Social Media Specialist - Event Production

From food festivals and sports shows to large-scale expos and awards programs, the Events division of USA TODAY produces nearly 200 live experiences each year across the country. We're looking for a Social Media Specialist who thrives in fast-paced environments and knows how to turn real-world moments into engaging, high-performing content. This role blends creative storytelling, live event coverage, and performance-driven thinking – supporting campaigns that drive awareness, engagement, and ticket sales across a national event portfolio. What You'll Do Create Content People Actually Engage With: Plan, create, and publish content across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, and more. Build and manage content calendars aligned with multiple event timelines. Develop captions, posts, and short-form video designed to drive engagement and action. Be On the Ground at Live Events: Travel to select events to capture real-time content. Execute live coverage including stories, reels, behind-the-scenes, and audience moments. Turn in-person experiences into compelling digital storytelling. Support Paid Social & Campaign Performance: Support paid social campaigns through setup, creative coordination, QA, and performance monitoring. Partner closely with paid media teams to align organic content with campaign objectives. Contribute to campaign optimization by identifying trends, suggesting creative or audience adjustments, and using performance insights to inform decisions. Engage and Grow the Audience: Manage comments, DMs, and social engagement in a timely, brand-aligned voice. Help build excitement and community before, during, and after events. Think Beyond the Post: Monitor performance and identify what's working (and what's not). Contribute ideas to improve engagement, reach, and conversions. Stay on top of trends and translate them into content opportunities. What You Bring 1-3 years of experience in social media, content, or digital marketing. Strong understanding of platform-specific content and engagement strategies. Hands-on exposure to paid social campaigns (Meta, TikTok, or similar). Experience with scheduling or analytics tools (Sprout, Hootsuite, etc.). Strong writing, editing, and communication skills. Ability to manage multiple projects in a fast-paced environment. Willingness to travel and work on-site at live events. Nice to Have Experience supporting paid social campaigns, including creative testing or optimizations. Familiarity with performance metrics such as CTR, CPC, CPA, or ROAS. Experience creating high-performing short-form video content. Basic knowledge of tracking (UTMs, pixels). Experience capturing content in live event environments. Exposure to influencer, creator, or UGC-style campaigns. Why This Role Stands Out Work on a national portfolio of nearly 200 live events annually. Be part of bringing experiences to life under the USA TODAY name. Blend creative content, live storytelling, and performance marketing. Get out from behind the desk and capture content where it actually happens. Growth Opportunity This role is built for someone looking to grow into a more strategic marketing position over time, with increasing exposure to campaign planning, performance insights, and cross-channel collaboration. The annualized base salary for this role will range between $40,000 and $50,000. Base compensation is reflective of many factors, including, but not limited to, the market in which one lives/works, individual education level, skills, certifications and experience. Variable compensation is not reflected in these figures and may be applicable based on the role. #J-18808-Ljbffr Gannett