exec Producers) to develop and deliver the social media strategy for the nominated social media accounts (organic and paid). This includes budgeting, creative strategy, media management, duty of care and talent management.
• Produce creative briefs for internal and external freelance production teams employed to develop social media campaigns and to lead this work from end-to-end ensuring collaborative relationships between multiple stakeholders.
• Provide creative planning and idea generation for social media content and campaigns, working with other relevant social roles, including the paid social media manager.
• Where relevant to work with the Commercial team to ensure that opportunities to monetise content are exploited

Editorial

• Act as the editorial lead for multiple social media accounts, making editorial decisions to support team where appropriate, and escalating to relevant senior stakeholders including MDs and Director or Communications when necessary.
• Lead on the look and feel style guide for the account’s social media activity that teams can implement to ensure creative consistency of look, image and identity in this space.
• Lead social creative campaigns, liaising with key stakeholders (including legal, rights and commercial teams) and third parties as required and ensuring that all work is aligned with overarching strategic priorities and meets audience needs.

Management

• Attend regular MD meetings to align strategy and priorities and report back on activity and results as required.
• Ensure all social activity is reviewed, approved and complied (including music / archive permissions) and follows any agreed approval processes. Escalate compliance issues to relevant roles as needed.
• Line management of in-house social media team and any addition freelance staff commissioned. This includes on-boarding for new team members and formal review processes for full-time internal team members setting out clear responsibilities, objectives and performance standards.
• Agree budget allocation for social activity with the Director of Communications and other budget holders and be responsible for ensuring campaigns are delivered within budgets, agreed timeframes and quality standards, working with external and in-house teams.

Production

• Work closely with digital production teams (including freelance and agencies) to ensure optimised assets are produced for all campaigns.
• Advise on technical delivery specifications of assets required for the social media accounts and lead on media management (including archiving) of all social content created.
• Technical support and creative guidance on set up for live broadcasts, working with relevant production, editorial and/or support roles.

Measurement

• Utilise available native and third-party social media measurement tools to track and evaluation metrics to monitor performance, evaluate audience behaviour and to provide key learnings to inform future planning, strategy development and activity.
• Review performance of the social media accounts and paid campaign results to generate end of campaign reports for relevant stakeholders including international format sales teams.
• Collate information and reports from the team to generate weekly internal update for management.

 Amplification

• Ensure best practice in terms of reaching new audiences and to identify new opportunities on social platforms.
• Work closely with Press and Publicity to ensure the press campaigns are aligned with social media activity. Collaborate with internal and external social account teams to ensure that strategy and editorial plans are aligned, and engaged reach is maximised.
• Identify key on-screen and online influencers on social media to enrich the channel’s social conversations and grow reach.

Knowledge, Skills and Experiences:

• Experience managing multiple social media accounts and campaigns, working with a broad range of genres, stakeholders and deadlines.
• Leadership and influencing skills to manage up to senior teams and key stakeholders.
• Experience managing a team, including development and disciplinary processes
• Experience managing paid social media campaigns
• A record of working with major broadcasters on social media, developing and delivering social media campaigns, using analytics to drive decision making.
• An understanding of social media content production processes including media management and archiving.
• A keen interest in emerging social media trends and technology to ensure the team’s output is up to date in an ever-evolving landscape
• An established network of social media freelancers to take on during busy periods.
• Excellent planning and organisational skills to enable effective responses to conflicting priorities and scheduling changes.
• Experience managing resource and budget constraints, including creative problem-solving.
• A demonstrable understanding of social media audiences and how their differing behaviours inform strategic thinking.

Key Attributes:

• Comfortable working with multiple teams and disciplines, including managing up to senior teams.
• Calm under pressure – both in terms of handling negative responses to a campaign and managing a broad range of responsibilities.
• Highly organised – able to manage multiple conflicting campaigns and deadlines and able to look ahead to foresee potential issues (both production/editorial and press/legal).
• Crisis Management – Strong editorial judgement for when content or comments need escalating to senior decisions makers.
• Established Network– can tap into existing network of freelancers with relevant experience to build team or bring in additional support when needed.

Reporting to: Director of Communications

Employment Type: Permanent

Location: Shepherds Bush

Hours of Work: 9:30am-6pm (We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage)