Social Media Manager in Reading

Location: Reading, Hybrid (at least twice per month to Reading Office)

Salary: £38,000 per annum (reflecting our increased investment in this key role)

Contract Type: Permanent

Campaign Closes: 2nd February 2026

First Stage Interviews: 10th & 11th February 2026

Second Stage Interviews: 18th & 19th February 2026

As our Social Media Manager, you will play a pivotal role in bringing Make‑A‑Wish UK’s mission to life. By leveraging social channels and creating fresh, impactful content, you will engage new and existing audiences, inspire support, and raise vital awareness and funds. In this exciting role, your work will be central to achieving our strategic goals and our vision to grant wishes to every eligible child.

The Social Media Manager role requires a combination of digital marketing expertise, strategic thinking, communication skills, and business acumen, as well as a commitment to ongoing continuous improvement and a passion for the Make‑A‑Wish vision.

• Proven experience of Social Media Management within a comparable organisation (ideally a minimum of five years).
• Excellent problem-solving skills with the ability to think creatively and find innovative solutions to challenges in a fast‑paced environment.
• Demonstrable experience in implementing social media and marketing strategies to improve audience perception and drive tangible action including fundraising.
• Good experience using insights and industry knowledge to build these strategies, aligning them with wider team and organisational goals.
• Strong understanding of social media technicalities and specialisms required to create engaging content, build engagement and drive action across the channels.
• Excellent ability to motivate and manage others in a fast‑paced environment.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to analyse data.
• Proactive and results‑oriented mindset, with the ability to work under pressure and adapt to changing priorities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to manage and communicate effectively with different stakeholders, both internal and external.
• Strong organisational skills.
• Great influencing skills with the ability to manage conflicting priorities and promote consistency.
• Experience in using relevant programmes, including social media channel planning tools such as Sprout Social and asset creation tools like Adobe Express or similar.
• Confidence in managing a small budget, accurately tracking expenditure and processing invoices.
• Working knowledge of Meta Business Suite and boosted/paid socials.
• Understanding of social media SEO best practice and requirements.
• Skilled in managing a varied workload with conflicting goals, negotiating and agreeing workload priorities on behalf of both social media, and where appropriate, the wider comms team.
• Experience within Not‑for‑Profit or the Charity sector.
• Understanding of the importance of our services to children, their families and local communities would be highly beneficial.

Key Responsibilities

You will lead the development and delivery of our social media strategy, ensuring our channels and content are engaging, accessible and relevant. With responsibility for social media activity across multiple platforms (currently Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok and YouTube), you will work closely with teams across the organisation and external partners to strengthen our presence and improve user experience. As platforms and trends continue to evolve, you will shape how our social media approach adapts to remain effective and audience‑focused.

This is a strategic role, setting direction and priorities for our social media activity in line with wider organisational goals, while remaining closely involved in the hands‑on planning and delivery of campaigns and content. We are looking for a passionate, creative and values‑led individual with the ability to understand and respond to diverse audience needs while balancing internal priorities and business requirements.

The role will specifically focus on:

• Social media strategy creation and deployment
• Create, implement and lead on our overarching and channel‑specific social media strategies.
• Set clear and measurable objectives which leverage our social media to support wider team and organisational goals, such as increasing donations, volunteer sign‑ups, or brand awareness and consideration.
• Use insights from reporting as a basis for strategy development including proactive optimisation to meet and stretch team and organisational strategic goals.
• Ensure all content (owned and partner) aligns with wider brand and digital strategies to drive awareness.

Social Media Channel/ Community Management

• Manage the development and execution of priority and large social media campaigns to promote awareness of Make‑A‑Wish, wish development and wish granting.
• Lead on the day‑to‑day delivery and management across all Make‑A‑Wish social media platforms, ensuring timely content updates and swift, appropriate responses to queries via Sprout Social.
• Use programmes such as Adobe Express to create engaging multimedia content (videos, graphics, text) that aligns with our brand, values and promotes our vision.
• Engage with followers to foster a sense of community, encouraging further interactions and audience retention.
• Seek out appropriate opportunities to collaborate with influencers or partners to expand our reach beyond our existing audience as well as increase brand awareness.

Educate and inform

• Create informative and insight‑led content about the work we do at Make‑A‑Wish, the issues we’re facing and the life‑long impact of wishes.
• Share key messaging in the most engaging way to illustrate the importance of our cause. Provide resources, actionable and accessible ways for followers to get involved.
• Champion social media literacy within Make‑A‑Wish. Create opportunities to provide support and share best practice with wider staff, volunteers, trustees and where appropriate, key stakeholders.

Brand Management

• Use up‑to‑date industry insights and social knowledge to optimise content to build, deepen and grow our brand awareness, in alignment with our wider brand and digital strategies.
• Be an advocate of our brand, ensuring consistent messaging and imagery across our digital marketing channels.
• Proactively engage with our online community, addressing concerns, fostering brand positivity and loyalty.
• Ensure our social media activities comply with relevant regulations, especially when it comes to fundraising and donations.
• Be part of the internal reputational incidents messaging group so that we can appropriately and effectively respond to comments or complaints. This includes flagging any risks (small or large) or escalating where appropriate person.

Stakeholder Management and Collaboration

• Work closely with colleagues across the charity to leverage our social media to help them meet their strategic goals – advising on best practice and proactively developing forward‑thinking ideas to do so.
• Manage agency and third‑party social media platform relationships and projects with stakeholders.

Social Listening and Analysis

• Conduct research to understand and implement learnings from wider social media audience preferences and market trends.
• Analyse user engagement with our channels. Feedback and optimise content to continuously improve our follower experience.
• Identify and explore new opportunities through test and learn to encourage audience growth, engagement and conversion.
• Establish, monitor, and report on key KPIs to measure social impact and effectiveness.
• Generate regular reports on the performance of our social channels and present actionable insights for improvement.

Communications team support and Internal Comms

• Contribute ideas and support wider communications projects where possible, such as messaging that can be used across other platforms (e.g. website or email).
• Undertake wider responsibilities on behalf of the comms team as strategic priorities arise.

As a Make‑A‑Wish colleague, you will also need to:

• Actively support our wish granting through voluntary activity to support Make‑A‑Wish. We encourage all colleagues to become Wish Makers.
• Have a practical understanding of the Make‑A‑Wish values: Be Magical, Be Inclusive and Be Inspiring.
• Strengthen relationships between different members of the Make‑A‑Wish community to ensure everyone works in collaborative and inclusive way.
• Attend organisational meetings, like symposiums and town halls.
• Keep yourself informed about things going on across the organisation by making use of internal communications channels, e.g. Teams, Wish Wisdom (our colleague newsletter).
• Keep yourself informed on the strategy and plans of the organisation in order to be able to fully contribute to them through your role.
• Actively listen to other people, particularly those with views that are different to your own.
• Embed the principles of our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Charter within your role.
• Be open to collaboration and working across different teams to help the organisation achieve its strategic objectives.
• Be able to work independently in an agile environment, understanding that different people across the organisation have different working patterns.
• Be able to work with your colleagues and other members of Make‑A‑Wish community as one team, united in a common vision and mission, and support organisational efforts of reaching every child by, for example, answering phones when other teams are busy, supporting activities happening across the organisation, etc.

26 days annual leave with the option to buy/sell annual leave (pro rata for part time)

Paid Birthday leave

Flexible & Hybrid working arrangements

Salary exchange pension scheme

Pirkx subscription - Access to wellbeing support, GP appointments, training and events, retail discount platform, and much more!