Social Media Executive

Established in 1981 with a single store in the Northwest of England, the JD Group is a leading omni-channel retailer of Sports Fashion, Outdoors and Gyms with our colleagues working in stores across several retail fascias in many markets around the world.

JD Sports Fashion Plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1996 and has been a FTSE100 publicly quoted company since 2019 and continues to grow in the UK and internationally.

We want to be the leading global omnichannel retailer in the sports and outdoor industry. To be a part of this successful company and help us to achieve this you will have the desire to ingrain our strategic goals of being a people-led, innovative and customer-focused organisation which provides operational excellence whilst identifying new areas of growth as part of our day to day objectives.

Social Media Executive - JD Outdoor

Role Overview

JD Outdoor’s purpose is to inspire and equip everyone for life outdoors — whether that’s everyday walking, weekend adventures, or specialist pursuits. Our JD Outdoor Portfolio is huge and covers GO Outdoors, Blacks and Millets, as well as specialist retailers Naylors and Fishing Republic. We also cover some of our Own Brands social accounts. We help people to step outdoors whether it's walking, camping, cycling, fishing or horse riding.

This role sits within the JD Outdoor Marketing & Activations team, reporting to the Social Media Manager, and plays a key role in delivering and executing social media campaigns across JD Outdoor's portfolio of brands. We have a social following of over 1.3M across our brands, are the biggest outdoor retailer on social media, and work with the top outdoor brands on social first campaigns.

You will be responsible for planning, coordinating and activating content seamlessly across our social channels. Through the delivery of best-in-class social activity, community management and data-led optimisation, you will help drive engagement, strengthen brand awareness, improve platform and content performance, and build meaningful connections with JD Outdoor's outdoor communities.

You will contribute to the planning, coordination and execution of campaign activity throughout the year, supporting key cultural, seasonal and commercial moments across the outdoor channels. Working closely with internal teams, external brand partners and agencies, you will help ensure social media remains at the heart of integrated marketing campaigns.

This role plays a critical part in driving brand engagement, audience growth and campaign performance. Through the delivery of compelling content, effective community management, data-led optimisation and strong campaign execution, you will contribute to building JD Outdoor’s social presence, strengthening customer connections and supporting commercial growth across the outdoor and lifestyle market.

Key Responsibilities

• Social Media Strategy and Planning

• Support the delivery and execution of the social media strategy for the outdoor fascias.
• Develop and execute social media campaigns aligned to brand and business objectives, using past performance insights and market trends to inform activity.
• Own and manage the social media calendar, ensuring activity aligns to trading priorities, brand campaigns, product launches and seasonal moments.
• Attend and contribute to relevant business meetings to understand commercial priorities and identify opportunities for social media support.
• Remain up to date with social media trends, platform developments and competitor activity, providing recommendations on how JD Outdoor can evolve its social presence.

• Cross Collaboration and Stakeholders

• Build strong relationships with internal stakeholders across Marketing, Buying, Merchandising, Digital and Creative teams.
• Work with the Social Media Manager on the management of the Social Media budget.
• Work with the Brand Marketing Team and with third-party brand partners, ensuring delivery of brand-funded social activity and post-campaign reporting.
• Collaborate with wider marketing teams to deliver integrated campaigns that drive customer engagement and commercial performance.
• Ensure all social media campaigns and content plans are clearly communicated to relevant stakeholders.
• Working with the Customer Services Team to ensure that any customer queries via social media are dealt with in a timely and on brand way.

• Content Creation and Campaign Management

• Create engaging and versatile content that promotes our outdoor products, services and brand campaigns. This will include filming content on social-first shoot days, attending content shoots with brand partners, and supporting internal campaign photoshoots.
• Develop social content that aligns with wider marketing campaigns, business objectives and audience interests.
• Partner with the Senior Influencer Executive to identify, brief and manage influencer content opportunities that support campaign objectives.
• Work collaboratively with internal teams and external brand partners to create content that drives engagement, brand awareness and commercial performance.
• Support the planning and delivery of seasonal, brand-funded and own-brand social campaigns across JD Outdoor fascias.

• Community Management and Activations

• Build and nurture engaged online communities across JD Outdoor social media channels.
• Work closely with Customer Services to ensure all customer enquiries received through social media channels are responded to in a timely, helpful and on-brand manner.
• Drive meaningful interaction with customers and followers through proactive community engagement and conversation management.
• Work closely with the Activations team to support the development and promotion of Community Hikes, events and brand activations.
• Attend and support community events, activations and outdoor experiences, helping to create engaging content and strengthen connections between our brands and audiences.
• Use community insights and audience feedback to inform future content, campaigns and engagement strategies.

• Reporting and Performance

• Work with the Social Media Manager to analyse and report on all GO Outdoors social media activity including campaign, influencer and event performance on social media.
• Monitor campaign performance and provide actionable recommendations to optimise future activity.
• Work closely with Paid Media teams to amplify key organic content and maximise campaign performance.
• Support the management and tracking of the social media budget.
• Measure campaign effectiveness and ROI against agreed objectives and KPIs.
• Stay up to date with industry trends, competitor activity and new activation formats, helping JD Outdoor stay ahead of the market.

Key Skills & Experience

Essential

• Experience managing social media channels for a consumer, retail or lifestyle brand.
• Passion for the outdoors.
• Strong understanding of major social media platforms, trends, best practices and community management.
• Experience planning and executing social media campaigns aligned to business and brand objectives.
• Ability to create engaging and versatile content for different audiences and platforms.
• Experience working with multiple stakeholders across Marketing, Buying, Merchandising, Creative and Digital teams.
• Strong organisational and project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Experience analysing social media performance and reporting against KPIs.
• Strong attention to detail and ability to maintain brand consistency across all channels.
• Commercial awareness and the ability to align social activity to wider business objectives.
• Proactive, collaborative and solutions-oriented approach.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment.
• Customer-focused mindset with experience supporting online communities and customer engagement.

Desired

• Experience within retail, outdoor, sports, fashion or lifestyle brands.
• Experience working with third-party brand partners and delivering brand-funded social campaigns.
• Knowledge of influencer marketing and experience working with influencers and content creators.
• Experience using social media management and reporting platforms (e.g. Sprinklr).
• Understanding of paid social media and experience collaborating with paid media teams.
• Experience managing social media budgets or supporting budget tracking.
• Experience creating UTM links and measuring traffic from social channels.
• Experience in content creation.
• Understanding of campaign reporting, attribution and ROI measurement.
• Knowledge of outdoor, adventure and lifestyle markets.
• Passion for outdoor activities and an understanding of the GO Outdoors, Blacks and Millets customer base.

We know our colleagues work tirelessly to make JD Sports the success it is today and in turn, we offer them some amazing benefits including staff Discount On JD Group and other brands within the organisation and personal development opportunities to learn and develop at work.

Thank you for your time

#JD