Director, Social Media

Denny's•Spartanburg, SC

15h

About The Position

The Director, Social Media and Consumer Comms is a creative and strategic leader responsible for Denny’s consumer-facing social and earned communications strategy. The role brings together brand strategy, social media, public relations, culture, and consumer engagement to build brand relevance, drive conversation, and influence consumer behavior. The position requires a strategist, storyteller, cultural connector, and team leader who can identify compelling consumer insights and rally teams to turn them into effective ideas. The Director develops and leads integrated organic and paid social strategies, oversees Denny’s broader social ecosystem, and establishes the social and consumer PR vision. The role translates brand platforms and consumer insights into culturally relevant content, earned storytelling, and consumer-facing moments; partners with Media and Creative to align paid and organic approaches; and develops strategies connecting paid, owned, earned, and social channels. The Director also develops proactive consumer PR and earned storytelling, leads integrated campaigns and cultural moments, and directs Denny’s organic and paid social ecosystem. Responsibilities include guiding social content and channel strategy, community management, social listening, creator and influencer approvals, measurement, and boosting campaigns. The role provides leadership and development to direct reports and collaborates with internal teams and agency partners.

Requirements

8–15 years of experience in an agency environment, with specific experience in social media management and copywriting.
Strong understanding of key social media platforms and tools.
Excellent writing, editing, and storytelling skills.
Strong project management and organizational skills.
Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced environment.
BA in Advertising, Communications, or a related field.

Nice To Haves

Restaurant industry experience.
Experience with Adobe Creative Suite or other design tools.
Spanish proficiency.

Responsibilities

Develop and lead Denny’s integrated organic and paid social strategy to build brand relevance, deepen consumer engagement, and drive traffic.
Own the social ecosystem across organic content, paid social, creators and influencers, community management, social listening, and real-time engagement.
Establish a social and consumer PR vision that strengthens Denny’s voice, relevance, and connection with consumers.
Translate the brand platform and consumer insights into culturally relevant social content, earned storytelling, and consumer-facing moments.
Partner with Media and Creative to coordinate paid and organic social strategies, using learnings and insights from each to optimize content and audience engagement.
Identify high-performing organic content to amplify through paid media and develop paid-first content with agency partners to support consumer and business objectives.
Build strategies connecting paid, owned, earned, and social channels across the consumer journey.
Develop and execute a proactive consumer PR strategy to build awareness, relevance, and cultural credibility for Denny’s.
Identify brand, food, people, partnership, and cultural stories that can generate earned attention in partnership with the internal Enterprise PR team.
Develop integrated PR campaigns for product launches, rewards offers, cultural moments, and national tentpole programs.
Partner with Brand Marketing, Creative, Media, Digital, Partnerships, and agencies to develop integrated cross-channel campaigns.
Bring a social-first and earned-first perspective to major brand initiatives, from strategy through execution.
Identify opportunities for Denny’s to participate authentically in internet and broader cultural conversations; develop timely, scrappy, high-impact ideas that can earn attention with relatively no investment.
Ensure social and PR are incorporated early in campaign planning rather than used only for amplification.
Lead strategy and day-to-day direction for Denny’s organic social channels, including content strategy, community management, and channel growth.
Define and evolve Denny’s social voice, content pillars, and platform strategies as consumer behaviors and platforms change.
Develop a proactive content calendar balancing storytelling series, cultural moments, real-time trends, food and product promotions, community, and real-time opportunities.
Ensure Denny’s social presence is distinctive, human, timely, and culturally connected.
Oversee social listening, community management, and consumer response strategy, identifying opportunities to turn consumer conversations into brand-building moments.
Establish measurement frameworks and KPIs for social performance, audience growth, engagement, relevance, and business impact.
Work with the Media team and agency partners to develop an integrated paid and organic social ecosystem that reaches the right consumers with the right message at the right time.
Partner with paid media partners to lead creator and influencer approvals for content across organic, paid, and earned channels.
Ensure social investment works together across the ecosystem rather than as disconnected paid and organic programs.
Identify opportunities for partnerships, influencer collaborations, and user-generated content.
Provide leadership and development to direct reports.
Manage boosting campaigns when needed.