Social Media Manager

As we evolve into Social Wellness Clubs, we are creating spaces and experiences that support every aspect of our members' physical, mental, nutritional and social wellbeing. By bringing together expert guidance, genuine community, personalised experiences and innovative technology, we make wellness feel accessible, welcoming and easy to navigate. Virgin Active is committed to recruiting the finest people who share our passion for creating exceptional experiences and delivering world-class service every day. We are looking for a Social Media Manager to join our Marketing Team.

Role Type: Full Time

Hours: 40

The Social Media Manager is responsible for leading and delivering the organic social media strategy for Virgin Active UK, driving brand awareness, community engagement and commercial growth across our social channels. This role plays a key part in supporting our evolution into a leading Social Wellness Club by creating culturally relevant content, building meaningful relationships with members and creators, and translating social performance into measurable business results.

The Role

• Own the monthly content calendar, planning two months ahead and managing publishing schedules through Emplifi or a similar platform.
• Lead social planning and content delivery for new club openings, refurbishments, campaigns and key brand moments.
• Develop and manage influencer and creator partnerships, from talent identification and briefing through to delivery, usage rights, compliance and performance measurement.
• Launch and lead Virgin Active's instructor ambassador programme, turning our people, expertise and club communities into compelling social content.
• Lead the social agency, creators and freelancers, ensuring delivery against briefs, quality standards and budgets.
• Coordinate in-house content producers, freelancers and creators, identifying opportunities to capture engaging, platform-native content across our clubs.
• Manage community engagement across comments and direct messages maintaining Virgin Active tone of voice.
• Collaborate with Brand, CRM, Events, Member Services, Operations, Product and Club teams to deliver integrated social activity supporting wider marketing and commercial objectives.
• Report on performance, using analytics to improve reach, engagement, audience growth and social-driven website sessions, leads and joins.

Experience

• 4–6 years experience in social media, including leading strategy for a consumer brand.
• Experience in fitness, wellness, hospitality, leisure or another community-led business is desirable.
• Proven experience planning and delivering influencer marketing campaigns.
• Experience managing budgets, measuring ROI and demonstrating commercial impact.
• Experience managing agencies, creators and freelancers.
• Strong knowledge of social analytics, listening tools, publishing platforms and current social trends.
• Excellent copywriting skills and a strong understanding of tone of voice.
• Strong organisation, communication and stakeholder management skills, with a creative, test-and-learn approach.
• Emplifi or similar publishing tools, Meta and TikTok Ads Manager, and video editing skills are desirable.
• Flexibility to work occasional evenings and weekends for events, launches and shoots.

Our Perks

• 25 days (excluding bank holidays) annual leave, plus a Celebration Day – and we want you take them
• Access to Scottish Widows Pension with us matching contributions up 5%
• Complimentary Virgin Active membership for you and a buddy. You can also get free membership for your children too, ability to take advantage of our Club V.
• Private Dental and Healthcare Insurance – your physical health is important, and we want you to have the access to healthcare should you require it.
• Life Assurance 4x your salary – which we hope you will not need.
• We want you to love Virgin Active like we do, so you get discounts across Virgin active – everything from guest passes to 50% off PT sessions.
• You will join Virgin Family - where not only can you communicate with your colleagues across Virgin Group, but also many discounts (including Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Holidays and Virgin Media/O2)
• Maintaining a healthy diet while at work can be hard, so we offer all our team members 20% off food and drink at our KAUAI branches located in clubs.
• Managing finances can be difficult, so we offer access to Salary Finance. They can support you with loans and savings plans, as well as help you become a personal finance expert.
• Mental health is a cornerstone of wellbeing. Our Health Heroes employer assistance programme is there when you need a helping hand with 6 free counselling sessions.
• We know finding a new home to rent can be stressful. We partner with Dexters who offer complimentary corporate letting services – meaning no tenant charges.
• Access to ePoints, offering loads of online discounts to retailers.
• Always wanted to take that yoga course? Well VA offer discount on all their Academy courses, trained by the very best instructors.