The Social Media Strategist provides high-level strategic direction for client accounts that include social media services.
The strategist is responsible for reviewing the client’s goals, guiding the monthly content strategy, analyzing performance, and recommending changes. They are not responsible for writing posts, managing the daily content calendar, posting content, or completing routine account management.
This role requires someone who is highly comfortable working with data and numbers. The strategist must be able to interpret performance metrics, identify trends, compare results across time periods, calculate meaningful rates, and use data to determine what the team should do next. They are also aware of algorithm changes, new social platforms, trends, and best practices across a variety of social platforms.
Expected Time Commitment
- Approximately 1–2 hours per client account per month
- The first month may require additional time for:
- Reviewing the client’s business and goals
- Auditing current social media accounts
- Reviewing previous performance
- Understanding the target audience
- Establishing the initial strategy
- Creating content pillars and strategic direction
- Establishing baseline performance metrics
- Determining how success will be measured
- Additional time may occasionally be required for:
- Major launches
- New campaigns
- Significant changes in the client’s business
- Accounts that are materially underperforming
- Strategy meetings requested by The Hive
First-Month Responsibilities
- Review the client’s:
- Business goals
- Services or products
- Target audience
- Brand positioning
- Current offers
- Sales priorities
- Audit existing social media platforms.
- Review historical performance data where available.
- Establish baseline metrics for future comparison.
- Identify strengths, weaknesses, trends, and opportunities.
- Determine the role social media should play in the client’s overall growth strategy.
- Establish:
- Primary social media goals
- Priority platforms
- Content pillars
- Core audience segments
- Recommended content formats
- Calls to action
- Key performance indicators
- Reporting benchmarks
- Testing priorities
- Confirm that the selected metrics can realistically measure progress toward the client’s business goals.
- Provide clear initial direction to the Social Media Manager, content writers, designers, and Account Manager.
- Document the strategy, baseline data, KPIs, and recommendations in ClickUp.
Monthly ResponsibilitiesStrategy Review
- Review any important updates to the client’s:
- Goals
- Offers
- Priorities
- Promotions
- Events
- Launches
- Confirm that the current social media strategy still supports the client’s business goals.
- Identify any changes needed for the upcoming month.
- Provide strategic direction for the monthly content plan.
- Recommend priority topics, campaigns, content formats, and calls to action.
- Determine which variables should be tested during the upcoming month.
- Ensure recommendations are based on performance data, business priorities, or a clearly stated strategic hypothesis.
Data and Performance Analysis
- Review the monthly social media results prepared by the Social Media Manager or Account Manager.
- Validate that reports are accurate, complete, and compared against the correct time periods.
- Evaluate the metrics that matter for the client’s goals, which may include:
- Reach
- Impressions
- Engagement rate
- Saves
- Shares
- Link clicks
- Click-through rate
- Website traffic
- Inquiries
- Leads
- Conversions
- Conversion rate
- Audience growth rate
- Cost per result, when applicable
- Compare performance:
- Month over month
- Against established baselines
- Against campaign goals
- Across content topics
- Across content formats
- Across platforms
- Calculate and interpret relevant rates rather than relying only on total numbers.
- Distinguish between meaningful growth and normal fluctuations.
- Identify patterns, anomalies, and changes in performance.
- Determine whether results are improving, declining, or remaining stagnant.
- Identify:
- What performed well
- What underperformed
- What contributed to the result
- What should be repeated
- What should be changed
- What should be tested next
- Flag missing, inconsistent, or unreliable data.
- Avoid making conclusions that are not supported by sufficient evidence.
- Provide clear, actionable recommendations for the following month.
- Flag accounts that are not producing the expected results.
Strategic Testing and Optimization
- Develop clear hypotheses for new content or campaign tests.
- Define what is being tested and how success will be measured.
- Recommend tests involving:
- Content topics
- Hooks
- Calls to action
- Content formats
- Posting frequency
- Audience segments
- Campaign messaging
- Platform priorities
- Compare test results against previous performance or an appropriate control.
- Determine whether a result is strong enough to repeat, expand, revise, or discontinue.
- Ensure the team is learning from performance rather than simply producing more content.
Team Direction
- Give the execution team clear strategic direction.
- Answer strategic questions from the Account Manager or Social Media Manager.
- Review the overall content plan when needed, rather than reviewing every individual post.
- Ensure the content team understands:
- What the client is trying to achieve
- Who the content is intended to reach
- Which messages should be prioritized
- What action the audience should take
- How the work will be measured
- Translate data into clear instructions the execution team can use.
- Provide feedback when content is not aligned with the approved strategy.
- Document all strategic decisions, recommendations, test results, and next steps in ClickUp.
Required Skills
- Strong numerical and analytical ability
- Comfortable working with spreadsheets, dashboards, reports, and platform analytics
- Able to calculate and interpret percentages, rates, averages, and changes over time
- Able to connect social media metrics to broader business goals
- Able to distinguish between vanity metrics and meaningful performance indicators
- Able to identify trends, patterns, anomalies, and underperformance
- Able to explain data clearly to people who are not highly analytical
- Able to turn performance findings into specific strategic recommendations
- Strong understanding of social media strategy, audience behavior, content performance, and conversion
- Strong written communication and documentation skills
- Able to work independently and complete strategic reviews efficiently
Key Performance Indicators
- Every assigned client has a documented social media strategy.
- Every assigned client has clearly defined KPIs and baseline metrics.
- Initial strategies are completed accurately and on time.
- Monthly strategic and performance reviews are completed for assigned accounts.
- Performance reports include accurate calculations and meaningful comparisons.
- Recommendations are supported by data, business priorities, or clearly defined strategic hypotheses.
- Recommendations are clear, actionable, and connected to client goals.
- Underperforming accounts are identified quickly.
- Trends and performance changes are identified accurately.
- Testing recommendations include a clear goal and measurement method.
- The execution team receives enough direction to build the monthly content plan.
- Strategies are updated when results, goals, or business priorities change.
- Strategic decisions, calculations, recommendations, and test results are documented in ClickUp.
- Work is generally completed within the expected 1–2 hours per account per month after the initial strategy period.
Definition of Success
Success in this role means:
- Each client has a clear social media direction.
- The client’s KPIs are clearly defined and connected to business goals.
- The execution team knows what to create, why it matters, and how it will be measured.
- Performance data is reviewed accurately and consistently.
- Recommendations are based on evidence rather than assumptions.
- The strategist can clearly explain what the numbers mean and what the team should do next.
- Underperformance is identified before months of time and resources are wasted.
- The strategy changes when the data shows that something is not working.
- The strategist provides meaningful analytical and strategic oversight without becoming responsible for daily execution.
Pay: From $40.00 per hour
Benefits:
Application Question(s):
- What is your desired hourly rate of pay?
Work Location: Remote
