Roles we recruit
Seven practices, 27 functions. Start at the practice when you cannot yet name the title; go straight to the function when you can.
Browse all 229 roles Brief us on a seatFlat 15% of first-year base · shortlist in 10 working days
Six seats sit under social media, from the creator who makes the posts to the manager who answers for what social returns. We split them by the stage of the motion each one owns, screen for who the work reached rather than how far, and charge a flat 15% only once your hire starts.
Most social briefs arrive titled social media manager and describe a strategist, a creator or a community lead. We start with the stage that is not working, then the title.
From plan to pipeline, and the seat that owns each stage
Moves: share of voice with the accounts you sell to
1 seat
What the brand says on social and why: audience research, channel choice, content pillars, social listening and the measurement plan the team works to.
Brief us when you post every day but cannot say who it is for, which channel matters or what to stop.
Moves: engagement rate, shares and watch time
1 seat
Native posts for each platform: short video, carousels, graphics and copy, often on camera, plus clips cut from webinars, podcasts and events.
Brief us when the calendar has ideas but not enough posts, or recorded webinars and events never become clips.
Moves: organic reach and follower growth in your ICP
1 seat
Unpaid reach: publishing, format tests, executive and employee profiles, and follower growth in your ICP. Paid social usually sits with demand generation.
Brief us when organic reach has flattened, posts reach your own staff more than buyers, or executive profiles go quiet.
Moves: reach and sign-ups from creator partnerships
1 seat
Partnerships with the creators, podcast hosts and practitioners your buyers follow: sourcing, vetting, briefs, contracts, disclosure and what each post returned.
Brief us when your buyers trust a handful of creators more than your ads, and nobody owns those relationships.
Moves: active members, reply time and retention
1 seat
The spaces where customers talk to each other and to you: a forum, a Slack or Discord group, user events, moderation and the feedback loop to product and support.
Brief us when customers answer each other in a space nobody runs, or your advocates have nowhere to gather.
Hire a Community ManagerMoves: social-sourced traffic, pipeline and brand search
1 seat
The social program end to end: the calendar, the channels, publishing, replies and the monthly report that ties social to traffic, pipeline and brand search.
Brief us when social runs on whoever has a spare hour, posts go out in bursts, and nobody can say what it returns.
Hire a Social Media ManagerMeasured on
Social hiring runs on screenshots, and a screenshot shows reach, not whether the reach was your buyer or whose idea the post was. We screen for audience and outcomes, the judgment behind each post, and what a candidate does when a thread turns against the brand.
We ask for the analytics behind three posts or campaigns they ran: who engaged, which accounts they came from and what happened next. Reach with no audience behind it is where we dig.
Strategist and manager candidates review your current channels and write a one-page plan: what to keep, what to stop and what to test first. We score the reasoning, not the polish.
Creators show three pieces with the brief and the raw footage or draft behind each. We ask what they shot, wrote and edited themselves, and what a team or an agency added.
We set a live scenario, such as a critical thread about your product or an off-brand reply from an employee, and ask what they do in the first hour. A former manager then confirms how they handled a real one.
Not sure which seat you need? Tell us where social stalls and we will tell you which of the six owns it, or that it is a paid social problem rather than an organic one.
Public US benchmarks, read October 2026. Social media pay is mostly base salary: Built In’s self-reported additional cash for community managers averages $7,347, against an average base of $68,770. Self-reported pay runs far below these bands: Built In’s median base is $71,500 for social media managers and $60,000 for community managers.
Each bar runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile, the middle half of reported pay.
Base salaryWages including commission (BLS)
Social Media Manager
Salary.com base benchmark
$100,500 to $124,350 base
Community Manager
Salary.com base benchmark
$99,155 to $118,929 base
Influencer Marketing Manager
Salary.com base benchmark
$105,606 to $128,779 base
Social Media Strategist
Salary.com base benchmark
$68,783 to $84,739 base
Public relations specialists
BLS, the nearest official occupation
$56,260 to $100,370
Social Media Manager, Community Manager, Influencer Marketing Manager and Social Media Strategist: Salary.com base salary, 25th to 75th percentile, United States, as of October 1, 2026. Public relations specialists: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, annual wage at the 25th and 75th percentiles (SOC 27-3031), all industries; O*NET notes the occupation may specialize in social media. Built In figures in the lead: average base, additional cash and median base salary, self-reported, reviewed October 4 and 7, 2026. Public aggregates, not ZaphyrRecruit placement data.
The clock starts when the brief is signed and stops when three to five calibrated candidates are in front of you. Most of that time is spent talking to people, not searching for them.
Day 1
Forty-five minutes with whoever the hire reports to. We leave with the number the seat owns, the range you can pay and the two or three things that genuinely disqualify.
Days 2 to 7
We build the list from people doing the job now, approach them directly and screen every name against the brief before it reaches you.
Days 8 to 10
Three to five people, each with a page: what they have run, why they fit this seat, pay expectations, notice period and where they are weak.
After the shortlist
Interviews run at your pace. We handle scheduling, references and the counter-offer conversation, and nothing is payable until your hire starts.
Three clients, quoted as they wrote to us about searches we ran for them. We publish no names or logos without permission.
Decide which number the seat should move, such as engagement from target accounts or social-sourced pipeline, then test for that instead of raw reach. Ask for the analytics behind three posts or campaigns, with the brief and who made what, and have candidates write a short plan for your own feed. Test judgment with a scenario: a critical thread about your product. We run that screen and the reference checks before you meet anyone, so interviews can focus on fit.
A community manager runs the spaces where customers talk to each other and to you, and you need one once those conversations are happening with nobody there to answer. They own the forum, the Slack or Discord group and user events, moderate, and route feedback to product and support. Where a social media manager broadcasts to an audience, a community manager builds relationships inside one, measured on active members, response time and retention.
Hire in-house when the work is daily and the person must learn your product, customers and voice; use an agency or a freelancer for a defined project, a launch or extra production. Many B2B teams combine them, with an in-house lead briefing outside help. We place employees: permanent, in-house hires on contingency. If you need a freelancer or an outsourced social service, a marketplace or an agency is the better route.
A flat 15% of the hire’s first-year base salary, payable only once they start. On an $80,000 base that is $12,000, and the same 15% applies to every seat on this page. There is no retainer, no exclusivity and nothing to pay if the search does not produce a hire. If a placement leaves inside the guarantee period, we rerun the search at no further fee.
Salary.com puts social media managers at $100,500 to $124,350 base and community managers at $99,155 to $118,929 (October 2026). Self-reported data runs far lower: Built In shows a $71,500 median base for social media managers and $60,000 for community managers. Influencer marketing managers sit at $105,606 to $128,779 on Salary.com and social media strategists at $68,783 to $84,739. Scope, channel mix and seniority move the number.
Ten working days from a signed brief to a shortlist of three to five calibrated candidates. The analytics review, the feed plan and the scenario sit inside that window, so you meet people who have already shown their work. Interviews and the offer then run at your pace. A decision within a week of the first interview is what keeps strong candidates in the process.
Usually a social media manager who can also create, because one person has to plan, post, reply and report before any of it can split. Add a social content creator when output is the constraint, a community manager when customers gather and need answers, and a strategist once several people need one plan. A strategist hired first often writes a plan with nobody to run it.
Yes. A social media manager, a content creator and a community manager hired as one structure is how we run a pod, briefed together so each search builds on the last instead of restarting. The same 15% applies to each hire, payable as each one starts, and we usually place the manager first so they can shape the rest.
Tell us which channels you run, who you need to reach and where it stalls. We reply within one business day with which of the six seats it is and what it pays.
We build shortlists from people doing the job now, often before a seat is advertised. Set up a job alert for marketing roles, or send your CV and we will come to you when a social seat opens.
Social Media sits in our Brand, Product & Creative practice, next to brand, creative and product marketing. Content feeds the calendar and paid social usually sits with demand generation, so both are here too.