Convention & Tourism Marketing and Public Relations Coord

Virginia Beach is a diverse, vibrant, appealing community with a dynamic year-round tourism economy that serves the needs of local residents and visitors alike. The Virginia Beach Convention & Visitor’s Bureau develops and promotes Virginia Beach as a first-class, year-round destination that contributes to the quality of life and a diverse local economy.

The Marketing Communications Unit is an in-house agency to manage advertising campaigns, public relations, social media, content creation, collateral development, graphic design and research for domestic leisure travel and internal business unit clients including international tourism, sports marketing, meetings and conventions, group tour, visitor information services, resort management and convention center. The team utilizes outside contracted creative, production and media buying services only on an as-needed project basis. The unit also provides market performance insights and forecasting trends for tourism investors and stakeholders that may assist in tourism product development. Up-to-date images and video of Virginia Beach are maintained by this team to ensure VisitVirginiaBeach.com, the CVB's official website, stays fresh and relevant to prospective and returning visitors.

Reporting directly to the Vice-President of Marketing, the Convention & Tourism Marketing & Public Relations Coordinator (Director of Social Media) administers and monitors all Convention and Visitors Bureau's (CVB's) owned social media marketing efforts, which includes the development of annual content and social media plans to encompass all CVB divisions: sports marketing, meetings and conventions, international, group tour, leisure, convention center, and economic vitality portfolio teams. This position serves as an internal digital marketing manager for each CVB division and is one of the primary points of contact for contracted agency and vendor partnerships, ensuring quality control and monitoring, sharing any variances to scope and cost.

The ideal candidate excels in holistically managing a cross-functional, integrated digital marketing operation, including managing the CVB’s content and social media calendars, portions of the website, blog, owned content channels, SEO, consumer emails, and content production. In this role you are a strong relationship builder with external partners and stakeholders, and internally with leadership teams, colleagues and internal teams. You are a key collaborator with content and production teams on major owned media campaigns and ongoing marketing efforts, and your clients and colleagues describe you as a strategic and highly creative thinker. Strong writing and business strategy skills are fundamental to this role as is a strong grasp of modern marketing and production, and experience with aligning digital marketing channels around the same goal and campaign objectives.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Collaborate with VP to develop a Social Media Marketing Plan that optimizes the CVB’s annual operating budget for all owned media efforts
• Manage and facilitate all owned social media budgets, under the direction of VP and the Director’s Office, for CVB
• Develop and oversee departmental content and social media calendars to enhance and extend marketing and PR initiatives, both short and long-term. This includes ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the content and social media marketing strategies
• Serve as the primary point of contact for contracted vendor / agency partnerships as they pertain to departmental content, social media and other digital marketing efforts, ensuring quality control and monitoring, and sharing any variances to scope and cost with division head and Admin / Finance team, as needed.
• Oversee vendor/agency partnerships in the creation of multi-faceted content (blog, video, illustration, etc.) to be distributed throughout CVB digital channels and platforms
• Supervise a small team of creative production and content professionals, providing professional development and mentorship; Participate in the potential hiring and supervising of marketing team employees.
• Update partner listings on the website to ensure they are interfacing correctly.
• Establish and uphold process(es) for requesting, creating, editing, publishing, and retiring content and creative assets; Includes supervising the maintenance of content inventories and matrices
• Track, manage, and report out on content performance, through Google Analytics, Search Engine Optimization, Search Marketing/Ad Words tracking, META, LinkedIn, and reports from agency partners and contracted web vendors. Implement changes as needed based on performance.
• Oversee and manage the work of agency partners and external freelancers for content and social media production needs
• Monitor social media channels to ensure we are up-to-date on trends and proactive in times of need such as inclement weather, emergencies, etc.
• Work with internal teams and external industry partners in gathering ideas and assets to ensure compelling stories are consistently told across all channels
• Make recommendations for continuous improvement to content and social strategies based on data-driven insights of content performance
• Attend special and regularly scheduled meetings with internal Division leaders and approved agency / vendor partners to manage projects and develop and manage marketing campaigns
• Prepares digital social media marketing reports and makes formal presentations to industry groups and civic organizations upon request, including Advertising Advisory Committee.
• Interact with and participate in industry-related organizations and initiatives for the development and advancement of common goals for the local tourism industry

At this time, the position does not offer a hybrid remote and/or flexible working option.

As a City employee, you will enjoy a generous benefits package that includes paid time off, paid holidays, health, dental and vision insurance options, a wellness program, retirement, tuition reimbursement and more.