Job Description

About the Opportunity

Northeastern University is looking for a creative, highly motivated Social Media Audience Engagement Specialist to help lead Northeastern Global News’ (NGN) multi-platform audience engagement strategy. The person in this role will put NGN’s award-winning journalism in front of new audiences and drive audience growth and engagement through platform-native content, distribution, and steady experimentation.

The Social Media Audience Engagement Specialist focuses on Reddit, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other platforms to share owned news content and build engagement around it. The individual will partner with editorial and multimedia teams to identify and implement strategies for sharing newsworthy content across platforms that promote Northeastern's research and teaching enterprise.

This role is ideal for someone who lives and breathes news and social media, including being a Reddit expert, and has a deep understanding of data analytics, strategic audience growth, and news content distribution.

Higher education experience is not required.

The person in this role knows social media deeply and keeps a close eye on how platforms and their audiences are evolving. They bring strong news instincts and editorial judgment, can turn complex research into content that travels, and act as a creative partner to the newsroom rather than a distribution channel. While the role focuses primarily on NGN content, it also calls for supporting Northeastern’s enterprise accounts during high-visibility moments and major university initiatives.

Working alongside editorial, multimedia, and digital teams, the person in this role will use platform-native formats, social listening, analytics, and constant testing to grow the audience and deepen engagement with reporting.

This role reports to the Director of Social Media within the Communications division of Northeastern’s External Affairs team. Northeastern is a global research university with 14 campuses in three countries. The university’s Communications strategy focuses on promoting the university, its faculty, students, and community by showcasing leadership and innovation across the enterprise.

The position is based on the Boston campus and is fully in-person. After-hours and weekend work are occasionally required.

Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities

NGN Audience Growth & Distribution

• Grow NGN’s audience and reach across social media, with Instagram and Reddit as the priority channels.
• Continue building NGN’s Reddit distribution strategy by expanding presence in relevant subreddits, sharing reporting in ways that respect each community’s culture and rules, facilitating faculty Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions, and managing a two-prong account approach.
• Shape NGN’s journalism into platform-native formats by partnering with reporters and video producers to identify stories with high social potential and turn faculty research into content that travels.
• Build recurring social media franchises that encourage audience return visits, test new platforms and features, and scale successful approaches.

Audience Insights, Performance & Social Listening

• Set measurable goals, track performance, and use analytics to strengthen content strategy.
• Surface audience insights that inform editorial decisions.
• Conduct social listening and monitoring by identifying conversations, sentiment, emerging stories, and reputational signals, and routing relevant information to appropriate stakeholders.

Enterprise & Cross-Functional Support

• Support Northeastern’s enterprise accounts and campaigns during high-visibility moments and major university initiatives.
• Collaborate closely with NGN journalists, multimedia producers, media relations colleagues, and faculty colleagues to maintain cohesive messaging across platforms.

Minimum Qualifications

• 3-4 years of social media experience, ideally in news, media, or a fast-moving brand.
• Strong news judgment and an instinct for stories that will travel.
• Demonstrated ability to grow a social media audience, with measurable follower and engagement gains.
• Expertise in Reddit, including familiarity with Reddit’s community culture and interest in reaching audiences there.
• Fluency in Instagram, with working knowledge of Reddit, LinkedIn, X, Bluesky, TikTok, YouTube, and Threads.
• Ability to execute a data-informed strategy against clear, measurable goals.
• Experience with social analytics and listening tools such as Sprinklr, Sprout Social, Meta Business Suite, or native platform insights.
• Exceptional writing, copyediting, and proofreading skills, with the ability to adapt voice across platforms.
• Strong visual judgment and the ability to refresh existing templates and graphics.
• Ability to independently manage NGN’s channels while collaborating across teams and supporting enterprise work as needed.
• Consistent attention to detail.

Required Documents

• Resume

Position Type

Marketing and Communications

Additional Information

Northeastern University considers factors such as candidate work experience, education and skills when extending an offer.

All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Compensation Grade/Pay Type:

109S

Expected Hiring Range:

$67,855.00 - $95,845.00

With the pay range(s) shown above, the starting salary will depend on several factors, which may include your education, experience, location, knowledge and expertise, and skills as well as a pay comparison to similarly-situated employees already in the role. Salary ranges are reviewed regularly and are subject to change.