Just Like Us is the LGBT+ young people’s charity. We are looking to recruit a highly creative, strategic storyteller with at least one year’s experience working in social media for our new Social Media Manager role. This will be a pivotal role in the organisation, which will elevate our social media offering, grow our audiences of engaged supporters who take action, and increase brand awareness.

This role will ensure Just Like Us becomes a well-known leading charity among LGBT+ communities, young people and teachers across the UK. The candidate must be creative, organised, adept at building relationships with influencers and talent, and able to responsibly manage online risks.

As a charity, we work with thousands of schools and young people through our programmes. We have quickly grown from being a small charity to a leading voice in LGBT+ inclusive education, and we have big ambitions to reach and engage wider audiences through our social media channels.

This is an exciting opportunity to elevate the voices of LGBT+ young people across the UK and take the charity’s brand awareness to new heights.

We are very keen to hear from more underrepresented communities at Just Like Us, particularly Black, PoC and/or trans candidates.

You would be joining a friendly, creative and highly motivated team, and reporting into Director of Comms and Media, Amy Ashenden (she/her).

About Just Like Us

Just Like Us is the LGBT+ young people’s charity. Founded in 2016, we work with primary and secondary schools as well as young people across the UK to ensure LGBT+ young people can thrive. To do that, we run three programmes:

• Ambassador Programme: we train LGBT+ 18 to 25 year olds to speak in schools about allyship and growing up LGBT+, and support them through mentoring and community support
• School Diversity Week: we run the UK-wide celebration of LGBT+ equality in primary and secondary schools, and provide free educational resources
• Pride Groups: we help secondary schools set up lunchtime or after school clubs for LGBT+ and ally pupils to meet, learn and get support

The Position

Salary: £33,600
Permanent, full-time

London / hybrid working – we are open to candidates based outside of London. If the candidate is based in London, expected office time is at least two days a week in our Brixton office. If the candidate is based outside of London, they will be required to work some days in the London office once a month minimum. The Director of Comms and Media lives close to Manchester and Leeds and so there may be some opportunity for working in-person nearby too.

Holiday: 25 days (excluding statutory public holidays)
Reporting to: Director of Comms and Media

What we offer all employees:

• Pension contribution: Just Like Us will match your pension contributions up to 6%
• Flexible working: Just Like Us currently offers a mixed home/office working model, enabling team members to work from home and in the office
• Good work-life balance: the Just Like Us team work core hours and can claim back time off in lieu for working agreed overtime
• Professional development: We are committed to the ongoing professional development of all team members, with an annual training budget per person and a clear pathway to help your career goals
• Extra day of annual leave: For each year in post, team members gain an additional day of annual leave, up to a maximum of five
• Employee Assistance Programme: Wellbeing support helpline available 24/7 for staff

Key Responsibilities

• Manage Just Like Us’ social media presence, with a sharp focus on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter
• Be reactive to breaking news and current issues in the LGBT+ community, creating timely and relevant content, as well as forward planning for relevant awareness days and Just Like Us campaigns
• Film and edit video content, and edit image-based content
• Building and developing relationships with influencers, talent and other organisations
• Be up to speed with current trends on social media and key topics for our relevant audiences
• Work with our young volunteers and staff to create video content, both remotely and in-person
• Strong and capturing copywriting for social media content that is free from grammar and spelling mistakes, speaks in our voice and rallies support from our social audiences
• Spotting and managing risks around social media and raising these to the Director of Comms
• Understand the motivations and desires of our key audiences and grow our reach in these communities
• Forward planning content and ensuring our social media presence is to its fullest and our audiences remain highly engaged, reporting on plans, social media analytics and learnings to the Director of Comms
• Work collaboratively with the Comms team on campaign planning as well as with our Programmes team and Development (fundraising) team to source content ideas

Experience, skills and attributes

The applicant must:

• Be passionate about and have a strong understanding of LGBT+ issues, including community intersections
• Have at least one year’s experience in a social media role, with a strong and demonstrable understanding of how to grow and engage social media audiences
• Have a range of talent contacts
• Be very comfortable with building external relationships with influencers, celebrities, organisations and young volunteers
• Be able to quickly spot spelling and grammar mistakes and comms risks, plan for mitigation, and work to tight deadlines
• Understand and be able to apply brand identity, including integrating key messaging
• Be a strong storyteller and able to identify stories and translate these into engaging social media content that is right for relevant channels
• Have video editing experience and ability to create image-based content
• Be motivated to measure and evaluate the impact of your work on an on-going basis, and work collaboratively to share this learning with the wider team
• Experience with any of the following would be desirable but training would always be provided where needed: Premiere Pro or equivalent, Canva/Photoshop/equivalent and social media analytics

How To Apply

To apply, please submit your CV and your answers to the following questions, keeping in mind the Job Description:

1. Please tell us about your experience of working in social media and how your experience would enable you to do this role? (max 500 words)

2. Outline risks that Just Like Us may face when it comes to social media and how you would seek to mitigate these risks? (max 300 words)

3. Give an example of a time when you have created a piece of social media content that has brought strong engagement and explain the impact it had for the brand/organisation. Please provide relevant links. (max 300 words)

Please email your application to info@justlikeus.org with ‘Social Media Manager application’ in the subject line.

The deadline to apply is 23:30 on Monday 23 January.

If shortlisted, there will be an exercise to be completed within two hours at an agreed set time (during a one-week period). We will then select candidates for interview. We expect there to be one interview but there may be a second interview if needed.

What we offer all employees:

Pension contribution: Just Like Us will match your pension contributions up to 6%
Flexible working: Just Like Us currently offers a mixed home/office working model, enabling team members to work from home and in the office. This role is also open to part-time candidates and job shares.
Good work-life balance: the Just Like Us team work core hours and can claim back time off in lieu for working agreed overtime
Professional development: We are committed to the ongoing professional development of all team members, with an annual training budget per person and a clear pathway to help your career goals
Extra day of annual leave: For each year in post, team members gain an additional day of annual leave, up to a maximum of five
Employee Assistance Programme: Wellbeing support helpline available 24/7 for staff

Our values

As a charity that champions equality and inclusion for all LGBT+ young people, Just Like Us recognises that we are part of a wider progressive movement of organisations, groups and individuals working towards a more equal, fair society where everyone is able to thrive.

Just Like Us has made a commitment to equity, anti-racism and social justice and is determined to raise minoritised voices within our communities as part of our work.