From food festivals and sports shows to large-scale expos and awards programs, the Events division of USA TODAY produces nearly 200 live experiences each year across the country.
We're looking for a Social Media Specialist who thrives in fast-paced environments and knows how to turn real-world moments into engaging, high-performing content. This role blends creative storytelling, live event coverage, and performance-driven thinking-supporting campaigns that drive awareness, engagement, and ticket sales across a national event portfolio.
If you can capture the energy of a live event and translate it into content that performs, this role is for you.
What You'll Do
Create Content People Actually Engage With
- Plan, create, and publish content across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, and more
- Build and manage content calendars aligned with multiple event timelines
- Develop captions, posts, and short-form video designed to drive engagement and action
Be On the Ground at Live Events- Travel to select events to capture real-time content
- Execute live coverage including stories, reels, behind-the-scenes, and audience moments
- Turn in-person experiences into compelling digital storytelling
Support Paid Social & Campaign Performance- Support paid social campaigns through setup, creative coordination, QA, and performance monitoring
- Partner closely with paid media teams to align organic content with campaign objectives
- Contribute to campaign optimization by identifying trends, suggesting creative or audience adjustments, and using performance insights to inform decisions
Engage and Grow the Audience- Manage comments, DMs, and social engagement in a timely, brand-aligned voice
- Help build excitement and community before, during, and after events
Think Beyond the Post- Monitor performance and identify what's working (and what's not)
- Contribute ideas to improve engagement, reach, and conversions
- Stay on top of trends and translate them into content opportunities
What You Bring- 1-3 years of experience in social media, content, or digital marketing
- Strong understanding of platform-specific content and engagement strategies
- Hands-on exposure to paid social campaigns (Meta, TikTok, or similar)
- Experience with scheduling or analytics tools (Sprout, Hootsuite, etc.)
- Strong writing, editing, and communication skills
- Ability to manage multiple projects in a fast-paced environment
- Willingness to travel and work on-site at live events
Nice to Have- Experience supporting paid social campaigns, including creative testing or optimizations
- Familiarity with performance metrics such as CTR, CPC, CPA, or ROAS
- Experience creating high-performing short-form video content
- Basic knowledge of tracking (UTMs, pixels)
- Experience capturing content in live event environments
- Exposure to influencer, creator, or UGC-style campaigns
Why This Role Stands Out- Work on a national portfolio of nearly 200 live events annually
- Be part of bringing experiences to life under the USA TODAY name
- Blend creative content, live storytelling, and performance marketing
- Get out from behind the desk and capture content where it actually happens
Growth OpportunityThis role is built for someone looking to grow into a more strategic marketing position over time, with increasing exposure to campaign planning, performance insights, and cross-channel collaboration.
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The annualized base salary for this role will range between $40,000, and $50,000. Base compensation is reflective of many factors, including, but not limited to, the market in which one lives/works, individual education level, skills, certifications and experience. Note: variable compensation is not reflected in these figures and based on the role, may be applicable
