Social Media Manager

Our client is a leading European provider of premium natural pet nutrition, focused on supporting pet health and wellbeing through high-quality, minimally processed food. The business offers a broad range of fresh and gently cooked meals, functional snacks, and supplements, combining quality ingredients with nutritional expertise to deliver healthy and nutritious solutions for pets.

Role overview

As Social Media Manager you will own social media strategy, listening and performance across all brands. You’ll develop the Social Media content plan based on campaign plans, manage community standards and execution, and manage influencer relationships. You’ll own day-to-day community posting and response, and line manage the Junior Social Media Manager, ensuring consistent execution while you focus on strategy, listening analysis and relationship management.

Job Type: Full Time/Permanent

Location: Cape Town

Work Place: Hybrid

Focus areas: Social strategy, Listening, Community, Influencer ops

Reports to: PR & Communications

Line manages: Junior Social Media Manager

Requirements

• 3+ years in social media management or community management role
• Proven experience managing social channels for multiple brands
• Strong understanding of social media platforms, algorithms and community dynamics
• Experience with social listening tools
• Demonstrable experience using AI tools in social media work
• Degree in marketing, communications or related field, or equivalent experience
• Passionate about social media and community engagement
• Data-driven — able to interpret social metrics and identify opportunities
• Creative thinker who understands platform dynamics and audience psychology
• Excellent communicator — clear writing, brand voice consistency
• Strong people management skills — can develop and support team members
• Uses AI as a daily working tool — not occasionally
• Experience managing social media for multiple brands is advantageous

Responsibilities

• Social strategy and planning - Receive regular social content priorities from Brand Leads - Build comprehensive content plan — format, platform, cadence, creative treatment - Decide platform and content mix based on audience and brand priorities - Present Social Media plan to Brand Leads for approval – Deliver on the plan.
• Social listening and monitoring - Own social listening across all brands — mentions, sentiment, competitors, category trends - Monitor for crisis situations and flag escalations to PR & Communications - Identify trending topics and emerging opportunities - Feed insights into campaign and brand planning
• Social performance and reporting - Own social performance reporting — reach, engagement, follower growth, top content per brand - Feed headline metrics monthly to Data & Retention Manager - Present regular performance reviews to Brand Leads and Head of Marketing - Identify learnings and opportunities from performance data
• Community management - Execute day-to-day community management — posting, responses across all brand channels and wider groups - Monitor comments, messages and mentions following established guidelines - Ensure brand voice consistency across all channels - Line manage Junior Social Media Manager on execution quality
• Influencer and ambassador relations - Develop influencer and ambassador strategy with Brand Leads - Manage operational relationships — outreach, briefing, content approval, posting schedules - Monitor influencer performance and feed back to Brand Leads - Coordinate influencer content and brand alignment
• Photography commissioning - Commission photography from freelance pool - Coordinate with Creative Content Producer on shoot scheduling and briefing
• Paid/organic sync - Hold regular standing meetings with Performance Marketing Manager - Ensure organic and paid social strategies are aligned - Share insights on content performance to inform paid strategy
• Line management - Manage Junior Social Media Manager — delegation, development and performance - Assign community management tasks and oversee quality and consistency - Provide feedback on community work and brand voice execution - Support junior team member development

AI in this role

• Use AI to analyse social listening data and generate trend insights
• Use AI to draft community guidelines and response frameworks
• Use AI to research competitor social strategies and benchmark performance
• Use AI to generate content ideas and caption options for review
• Use AI to manage social media calendars and coordinate scheduling
• Stay current with AI tools relevant to social media and community management