Social Media Director, theGrio

Weather Group Television LLC • New York, NY

11d • $90,000 - $100,000

About The Position

THEGRIO COVERS BLACK ENTERTAINMENT, CULTURE, NEWS, POLITICS, AND ADVOCACY FOR BLACK AMERICA. WE REPORT STORIES WITH THE DEPTH AND PERSPECTIVE THAT AUTOMATED FEEDS CANNOT REPLICATE. AS THE WAY AUDIENCES FIND NEWS KEEPS CHANGING, OUR INDEPENDENCE DEPENDS ON BUILDING A DIRECT RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR READERS RATHER THAN RELYING ON ANY SINGLE PLATFORM TO DELIVER THEM. THIS ROLE IS CENTRAL TO THAT WORK.

We are looking for a Social Media Director to build and run our distribution system: a cross-platform approach that strengthens the signals search and social algorithms use to rank our work, so that readers find their way back to the original article on thegrio.com.

You will keep Google Discover as a leading traffic source while building strength across every channel, and turn our reporters' expertise and our readers' loyalty into the topical authority that today's algorithms reward.

You are also responsible for growing theGrio's social accounts. That means building the following, engagement, and influence of our presence on X, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, and the platforms we move into next. Healthy, growing accounts are an audience in their own right, and the foundation that makes everything else work.

This is a hands-on building role. You will design the strategy, train the newsroom, and carry out much of the day-to-day work yourself, often as a team of one or with a very small team. The right person does strong work with limited resources, sets clear priorities, ships quickly, and shows results.

You speak the language of the internet and know Black American culture, not as a demographic, but as a living conversation you're already part of. When a trend breaks or a moment is building, you have the confidence to lead it. You know the difference between editorializing and straight reporting on social, and how to move between those voices seamlessly.

Requirements

• Five or more years in social media, audience development, or digital strategy, ideally at a news or media organization, with a track record of growing both social accounts and site traffic.
• Hands-on platform expertise across X, YouTube (including Shorts), LinkedIn, Reddit, TikTok, and Instagram, including copywriting, short-form video, and community management.
• A working understanding of SEO and of how content surfaces in search and discovery feeds such as Google Discover, plus the analytics tools used to measure it, including Google Search Console, GA4, and UTM tracking.
• A genuine understanding of Black American culture and the communities, issues, and voices theGrio serves, with the judgment to apply it in real time.
• Demonstrated comfort with the news publishing process, including editorial standards and practices, journalistic ethics, and working with editors and reporters on deadline.
• A track record of building something from the ground up with limited resources, setting priorities, and delivering results. You are comfortable owning both the strategy and the daily execution.
• Strong news judgment and sharp writing and editing for platform-native copy and headlines that deliver on what they promise, without resorting to clickbait.

Nice To Haves

• Experience at a Black-owned or Black-audience media brand.
• Video production and editing skills, and comfort being on or behind the camera with reporters.
• Reddit and community fluency, including experience moderating or taking part credibly in relevant communities.
• Light data-visualization or dash boarding skills, and familiarity with a publishing CMS such as WordPress.

Responsibilities

• Run a source-first distribution strategy that uses each off-platform post to build topical authority and send readers back to thegrio.com.
• Grow our social accounts on every platform, building followers, engagement, and reach as assets the brand owns.
• Understand how search and social algorithms rank publishers, including topic authority, author and brand signals, and audience engagement, and adjust the approach as those systems change.
• Keep readers moving to the site. Write posts that spark interest and point to the full article, so that a social post never becomes a substitute for the reporting it promotes.
• Build direct loyalty through follows, our publisher profiles, newsletter cross-promotion, and community engagement, creating audience relationships that hold up when algorithms shift.
• Stand up the workflow: a fast first-hours sprint for breaking and trending stories, a one-to-three-day depth build for impact pieces, and a refresh cycle that brings older stories back into circulation.
• Run a clear story-tiering system so that effort matches a story's value and a lean team is never spread too thin.
• Do the work directly: write platform-native copy and honest headlines, schedule and publish, shoot quick vertical video with reporters, manage comments, and move fast on real-time moments.
• Concentrate effort on a few anchor topics the brand intends to own, building the consistent, in-depth coverage that earns lasting authority.
• Create and maintain reporter-ready templates (platform hooks, short-video scripts, professional analysis posts, and community discussion formats) so that capturing distribution-ready content fits into the way reporters already work.
• Coach reporters to present their expertise on camera and on-platform, so that their bylines and on-camera presence become recognized markers of authority on our core topics.
• Adapt each story to the platform it lives on: X for sharp, timely posts; YouTube and Shorts for reporter-led video; LinkedIn for the wider implications and a professional audience; Reddit for community discussion and search visibility; Instagram for reach. Each platform plays a clear role and points readers back to the site.
• Treat each account as a destination worth building, with a consistent voice, a content mix that fits the platform, and steady growth in audience and engagement.
• Report on a scorecard focused on traffic back to the site: referral sessions by topic and platform, direct and branded-search traffic, follower growth, and a click-back ratio for each platform that shows when a post is drawing engagement without sending readers to the article.
• Look past vanity metrics toward loyalty and retention, and use the data to drop what is not working and put more behind what is.
• Work within theGrio's editorial standards and practices and broader journalistic ethics, including accuracy, fair sourcing, corrections, embargoes, and a clear separation between promotion and reporting and between news and opinion.
• Bring a real understanding of Black American culture, news, and the communities we serve, with the judgment to know what will resonate and what would ring false, especially when a story is moving quickly.

Benefits

• Allen Media Group is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to these characteristics. We are dedicated to providing a workplace free from harassment and discrimination.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed