Social Media Manager, Emerging Channels

About the Job: The Emerging Social Media Channel Manager leads the day-to-day engagement across high-impact, conversation-driven platforms—YouTube, LinkedIn, and Reddit. This role is responsible for identifying emerging trends, managing brand presence in real-time, and executing a compliant, scalable response framework to strengthen brand trust and reputation. Reporting to the Assistant Director of Social Media, this role will be essential in the ongoing transformation of the social space and the company’s presence on emerging platforms. They will work closely with brand, communications, web, data, and content to bring these projects to life. What You'll Do: Develop and execute social media content strategies for platforms such as Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, and any emerging platforms, guided by Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) best practices Lead the implementation and management of our Reddit presence, identifying and capitalizing on opportunities to engage and grow our community through development of a structure response framework Implement Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) focused content to enhance discoverability across AI-powered search platforms that help address misconceptions or emerging topics Collaborate cross-functionally to create/optimize YouTube video content strategies that align with AEO principles and drive organic discovery Monitor emerging platforms and trends in answer engines and adapt social media strategies accordingly Partner with paid media, content, and analytics teams to ensure integrated execution across owned and paid efforts Partner with content and creative teams to shape platform-native content that fuels engagement and conversation Manage public responses, comments, and discussions to drive positive brand perception on Reddit Escalate high-risk or sensitive interactions in alignment with compliance and reputation management protocols Define and track KPIs (engagement, sentiment, response time, share of voice, etc.) Generate actionable insights to continuously improve channel performance and engagement quality What You'll Bring to the Role: Bachelor’s degree in marketing, Communications, or related field required 3+ years of relevant experience, agency or client side Strong organizational and project management skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities under tight deadlines Ability to interpret social media metrics and translate data into actionable insights Foundational understanding of AEO practices and desire to dive into this area and become a subject matter expert Experience managing emerging platforms like Reddit, YouTube Skills You Have: Agency Management: Evaluates agency performance, gathers feedback from agency partners, and offboards partners when necessary. Partners with external parties (i.e. vendors, advertising companies, public relations, and media agencies) to produce relevant advertising work, "win-win" relationships and value added outcomes. Understands agency operational framework, procedures, processes and budgets. Collaborates and leads the agency team to develop creative work that generates positive business results. Applies knowledge of approval process and adheres to it for all creative development. Campaign Management: Develops marketing campaigns strategy and selects appropriate outlets, delivery methods, and technology/tool to optimize customer engagement and business impact. Demonstrates working experience with campaign management tools such as Adobe, Salesforce, Google Analytics, Unica or similar. Channel Management: Understands relevant distribution channels for products and the role of distribution in marketing specific products. Integrates promotional strategies with distribution model through innovative distribution ideas. Customer, Market & Ecosystem Knowledge: Understanding of market or customer-specific product use-cases, ecosystem dependencies, and competitor offerings. Ability to conduct or interpret competitive analysis of features with key competitive products. Digital Marketing: Demonstrates proficiency in digital marketing channels such as social media, search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to reach and engage customers online. KPIs & Metrics: Measures performance over time by utilizing data collection and analysis methodologies for a specific objective to create strategic and operational improvement, including setting and monitoring desired performance targets. Makes critical decisions based on key figures to improve business outlook and achieve performance targets. #LI-Hybrid Compensation Range: Pay Range - Start: $60,880.00 Pay Range - End: $91,320.00 Geographic Specific Pay Structure: Structure 110: $66,960.00 USD - $100,440.00 USD Structure 115: $70,000.00 USD - $105,000.00 USD We believe in fairness and transparency. It’s why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process. The standard pay structure is listed but if you’re living in California, New York City or other eligible location, geographic specific pay structures, compensation and benefits could be applicable, click here to learn more. Grow your career with a best-in-class company that puts our clients' interests at the center of all we do. Get started now! Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives. At Northwestern Mutual, we believe relationships are built on trust. That our lives and our work matter. These beliefs launched our company over 160 years ago. Today, they're just a few of the reasons why people choose to build careers at Northwestern Mutual. What started in Milwaukee, WI has grown into 7,000+ home office professionals split across 3 campuses: New York City, Franklin and downtown Milwaukee (HQ) - each one bringing with it its own unique talent and culture. In a company with such a long and storied history, this may be the most exciting and important time to be a part of Northwestern Mutual as we are growing our digital and tech capabilities and are always on the lookout for bright, tech-savvy candidates. Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.