Lead, Social & Culture- Hostess

Your Opportunity as the Lead, Social and Culture, Hostess

Lead, Social & Culture is responsible for deeply understanding consumer social and digital behaviors, cultural interests, and emerging trends to craft seamless, engaging, and impactful brand experiences. This role drives social media, content, and influencer strategies for the iconic Hostess® Snacks brand, ensuring all efforts are culturally relevant and consumer centric.

As a key member of the Brand Experience team, this individual collaborates closely with agency partners and cross-functional teams to develop integrated marketing communications that build brand love and drive business growth. With an agile mindset and a passion for innovation, the role contributes to 360° campaign planning, activation, and optimization across paid and organic social channels.

This leader helps shape the future of brand engagement by creating meaningful connections with consumers, leveraging data-driven insights, and embracing a test-and-learn approach to continuously evolve our marketing capabilities.

Location: Orrville, OH Corporate Offices

Work Arrangements: Hybrid - onsite a minimum of 9 days a month primarily during core weeks as determined by the Company; maybe more as business need requires

In this role you will:

• Strategic Collaboration & Campaign Development

  • Partner with agencies and internal teams to develop and evolve social strategies that drive brand love and consumer engagement.

  • Contribute to holistic, consumer-centric campaign planning and execution, including influencer activations and culturally relevant brand experiences both online and in real life.

• Social Media Oversight & Content Planning

  • Maintain oversight of brand social media accounts, ensuring alignment with best practices, security protocols, brand standards, and priority timing.

  • Schedule and publish organic content using social media tools; review paid social mock-ups.

  • Support real-time social media efforts, including occasional off-hours/weekend shifts during peak programs or seasonal campaigns.

  • Develop insight-driven organic content calendars that leverage culturally relevant moments.

  • Review proposed paid and organic content to ensure alignment with channel best practices, brand voice, current messaging, trends, and business priorities.

  • Curate and source user-generated content from mainstream platforms (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook), including copywriting support.

• Influencer Strategy & Execution

  • Partner with agencies to develop and execute influencer strategies that align with brand goals and campaign objectives.

  • Manage influencer activations as part of integrated campaign planning, ensuring authenticity, brand alignment, and measurable impact.

  • Monitor influencer content performance and engagement, providing feedback and optimization recommendations.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration

  • Collaborate with Consumer Relations Social Media team to ensure alignment on brand voice, activations, and channel updates for meaningful community engagement.

  • Work with Brand Experience, Corporate Communications, Brand Teams, and Agencies to address escalated issues and ensure cohesive messaging.

• Analytics & Tools Management

  • Manage organic social reporting and respond to social listening requests.

  • Partner with external social tool representatives to maximize platform capabilities, stay current with updates, and identify new opportunities for brand enhancement.

The Right Place for You

We are bold, kind, strive to do the right thing, we play to win, and we believe in a strong community that thrives together. Our culture is rooted in our Basic Beliefs, and we believe in supporting every employee by meeting their physical, emotional, and financial needs.

What we are looking for:

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree

• At least 5 years of relevant experience managing social accounts and/or managing influencer programming for a brand/company

• Deep understanding of the social platform and influencer landscapes

• A passion for brand building, social trends and the cultural zeitgeist

• Experience with influencer marketing, public relations and/or experiential marketing

• Familiarity with social listening technologies and the ability to connect to data and insight collection 

Additional skills and experience that we think would make someone successful in this role:

• Consumer Packaged Goods industry, B2C, or Agency experience

• Experience with content creation for a brand/company

• Experience with influencer contracting and negotiations

• Passion for brand building and engaging consumers

• Thrives in collaborative environments and has an eye for process improvement

• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written

• Love of food, snacking and pets

Learn more about working at Smucker:

• Helping our Employees Thrive

• Delivering on Our Purpose 

• Our Continued Commitment to Ensuring a Workplace for All 

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